Customer Reviews

Boater's guide to Lake Powell: Featuring hiking, camping, geology, history & archaeology

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We've used all 3 editions on 4 houseboat trips. From the descriptions of what to see, we decide on which canyons to visit. We use the detailed maps to navigate to the beach campsites. We use the trail descriptions to reach arches, waterfalls, petroglyphs, pictographs, ruins and narrow slot canyons. Things we used from the latest edition: new cost and time info on famous Antelope Canyon, more detailed directions on locating the petroglyphs in Llewellyn Gulch, and new info on upper West (slot) Canyon. I recommend this Guide to anyone boating on Lake Powell. Not recommended for extremists who want to drain the lake!

From what I can tell, Kelsey appears to be the foremost authority on Lake Powell and the surrounding area. I can't see how you could get more information out of another book. That being said, it isn't the kind of book you read cover to cover for sheer enjoyment of reading and learning. Think of it as a user manual for the lake and you will be on the right track. There are a lot of pictures (in black and white) and a lot of very detailed maps and informative graphs. To use this book, I would suggest that you plan your trip and then consult the book to see what it says about that area. If there is ANYTHING of interest to be seen there, it will tell you where and what it is.

It is divided into the following parts:
I - Condensed history of the lake area (19 pages) - very fact filled (survey like).
II - The marinas on Lake Powell and other possible launch sites along with weather and climate for each season, a word about hiking season and equipment, photography and film type, insects and pest, drinking water, and places to camp and their fees.
III - Geology, the types of stone seen in the colorful strata and suggested maps for the area.

Then it launches into sites of interest in the area and gives good maps (quite technical) of each. There are 34 of these and may well cover all of the canyons and hikes on the lake. If you want to get the most out of your trip, I would highly recommend this book. If you were wanting to just read about the history of the area, it will be about as much fun as reading the dictionary.

Of the books I have read it is the most helpful. It gives descriptions on boating, hiking, fishing, camping, artifacts and geology. I wish the photograph had been in color and not black and white, but it keeps the cost down. Includes cross-sections of the canyons and tributaries. It helped us plan our trip on what to see.

The book overall, is ok, and provides some good general information. However, in no fault to the author, the lake levels have dropped about 100ft since the book was written. Where there may have been a beach and a trail 4 years ago, you will now find a 50ft. cliff. Regardless lake powell is still an awesome place, check it out.

I wanted a houseboating guide to Lake Powell. Although this book is full of detail about every inch of the lake, it is absolutely NOT user-friendly. The print is minute and the writing is atrocious. All of the maps are small and cluttered, and look as if they were done on somebody's home PC. All of the references are metric, which makes it extremely tedious to decipher. Although there is a metric conversion table at the begining, it was very frustrating to have to keep refering back to it. If you are looking for a basic, easy to follow guide, this is not the book for you! If I had picked it up in a book store and thumbed through it, I never would have bought it.

Overall this isn't a bad book. However, I do agree with other reviewers who feel it is difficult to use. Mr. Kelsey is an avid hiker and outdoorsman. The hikes in this book are all pretty intense and not for your average person. My major complaint about the book is that terrain at the beginning of most of the hikes up from the lake shore varies greatly depending on the water level. I know that this isn't Mr. Kelsey's fault and I certainly don't blame him, but he could give you a little warning. When we went (early May 2001) the water level was about 27 feet below full pool. At that point the beginning of some of his hikes may actually be 1/2 kilometer earlier than he states. In addition, getting to his starting point may be a whole lot more involved. (On one hike, it took us over an hour just to get to where he had the hike starting, due to low water level, lots of mud which was almost like quicksand and the need to hike up slickrock to get around all this).

I once read that, "Indexes are among those necessary but never spectacular products of hard as well as skilled work that can sometimes make the difference between a book and good book."
That said, this is a book.
And it needs an index.
It also needs a clearer table of contents, an acceptance that the metric system will never gain popularity in America, fewer photos of the author in tiny shorts, and a complete redesign by someone who understands the value of a clear font and of blank white space between chapters.
These comments could be said of all of Michael Kelsey's guidebooks--all of which are full of facts, maps, and hikes that are indispensible to exploring the Colorado Plateau, and all of which are incredibly hard to find anything in.
I wish I could rate this higher, because these guides really have been helpful to me over the years--especially this one--but a guidebook should be easy to use, and its information should be easily accessible.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for the fifth edition.

I used this book to plan a 4-day boating/hiking trip to the reservoir. Lake Powell's huge, with hundreds of canyons. Using Kelsey's maps and descriptions i was able to arrive at a list of specific destinations, and i had a great time. The book contains a lot of interesting local history too. Great literature it is not, but... so?

?¥¬ Lake Powell 2-5 times per year and keep our boat there. We live in Littleton.

I have used the book for a number of years. It is accurate and consequently useful to someone who wants information for on the ground activities or historical significance.

It gives an idea of shore conditions for camping which is helpful in new areas.

We use it to explore and plan hiking trips. We do enjoy hiking. Its the most comprehesive book out there on Lake Powell and we have a number of Lake Powell Books.

If you want somthing very simple for lake exploration then go with the Stan Jone map. It to is an excellent tool.

After decades of saying that America will soon adopt the metric system Mr. Kelsey finally puts distances and elevations in miles/feet in addition to meters. His hikes also include dates and lake level at the time as this has a big effect on what you will find when you go. I had his Second Edition of this book, which was written when the lake was near full (3700 feet above sea level). The Fifth Edition was researched in more recent times when the lake was around 3600 feet. His maps also show the water line in some of the canyons at these lower lake levels, in addition to the high water mark that you will find on any other map of Lake Powell. It still has all of the great geology and history that you come to expect from a Kelsey guidebook. Although it is called the "Boater's Guide", it is really a hiking guide. Don't expect to find too much advice on boating here.