On her 120-acre homestead in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and a lightning-sparked wildfire threatens her century-old barn and its inhabitants. In essays as lucid and invigorating as mountain air, Deep Creek delivers Houston's most profound meditations on what ties her to the earth, the ranch most of all - a sanctuary where she discovers how the natural world has mothered and healed her after a childhood of horrific parental abuse and neglect.