Ellen Waterston

Nonfiction 2020 | 331 pages

Do you know the author of this book?  Ellen Waterston is Oregon's poet laureate.  I am going to a workshop/retreat led by her in February, so I thought I should read something she wrote!  Come join me at the retreat .... one week in Todos Santos in the winter.  https://www.writingranch.com/todos-santos-writing-retreat.

Once I moved past my disappointment ... I assumed this book was a hiking book and we would read all about Ellen's challenges hiking the Oregon Desert Trail (ODT) ... I became full engrossed in what is really is.  She educates us about the high desert:  the land, economics, ranchers and environmentalists, cows and BLM, water, birds and wild animals from horses to sage rats.  We learn about the formation and work of ONDA, the High Desert Museum, the Desert Trail Alliance, and numerous other groups and organizations.  We witness the coming together of ranchers, BLM, the Forest service, hikers, and environmentalists to carve out solutions to how we use this land. We are educated in the formation of the ODT.  Because Bend is the western terminus of the ODT, and many who are involved with the high desert are Bendites, Ellen comments often on the interaction between the ODT and Bend.  She tells us about many, many players who have been and still are activists and advocates for the protection of the high desert.  I would be surprised if you make it through this book and don't read about someone you know.

Ellen's writing is crisp and clear.  I like it!  She integrates many quotes and passages.  Most important to me, as an occasional reader of nonfiction, she is funny!  Her humor sustains the reader through some difficult topics.

If you are a Bend person (as many of my blog readers are) you DEFINITELY should read this book.  If you have not yet developed a passion for the high desert (I have ... consider where I live) this book will raise your awareness and consciousness and maybe even love for the amazing lands that lie to the east of us.

September 2025