Customer Reviews

Day and Overnight Hikes: Tonto National Forest

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The fist simple litmus test you apply to desert hiking books. It's not cactus' or suck the poison out. Tony gets them both right and then goes on to convey an incredible amount of detail for each hike considering the size of the book.

Similar to most books of this nature the hikes are arranged by area. At the front of each hike it is rated for Scenery, Trail Condition, Children, Difficulty and Solitude along with the usual distance and hiking time. The Children rating is a nice feature if you like hiking with your family. He seems to have taken his son on many of the hikes, so the rating is based on actual experience. I also like the solitude rating, since sometimes the idea of hiking is to get away from everyone.

For each trail the book has the usual items, directions to and coordinates of the trail head, maps and elevation charts, but what I really was impressed with was the detailed descriptions of each hike. Once you read a couple, you understand Tony's comment in the introduction about if he says there is nothing you want to see down the trail to the left then believe it because he went there. I almost expect warnings about individual rocks you could stub your toe on.

If you are hiking the Tonto National Forest you must pick up this book. It's like having a hiking buddy who's been there before and knows the way in your backpack.