by Jeff Groff
Part travel narrative, part natural history, part philosophical reflection—Yellowstone’s story like you’ve never heard it before.
The Rocinante in Wonderland is published by Starlight Studio via a no-cost license agreement. The author receives no royalties. All proceeds goes directly to Starlight Studio’s nonprofit educational programs including field-based learning experiences that connect students to the natural world. When you buy this book, you’re helping send the next group of students to Wonderland.
Yellowstone is a place of boiling mud, shooting water, and thundering bison—a landscape so extraordinary that nineteenth-century visitors simply called it Wonderland. In The Rocinante in Wonderland, two professors and a group of college students spend six nights exploring that landscape aboard a well-worn van named Rocinante. Join them as they uncover the supervolcano beneath the geysers, trace the ecology of wildfires, and grapple with our complicated relationship with wolves—and with the tragic history of the Indigenous peoples who have called this place home for millennia.
Along the way, the book follows the arc of the national park idea itself: from the expeditions that first captured the public imagination to the ongoing struggles for preservation and restoration that define Yellowstone today.
Richly informative yet written to read like a story, The Rocinante in Wonderland is for anyone who loves wild places, believes in the power of experiential learning, and wants to understand Yellowstone and why it matters.
Get a Copy
The Rocinante in Wonderland is available in print and eBook formats May 28, 2026.
- Buy on Amazon
- Shepherdstown, WV locals can order from our Shop and pick up at an upcoming book launch event.
ISBN (print): 979-8-9954451-0-4; ISBN (eBook): 979-8-9954451-1-1
About the Author
Jeff Groff is a professor of physics and environmental science at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. He developed the interdisciplinary Yellowstone National Park field course on which this book is based, and has led students into the field there for years. He holds a PhD in applied science from the College of William & Mary. As founder of Starlight Studio, Jeff is committed to making experiential, place-based education accessible to students who might not otherwise have the opportunity.