Chasing Arizona

One Man’s Yearlong Obsession with the Grand Canyon State

By Ken Lamberton

The University of Arizona Press

It seemed like a simple plan—visit fifty-two places in fifty-two weeks. But for author Ken Lamberton, a forty-five-year veteran of life in the Sonoran Desert, the entertaining results were anything but easy. In Chasing Arizona, Lamberton takes readers on a yearlong, twenty-thousand-mile joyride across Arizona during its centennial, racking up more than two hundred points of interest along the way.

Lamberton chases the four corners of Arizona, attempts every county, every reservation, and every national monument and state park, from the smallest community to the largest city. He drives his Kia Rio through the longest tunnels and across the highest suspension bridges, hikes the hottest deserts, and climbs the tallest mountain, all while visiting the people, places, and treasures that make Arizona great.

In the vivid, lyrical, often humorous prose the author is known for, each destination weaves together stories of history, nature, and people, along with entertaining side adventures and excursions. Maps and forty-four of the author’s detailed pencil drawings illustrate the journey.

Chasing Arizona is unlike any book of its kind. It is an adventure story, a tale of Arizona, a road-warrior narrative. It is a quest to see and experience as much of Arizona as possible. Through intimate portrayals of people and place, readers deeply experience the Grand Canyon State and at the same time celebrate what makes Arizona a wonderful place to visit and live.

Ken is not only a master storyteller who spews out lovely sentences at nearly every turn but is an enthusiastic fan of Arizona history. This is quite simply a keeper—enjoyable without being silly, and well-researched without being stuffy.’—Gary P. Nabhan, author of Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey

I love reading a good writer. And it’s even better when the author writes about a subject I love. Ken Lamberton’s Chasing Arizona is a collection of memorable essays about the state we love. As entertaining as he is curiously profound, Lamberton is Arizona’s 21st Century Thoreau, blessed with the depth, eye, and patience of Joseph Wood Krutch, and the delicious literary flair of the late Charles Bowden.'—David Fitzsimmons

Ken Lamberton’s Chasing Arizona is a book full of fascinating information, surprising insights, good humor and wonderful writing. I thoroughly enjoyed it.'—Thomas Cobb, author of With Blood in Their Eyes.

Lamberton’s love of all things Arizona is evident in his exuberant writing, and the excitement is contagious. Each chapter left me curious, itching to explore, taste, and experience it for myself.’—Edible Baja Arizona

Ken Lamberton is the author of several books, including Wilderness and Razor Wire: A Naturalist’s Observations from Prison, which won the 2002 John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. Lamberton holds degrees in biology and creative writing from the University of Arizona and lives with his wife in a 1890s stone cottage near Bisbee. Visit the author’s website at www.kenlamberton.com.

Map of Arizona
The Insanity of Bright Ideas

January: Turquoise
February: Cactus Wren
March: Paloverde
April: Saguaro Blossom
May: Two-tailed Swallowtail Butterfly
June: Apache Trout
July: Arizona Treefrog
August: Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake
September: Petrified Wood
October: Ringtail
November: Bola Tie
December: Colt .45 Single Action Army Revolver

Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Index

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