Path of Light

“Path of Light is a true adventure of a read.”

—DAVID GESSNER, New York Times best-selling author All The Wild That Remains

“This book is a wealth of history and land. Its pages smell of libraries, desert, and the inside of a well lived-in vehicle. Right times, right places, right people, she’s got a knack for the journey. I’m reading this thinking, cool, I’d do that.”

—CRAIG CHILDS, author of Tracing Time

“As Sjogren retraces Bernheimer’s route a century later, she takes us on a courageous, soul-centered journey that ventures into the dark shadows of colonization and environmental destruction but ultimately emerges in a luminous place of hope and healing for ourselves and the Earth.”

—ANNETTE MCGIVNEY, author of Pure Land

"You can feel the passion and respect Sjogren has for these places, and this adds to the story immeasurably. It’s hard to read this without wanting to hop in the car and go west."​

—GOEAST MAGAZINE

"Sjogren writes about the region’s original inhabitants and the many people who have lived in the region over the years, always keeping a mindful eye towards the effects of colonization and the responsibility of preserving wild lands for future generations."

—OUTDOORS: THE HOME OF ADVENTURE WITH BEAR GRYLLS

“Path of Light is the best kind of book: one that haunts and compels and brings tears, wonder, and reverence for the land that inspired it.”

—KATHRYN WILDER, Colorado Book Award Winner of Desert Chrome

“The love on display in this book is infectious: love for people, for place, and for history. More than anything else, Sjogren reminds us of all the magnificent life that abounds in these red deserts; life ancient and reverberating across time, and life desperately struggling to endure.”

—CHRIS LA TRAY, author of One-Sentence Journal

“In landscape prose that is lovingly evocative, she grapples alongside a fascinating cast of companions with her—and our—covenant with a scarred, sacred, imperiled, and still-extraordinary redrock empire.”

—NATE SCHWEBER, author of This America of Ours

“In this beautifully crafted book, Sjogren documents her journeys, both physical and spiritual. A fine writer, she is a true desert rat with the courage to follow the path of light no matter where it leads.”

—JACK LOEFFLER, author of Adventures With Ed: A Portrait of Abbey

“When we read Morgan Sjogren’s Path of Light, we are walking through a story, a seamless ramble through geography, history, and Native culture in the Glen Canyon and Bears Ears country of southern Utah where Sjogren and her wanderluster companions learn two truths. Hidden passages lead through unimaginable places. And water and friends are the source of life in the desert.”

—STEPHEN TRIMBLE, editor of Red Rock Stories

“Sjogren has a unique knack for transporting the reader to the stark and sensual lands she calls home so that we are on the journey beside her, whether it’s a parched search for stagnant, scuzzy water in a slick rock pothole, a sunbaked trek through the bleak beauty of Red Canyon, or a perilous and lonely slog through a dark, boulder-choked canyon.”

—JONATHAN P. THOMPSON, author of Sagebrush Empire

“Morgan Sjogren is among the brightest emerging voices in an ongoing and increasingly urgent conversation regarding the landscape of the American Southwest. Path of Light is filled with passion, intensity, and longing that reflect and amplify similar qualities in the terrain itself.”

—ANNETTE AVERY, Bright Side Bookshop