After "Desert Solitaire" became a bestseller, he wrote several books of nature essays. Some of these include "The Journey Home", "Abbey's Road", "Down the River", "Beyond the Wall", and "One Life At a Time, Please". He also kept writing novels. His next novel was "Black Sun", which is about a fire lookout at the Grand Canyon falling in love but then seeing his girlfriend disappear. His next novel after that was "The Monkey Wrench Gang". This was his most controversial novel because it was about four people using sabotage to stop development in the Southwest. He also wrote a science fiction novel called "Good News".