Jim Stiles arrived in Utah in 1975, a follower of the cult of Ed Abbey, a copy of Desert Solitaire in his backpack, and a dream of preserving the natural beauty of the American Southwest via any means. Three decades on, with most of the Ed Abbey followers having long ago dispersed, Stiles remains a one-man show who has devoted his life to carrying on Abbey's legacy

Brave New West is an off-the-wall odyssey that tells the story of how one man's passion for the natural world fueled the creation of an extraordinary and unlikely institution in the American West.