I was recommended Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" before our trip to Utah in June. It's a memoir of Abbey's time as a ranger at Arches National Park.
Mary read it before the trip, and everywhere we went at Arches she'd mention something about Abbey.
I read it after the trip and really loved it. The experience of the park in the 1960s was very different than the park today.
Abbey's vision of a National Park is that all visitors should be greeted by a 50 foot tall statue of Smokey the Bear that says this:
A noble vision, to be sure.
Worth the read if you like the desert.