I picked up this book when I was going out to see and hike the Grand Canyon. The book is much more interesting in context, i.e. you've seen and undertand the scale and the environment of the Grand Canyon. The book has a series of short vignettes, arranged roughly chronologically, about explorers, miners and assorted neer do wells that really gave life and reality to my experience hiking and exploring the Canyon. Each of the stories is concisely written and illustrated with period photos in B&W.