travel

This is a selection of many of the best known essays of Enos Mills, who's regarded as the spiritual (as well as practical) father of Rocky Mountain National Park. Mills is justly loved by people who know the park, and deserves a broader audience along with other early environmentalist writers like John Muir.

Enos Mills was very much a turn-of-the-century naturalist. His voice is without any sort of academic affectation; he reads like the patient, intelligent watcher that he is, but not at all like a pedantic teacher of great and ponderous truths. Some of these stories are essentially understated, self-deprecating adventure yarns. There are times when you feel sure the author's exaggerating for his story's sake. Heck, for that matter he'll refer to an animal as "Mr. Ground Squirrel." I smiled a lot while reading this -- in bemusement, sometimes, but never in derision.

All those somewhat dated tones and turns of phrase only add to the charm of this book and of Enos Mills' work in general. Off of his pen, "Mr. Ground Squirrel" is a statement of the greatest respect. You don't snicker, because his relationship with that animal has a completely convincing integrity to it. There's a sort of glow that comes over you, reading this kind of thing, that makes "Radiant Days" a very fitting title.

Don't let my sendup of his voice fool you, though. Enos Mills was an impassioned environmental advocate -- just one whose approach, at least in writing, lacks the sort of anger we often feel a century later in realizing what we've lost.

I recommend this book to anyone who finds the indigant tone of most environmentally concerned titles to be exhausting. Radiant Days would make a fantastic gift to a young adult with a vaguish interest in the out of doors, or to anyone visiting the Rockies. Get it for teenagers who loved Raiders of the Lost Ark, too; it makes a great adventure read, with substance and to spare.