11 h 4 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 4 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a man believe in when his faith falls silent and the desert opens before him?
John Shefford leaves the East with his certainty shaken. A young minister who no longer trusts what he has preached, he heads into the canyon country of southern Utah and northern Arizona. Heat, thirst and vast walls of rock test him. Then he learns of Fay Larkin, a young woman hidden in the wild country, and his wandering becomes a search.
In The Rainbow Trail, Zane Grey returns to the world of Riders of the Purple Sage. Nas Ta Bega, a Navajo guide, becomes Shefford’s companion and friend. The pasts of Jane Withersteen and Lassiter still shape this frontier, where faith and power are tangled together. Love and loyalty give Shefford more to face than the demands of the land.
What you’ll discover
- A desert that tests Feel the heat, thirst and distance of a country that challenges every step.
- A friendship taking root Follow Shefford and Nas Ta Bega as guidance grows into companionship and trust.
- A search with purpose Discover how Fay Larkin gives a restless man a reason to keep going.
- Belief beyond the pulpit Explore a minister’s doubt through a frontier story of love, faith and loyalty.
- Canyons alive with color Enter long stretches of landscape filled with red, gold and purple stone.
Who will love it
Readers who love sweeping Western landscapes, friendships across cultures, and quests shaped by faith and longing will enjoy this novel. It also suits those drawn to desert journeys and hidden valleys.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Shefford crosses into the unknown
- Brotherhood opens a new trail
- Mary changes the meaning of his search
- Pain tests his growing sense of duty
- The courtroom exposes a deeper fear
- Nas Ta Bega protects his faith
- Faith becomes an act of brotherhood
- The search becomes a journey of change
Who’s who
- John SheffordA young minister cast out for doubting his church, he rides into the canyons to find a lost girl and a faith of his own.
- Nas Ta BegaA Navajo chief's son stolen to a mission school as a boy, he returns to his people and becomes Shefford's brother.
- WithersThe trader at Kayenta, plain-spoken and fair-minded, he gives Shefford work and helps him search for Fay Larkin.
- Joe LakeA huge, joking young Mormon cowboy and horse wrangler, he is loyal to his friends and troubled by his creed.
- MaryCalled the Sago Lily by jealous neighbors, she is a lonely, wild-hearted girl in the hidden village with a secret.
- WillettsA soft-handed missionary at Blue Canyon who wants to take Navajo girls to his school and hates Shefford for interfering.
- ShaddA squat half-breed outlaw who leads a gang, follows the pack train and later appears outside the Stonebridge trial.
- RuthA bold, bitter young woman in the hidden village who befriends Shefford and wants to live a freer life.
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The Rainbow Trail
by Zane Grey · 1915
A cast-out minister rides into the Utah canyons to find a lost girl at the foot of a rainbow.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Picture a man on a ridge above a dry red lake bed in the Arizona desert. He has a hundred miles of sand behind him, and ahead lies a dark, broken land that seems to warn him away.
The Rainbow Trail at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 30 min5 h 10 min fast, 7 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 93,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1915by Zane Grey
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A wanderer reaches the edge of the unknown
Shefford stops his tired horse above Red Lake, a dry red basin in northern Arizona. He calls the place his Rubicon, a line he must cross or turn back and be haunted forever. A friend's strange story and the sight of a rainbow have brought him this far.
Below him stands a stone trading post, grim as a fort. He walks in and finds a man struggling with a young Navajo woman, who is panting with fear. Without thinking, Shefford strikes the man down. The trader, Presbrey, says the stranger is Willetts, a missionary, who was teaching the girl religion.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1915
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Grey, Zane. The Rainbow Trail. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rainbow-trail.
Grey, Z. (2026). The rainbow trail. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rainbow-trail (Original work published 1915)
Grey, Zane. The Rainbow Trail. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rainbow-trail.
@book{grey2026rainbow,
author = {Grey, Zane},
title = {The Rainbow Trail},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rainbow-trail},
note = {First published 1915}
}
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What is The Rainbow Trail about?
It follows John Shefford, a minister cast out by his church, as he rides into the Utah canyons to find a lost girl from a friend's story. Along the way he meets a Navajo, a trader, Mormon women, and danger.
Do I need to read Riders of the Purple Sage first?
No. Zane Grey's preface calls this book a story in its own right, and Shefford retells the older tale to Withers early on. Readers who know the earlier novel will enjoy meeting its characters again.
Who is Nas Ta Bega?
A Navajo man who was taken as a boy to a California mission school and later returned to his people. He becomes Shefford's friend, guide and brother, and he is the book's voice for Native life and faith.
The author
Zane Grey
1872–1939 · American Western novelist
Zane Grey (1872–1939) was an American novelist born in Zanesville, Ohio. He worked as a dentist before becoming a writer. He wrote Western novels, including Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) and The Rainbow Trail (1915). He later lived in Altadena, California, where he died in 1939.
More by Zane Grey
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