In 1975, poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming to make the first in a series of documentaries, and found she couldn't leave. Originally written as journal entries addressed to a friend, Ehrlich's essays capture both the otherworldly beauty and cruelty of the natural forces—the harsh wind, bitter cold, and swiftly changing seasons—in the remote reaches of the American West. With tenderness and humor, Ehrlich also creates portraits of the peculiar souls who also call Wyoming home: hermits and ranchers, rodeo cowboys and schoolteachers.

"Wyoming has found its Whitman."—Annie Dillard