NONFICTION - Sept. 10, 1995

DOWNCANYON: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River Through Grand Canyon by Ann Haymond Zwinger (University of Arizona Press: $35 hardcover, $16.95 paper; 335 pp.). Many people lie buried in the Grand Canyon, having drowned in the course of ill-fated journeys on the Colorado River. Ann Haymond Zwinger, a nature writer, probably wouldn’t mind being buried there either, for in this book she tells of an abiding love for the Grand Canyon. Zwinger’s canyon is not the place of white-water excitement but the quotidian canyon of mating midges and preying spiders, historic pottery shards and volcanic rock. She has been to there many times and in all seasons, so her portrait is well-rounded, if not always engaging; covering wildlife as well as geology, human life as well as history, Zwinger casts her net so broadly that at times “Downcanyon” seems more the product of library research than experience.