Customer Reviews

Done in a Day Moab: The 10 Premier Hikes!

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book written by Kathy and Craig Copeland on the ten best day hikes in the Moab (Utah) area proves to be well written and well presented. There may be other readers out there who may disagree with their choices but overall, it all matter of personal opinion, right?

In this book, they discussed ten hikes although the last hike, the Needles area is divided into five different types of hike, thus they are giving you four extra hikes to work with. Most of the hikes are well known to anyone who spent any time in Moab previously but this book will do wonders for anyone, who is a first time visitor to this area or to someone like me, who want to do bit more then just visit the "usual areas".

I have hiked Corona Arch trail and found the book to be pretty accurate in its description relating to this hike. I have also done couple other hikes (like Devil's Garden for example) described by the authors and found them to be relatively accurate in their portrayal. I want to do Negro Bill Canyon hike and found the book helpful (although the authors decried the term "Negro" even although it was called whole lot worst back in the "good ol' days"). I also want to try out Mary Jane Canyon and found the book to be highly useful in figuring out that hike.

Only major weakness I saw in this book is that it contains 144 pages of information (rest of the 11 pages containing index, authors' mini-biographies, advertisements and sorts) but the book don't start talking about the hikes until page 70. First half of the book is spent on introduction to Moab, its history, its geology and that sort of information that I found to be bit tedious. Reason why its "tedious" is that most tourists that do come to Moab in the first place, should be well verse in basic information on the place, terrain and expectations or otherwise, they won't bother to come in the first place. Half of book shouldn't be spend on something like this. They could have spend those pages giving us more day hikes to do.

But overall, for first time Moab visitors (active type) or repeat visitors seeking new ideas, this book is quite an interesting source of ideas on where to go. Of course, there are many more trails out there that fit this book's purpose but I thought the authors did well in picking the ten that they choose.

Kathy and Craig Copeland have once again created a great reference book for hiking----this time in the Moab, Utah, area. The book has an extensive introduction to the Moab area and the two area National Parks, Arches and Canyonlands. The hikes are described and route maps are included although these are not topographic maps but route maps which should be sufficient for these short hikes.

A word of caution: The authors are no armchair writers but strong hikers ("Hardened" they call it in the Murphy Hogback hike description) and rate their difficulty apparently according to their experience. Use their difficulty ratings with caution as you may find them more difficult than their rating. As an example, I have done the Devil's Garden hike a number of times and I clock it over 8 miles by pedometer and tracing on a satellite map. I would rate this a moderate while the authors rate this as easy. I wish the authors would use a 5 or 6 point ratings system rather than the 3 point system they use (easy, moderate, difficult).

In their introduction the authors describe partially the hike to Delicate Arch, certainly the signature hike in Arches National Park. And, yes, I agree that it can be a crowded hike on a sunny weekend particularly around Easter when the Moab "Jeep Week" is held. However, my wife and I have done this hike early in the morning in mid-week and we were the only ones at the arch for a long time before joined by a few others. The sun is not the best for photographs in the morning but there is limited competition for clear shots. I wish this hike had been included.

Perhaps they should have fully described 12 hikes as opposed to only the 10 and included Delicate Arch and the Confluence (of the Green and Colorado Rivers)hike which I rate one of the best in Canyonlands National Park. The location of this confluence was the mission of the Macomb expedition in 1859. They missed it but located it approximately. John Wesley Powell 10 years later on his river trip down the Green was so impressed with the confluence of these two rivers that he hiked up from the river to observe the confluence from the position you would reach on this hike. This hike is not difficult but it is close to 11 miles in length and by my rating on a 3 point system is moderate due to the length.

This is a good book for the Moab area that you will want to take with you if you visit.

I purchased this book in Moab on one of my many trips there. I discovered that most of the hikes listed in the book are 50-120 miles away from Moab. The bulk of them are actually in Canyonlands National Park. I also find the rating system a little questionable as it describes 2 of them as "Easy" when in fact most people will find them very strenuous. If you are heading to the Moab area and don't know where to go, this could point you in the direction of some very good hikes, however it will likely lead you far from Moab.