At 22, Michael Leach’s dream of becoming a Yellowstone ranger came true. It wasn’t long before he’d earned the nickname “Rev” for his powerful Yellowstone “sermons.” In Grizzlies on My Mind: Essays of Adventure, Love, and Heartache from Yellowstone Country,” Leach shares his love for Yellowstone—its landscapes and wildlife, especially its iconic bison and grizzlies—as he tells stories of human lives lost, efforts to save a black bear cub, a famous wolf who helped Leach through some dark personal days, the unique and often humorous Yellowstone “culture,” backpacking trips that nearly ended in disaster, and Leach’s spiritual journey with his Assiniboine-Gros Ventre “brother.”
Perhaps you, like Leach, have been charged by an elk, traveled solo at dawn across Yellowstone’s frigid interior (working your way slowly through a herd of peaceful bison in the process), or lain awake in a backcountry tent, listening for the breaths of a curious grizzly. “Grizzlies on My Mind” is is a celebration of place, wildness and the Yellowstone Ecosystem.
