cover image Lost and Found: Adrift in the Canadian Rockies

Lost and Found: Adrift in the Canadian Rockies

Jamey Glasnovic. Rocky Mountain Books, $25 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-77160-051-4

The siren call of the West has long been heard across the North American landscape, and author Glasnovic, a Montreal-born photographer, followed this call to the Canadian Rockies. In this breezy, thought-provoking account, Glasnovic extols the virtues of traveling via "the pedal-powered steed," and he takes readers on a journey along the Bow Valley Parkway to Alberta's mountain hotspots: Kananaskis Country, Canmore, Banff National Park, Lake Louise, the Columbia Icefield, and Jasper National Park. He is particularly good at detailing both the wonders and disappointments of his surroundings, as he ruminates on the beauty of the Rockies but laments how the three-pronged assault of urbanization, resource extraction, and tourism intrudes on the natural splendor. Glasnovic's book is both an entertaining travelogue as well as a meditation on how the brawl between nature and modern development led him to replace "an idealized and somewhat naive view of the mountain West" with a view tempered by the reality of "commercialism and growth." But his narrative is also peppered with rich descriptions of wildlife, bumbling tourists, over-priced outdoor gear, finicky weather and history. This book provides a reverent yet refreshingly nuanced view of the Canadian West. (Oct.)