Desert Notes

"The land does not give easily. The desert is like a boulder: you expect to wait. You expect night to come. But you expect some-time it will loosen into pieces to be examined." - Desert Notes, Barry Lopez

Later the author goes on to say:
"Your confidence in these finely etched maps is understandable, for at first glance they seem excellent, the best man is capable of; but your confidence is misplaced. Throw them out. They are the wrong sort of map. They are too thin. They are not the sort of map that can be followed by a man who knows what he is doing. The coyote, even the crow would regard them with suspicion."

Read this years ago, and recently re-read it. Desert Notes and the companion volumes River Notes and Field Notes are the work of a master craftsman.