They say if  you've seen one Grand Canyon, you've seen them all. And that's because it's a one-of-a-kind landscape of stone and water, a landscape to lose oneself within. Most visitors gaze into its depths from the rim, but others figuratively fall into its alluring depths for the rest of their lives, exploring every twist and turn of the Colorado River, its trails, and side canyons. This book is a wide-screen adventure story and love affair of human and canyon by those who work and live there.

The Rocky Mountain winter of 1983 saw record snowfall, and when it melted it challenged both human and natural obstacles, at the top, and the bottom, of the Grand Canyon. At the head of the "big ditch," the 710-foot Glen Canyon Dam was filling at a record rate. The integrity of the emergency spillways was disintegrating, prompting huge discharges of water down the canyon. Dam engineer Philip Burgi struggled to keep the dam from a catastrophic failure, at one point using panels of plywood to defer the flows.

Meanwhile, downstream, those record flows on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon were wreaking havoc with river runners and tourists. Big rapids became huge rapids, as boats flipped, people were hurt and one man was killed, and eventually the National Park Service evacuated the canyon. The hole in Crystal Rapid is still the stuff of legend and nightmares.

But this calamity was also an opportunity for a trio of veteran boatmen in an illegal attempt to set a speed record in a small, wooden boat, under the light of a full moon. Kenton Grua and two of his pals slipped their dory into the raging waters at Lees Ferry for the ride of their lives, in a boat that had been rebuilt from a crushed shell to ride again. It's name was The Emerald Mile.

This is the dramatic West at its best, filled with unforgettable characters. Author (and part-time boatman) Kevin Fedarko populated his story with larger-than-life figures. There's irascible environmentalist and boatman Martin Litton, who battles to save the iconic canyon and the wild river that runs through it. There's the powerhouse head of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Floyd Dominy who seems intent on damming nearly ever river in sight. There are boatmen who can thread a rowboat down raging rapids, between house-sized boulders, and around crushing waves. There are rangers who enforce the rules, yet know what it means to run the river in the dark.

This is the story of the men and women who live and work in the Grand Canyon. Fedarko gives all of the historical context needed to understand the story as well, from early Spanish explorations to John Wesley Powell's 1869 epic survey. Even seasoned readers will learn something new. (Was pioneer river runner Georgie White actually newlywed Bessie Hyde, who disappeared in the Canyon in the 1920s on her honeymoon? Why was her marriage license found in White's papers upon her death?)

This is a fascinating read, a thriller and adventure that is even more exciting because it's true. It will make you want to lose yourself in the world below the rims, if you haven't already. It's poetic, and pulse-raising. It's the spirit of the American West at its best.