Gretel Ehrlich is an American travel writer, novelist, essayist, and poet. She was born on a horse ranch near Santa Barbara, California.

Ehrlich was educated at both Bennington College in Vermont and UCLA film school. After working in film for 10 years, and following the death of a loved one, she began writing full-time in 1978 while living on a Wyoming ranch where she had been filming.

Her first book, The Solace of Open Spaces, is a collection of essays describing her love of the region.