Eating Stone

A band of rare desert bighorn sheep once disappeared from the steep cliffs of Utah's canyonlands. Many assumed the herd was gone for good, and its loss seemed to belong to a longer decline of native Southwestern wildlife that began in the early 1900s. Hidden away in remote, rugged country, the sheep had slipped past notice. Then, against expectations, they returned.

Ellen Meloy, author of The Anthropology of Turquoise, argues that people have granted themselves few places and few ways to see other animals living on their own terms. She believes this distance has left us lonely and in need of something deeper. Her account follows the bighorns' unexplained recovery with warmth and humor, presenting herself as a curious neighbor who keeps close watch. She tracks the seasons alongside the animals, recording births, mating, predators, and deaths, and the fit between each creature and the red rock landscape that shapes its body and life.

Meloy's journeys take her into backcountry hiking terrain and onto river trips, and carry her as far as Mexico, the Great Basin, and the Chihuahuan Desert. Throughout, she conveys the light, air, and vivid colors of the high desert. The book's central argument is that she finds the act of closely observing wild animals to be much like prayer.