E. Dan Klepper

Comprehensive, entertaining guide to the best trails Texas has to offer Fully revised, including 30 new trails New details on the state's ecoregions All new full-color photos and maps for each hike With more than 80 parks, 56 wildlife management areas, 9 natural areas, and 28 historic sites and parklands, Texas offers a wide range of hiking options. In this new edition of 100 Classic Hikes: Texas, writer, hiker, and native Texan E. Dan Klepper explores the most beautiful, iconic, and interesting trails from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast, and from Big Bend to Piney Woods. Enriching the experience with overviews of the ecology of each region, Klepper also provides all the key details: route distance and time plus difficulty rating, elevation gain, permit information, and more. With more offerings in the popular Big Bend, Hill Country, and Panhandle regions, as well as more family-friendly and urban-based trails, this is the ultimate guide to the Lone Star State

Fresno Ranch, an abandoned horse and mule operation located in a remote stretch of the Rio Grande River bordering Mexico, gives evidence of a human presence spanning centuries. The ranch saw a period of entrepreneurial mule breeding and ranching, and ownership by Texas artist and publishing heiress Jeanne Norsworthy, who built an off-the-grid, hand-constructed adobe studio on the premises. Photographer and freelance writer E. Dan Klepper spent seven years, off and on, living and working at Fresno Ranch. By 2008, when the 7,000-acre property was acquired by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to become part of Big Bend Ranch State Park, the adobe studio dwelling and its associated structures had been sitting vacant for almost ten years—many rugged miles from the nearest electrical power line or municipal water system. Between 2006 and 2013, Klepper assisted his friend Rodrigo Trevizo, park ranger and caretaker for the property, with the various chores required to keep the ranch in operating condition. The two excavated and repaired the primary water network, cared for the livestock, cleared brush, and maintained a small, solar-powered electrical system. Days of 110-degree heat, boiling water for washing and cooking, and keeping a wary eye out for rattlesnakes alternated with evenings spent in the flicker of kerosene lanterns, listening to the rasping of the ravens as they scoured the canyon in the gathering dark. In vivid images and well-considered prose, Klepper reflects on his experiences at Fresno Ranch, “witnessing the unfolding of a natural world unfettered by the overpowering human footprint that has dominated so many of our remaining wild places.” For aficionados of fine art photography, cultural and natural history enthusiasts, and fans of the Big Bend region and its austere beauty, Why the Raven Calls the Canyon offers a provocative visual journal of off-the-grid living that celebrates the unique landscape of the Big Bend.