Originally published in 1918, this brilliant collection of letters and magazine articles spans nearly thirty years of Muir's writing and is one of the lesser known gems of the Muir canon. Gathered shortly after Muir's death by family friend William Frederic Bade, these passages are learned, funny, exalted, and quirky in one amazing turn after another. Here is Muir caught in a snowstorm below the peak of Mount Shasta; interviewing the one remaining miner in a Nevada ghost town; bathing "clean as a saint" in the Great Salt Lake, and sparring with Mormon elders; exploring the forests of Puget Sound, and climbing Mount Rainier; peering into the Grand Canyon, "a collection of stone books covering thousands of miles of shelving, tier on tier." Steep Trails is Muir at his wondering, joyful, ebullient best.
