California Desert Trails: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

California Desert Trails, credited to Joseph Smeaton Chase, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of California Desert Trails by Joseph Smeaton Chase. Read in English by Steven Seitel "I fell an easy prey to the beckonings of the other principal feature of California's topography, the dreamy, dreary desert. Long ago, on short expeditions into and across it at various points, I had fallen under its inexplicable charm; now I determined to know it more closely, by daily and nightly intercourse through months of travel in its sun-blasted solitudes: gaining the experience I desired at the price, certainly, of some discomfort, and, possibly, of a trifling degree of danger — merely enough for spice. This volume, then, is the fruit of over two years continuous camping and traveling on the desert." (From the Preface) - Summary by Steven Seitel

Recording facts

• Recording title: California Desert Trails
• Author credits: Joseph Smeaton Chase
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 22
• Listed recording duration: 10:44:25

Catalogue topics

• desert travel
• california desert

Track guide

1. 00 Preface — 6:24
2. 01 Introductory — 25:55
3. 02 The Palm Oases and Cañons — 40:12
4. 03 Trees and Tree-Like Growths — 26:33
5. 04 The Smaller Cacti, Shrubs, and Flowers — 27:16
6. 05 Some Desert Indian Lore — 26:22
7. 06 A Desert Ride: Palm Springs to Seven Palms — 20:43
8. 07 Seven Palms to Thousand Palm Cañon — 23:47
9. 08 Thousand Palm Cañon to Coachella Valley — 27:14
10. 09 Coachella Valley to Piñon Well — 32:08
11. 10 Piñon Well to Meca — 43:42
12. 11 Mecca to Figtree John — 30:49
13. 12 Figtree John to Borego Springs — 32:54
14. 13 Borego Springs to Los Coyotes — 31:17
15. 14 Los Coyotes to Warner's Springs — 25:04
16. 15 Warner's Springs to Agua Caliente — 28:34
17. 16 Agua Caliente to ''San Felipe City'' — 31:14
18. 17 ''San Felipe City'' to Imperial Valley — 38:29
19. 18 Imperial Valley to Yuma — 34:59
20. 19 Yuma to Blythe — 41:16
21. 20 Blythe to Coachella Valley — 35:37
22. 21 Appendix A: Hints on Desert Travelling — 13:56

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.