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Douglas Preston and his friend Walter Nelson are apparently a pair of adventurers. Preston, a writer for various magazines, got the idea to ride across the Southwest and follow in the footsteps of Coronado, the conquistador who passed through those lands in the 1540s. The two men bought horses, saddles and gear, hired a wrangler they thought knew something about horses, and set off on a journey of close to a thousand miles across the American desert.

The path they took wanders somewhat, and they learned some interesting things. In some spots, the route that Coronado took, as far as the history books are concerned, is completely impossible. They met Indians from various tribes, cowboys, and other interesting inhabitants of the countryside, and had numerous difficulties, all recounted with Preston's self-deprecating wit. The wrangler left them a third of the way through the journey, they had repeated problems with their horses (on one occasion they lost them all, no laughing matter in the middle of the desert), and had to deal with every sort of problem from lack of water to getting across the city of Albequerque with a pair of horses.

Preston's a reasonably skilled writer. The narrative wanders a bit, as did the course of the author's journey. At times, the digressions seem a bit forced and annoying, or alternatively you want to hear more about this or that tribe or family of cowboys or ghost town or whatever. This back and forth effect can be somewhat disconcerting. Even so, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

I debated between a 3 and 4 on this. So, it's probably a 3.8 overall, with some parts being 4.5. The story of the Preston's journey coupled with the many historic reflections is excellent. Preston has whetted my appetite for more history of the American Southwest. I struggled with the writing. Some expressions used by Preston were trite and distracting. For instance, throughout the book, when Preston meets people along his journey, he inevitably writes, "We shook hands all around." I was left wondering what the significance of that phrase was. In many spots the dialog seemed "canned" and I was wondering if the people interviewed really said those things. There were other writing distractions, but, I always found myself deeply engrossed in the discussions of historical events. Thus, more for the history than the writing, I kept reading, and I'm glad I did.

Reading a book twice is a rarity for me. But this book was worth both the investment (I bought one for myself, one for a friend) and the time. Having lived in and explored most of Arizona through backpacking, hiking, and horse trekking, I found Douglas Preston's recounting of his adventure to be both a delight and a thoughtful read.

Anyone who has experienced the difficulties and beauty of nature first hand, will benefit from this book. All horse lovers will find themselves and their fleet-footed friends well depicted in Preston's travails. And those who simply want to learn more about the Southwest, its original inhabitants, the Spanish conquest and the impact of civilization on this fragile landscape and doomed people will want to explore Preston's sensitive, well-documented exposition. His final observations on our future are prescient and a warning: we, too, may go the way of the Zuni, Navajo, conquistadores and ranchers.