Customer Reviews

Hiking the Grand Canyon,Revised and Expanded

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this book based on the reviews I read and all I can say is, are they reading the same book as I am? This book has the basic information about the trails and other interesting information like who was the first to climb each of the formations. There are no actual illustrations of the trails in the book, only textual descriptions. It tells you how long you will live without water based on the temperature. Seems to me you should know that before you head out. It is a compact size which makes it easy to lug around all that useless information. It does have some interesting history about the Grand Canyon and contact information for hotels and rafting. Again, information that is not very useful once you are on the trail. It has a listing of water sources but any serious hiker will check with the back country office before hitting the trail, which for the records the book does recommend. It also came with a useless map which is suitable for coloring. If you are planning on hiking into the canyon, I would recommend the book by Adkison over this one.

The first couple of chapters gave a very good overview of the canyon formation, good to know tourist information for the backpacker, and a map. Unfortunately, I found the map difficult to read because of the colors used to format it. I was also hoping for more depth and discussion about the various trails from the South Rim to the river. This is a well rounded book. It does give a quick (but vague)overview of what a backpacker needs to know. This "guide" lives up to its claim for being just that. I would recommend this book for the novice Canyon goer

I hike rim to rim to rim several times a year in the Grand Canyon, so I know the inner corridor trails pretty well. This book should now be considered the definitive guide for hiking in the Grand Canyon and the strong points of this book are worth noting. The maps are excellent, as are the descriptions of how to get to trail head. However, the book is incomplete in certain areas and outdated. The Grand Canyon has implemented a shuttle system to stem the horrific crowds (I don't see much improvement) and hikers now can't drive to the South Kaibab trail or Hermit's Rest trail. The directions in this book are therefore rendered confusing due to the new restrictions.

Most importantly, the authors neglect to stress that in order to successfully complete long hikes at the Grand Canyon, you must be physically prepared. Several times a year I hike rim to rim and then back the next day. This is 24 miles of hiking with some serious elevation gains. Oftentimes I pass many sick, debilitated and unprepared hikers who quite obviously didn't do any physical preparation for this hike. Physically fit people should be able to do it in 3-4 hours coming up, but many are stuck on the trail for 12 hours and suffering. This could be avoided by exercising and hiking for months in advance in order to enjoy and relish the spectacular experience.

The author does detail the debilitating and life-threatening heat conditions that exist in the Canyon. I recommend to anyone planning long hikes *not* to attempt them in the summer! Temperatures frequently exceed 110 degrees and heat exhaustion and/or heat stroke can result. The best months to hike in the Grand Canyon are October, November and April.

The Grand Canyon (even with the terrible crowds) is a sublime experience and Phantom Ranch is the best part of the canyon. Forget the mule and use your own two feet. It's a magical experience, a great hike and one you will want to do again and again!

This guide seems to have excited a lot of controversy. And I can understand why. John Annerino's guide to the Grand Canyon is just as individualistic as all his other books.
Mr. Annerino is a rough-and-ready writer, something of a non-fiction Jack Kerouac of the Southwest and the Borderlands. His literary principle is enthusiasm for his subject. And when his subject is a complex but highly organized entity like the Grand Canyon system, the book winds up structured in a way some of his other books don't. What you can't miss is his knowledge of this canyon.
I found this book an excellent update, if only partial, of the Naturalist's Guide to Hiking the Grand Canyon by Stewart Aitchison. He covers more trails than other, more current guides, such as the Falcon guide by Ron Adkinson, who doesn't write up the platform trails east of Grandview on the South Rim, the Beamer Trail, or Comanche Point. (A new edition is due out of the Falcon guide; maybe the deficiency will be made up.) Not to mention areas further afield, such as the Arizona Strip.
Some have criticised the lack of maps. This is valid, but the tendency of late seems to be for publishers to include only very sketchy maps, rather than copies of topos. And maps are easy to get for the Grand Canyon.
I have been more surprised that some object to Mr. Annerino's admonitions to the user to get in shape and keep in mind the peculiar hazards of the GC, comprising both desert and middle-latitude sky-island. Given the peculiar fame of the Canyon, its allure for travellers from all over the world, including those who aren't really in shape, and the UN-reality of the Canyon upon first contemplation, I believe his warnings are in order.
On top of this, I found Annerino's review of history and other trail lore very entertaining. And you have something to read when you're resting, without carrying MORE weighty books down and around and up.
My advice to Canyon hikers is to consult ALL the guides you can get. John Annerino's guide is, in my view, an indispensable part of the small group you'll read again and again. Another, more recent, is "Hiking the Grand Canyon's Geology", by Lon Abbott. But keep in mind, whatever you use, that access issues can change, so check with the National Park Service and other hikers. I recommend the Internet Yahoo groups for the Grand Canyon, as well.

When I first started hiking the Grand Canyon I considered John Annerino's "Hiking the Grand Canyon" to be great! Then in 1986 this guide was "Revised and Expanded." I was a bit disappointed as it was not indeed revised in any significant way. But it was still a good guide for the trails. In 1997 Rod Adkison's "Hiking Grand Canyon National Park" appeared and I began to use it more and more as a reference guide. Now Annerino's "Hiking the Grand Canyon" has come out in a "Third Edition, Completely Updated." I looked over this edition today and in just a few minutes found: an incorrect phone number; an incorrect area code; a book recommended to visitors to use to tour the canyon rim that has been out-of-print for many years; 2003 statistics; a bibliography without the most important recent books on canyon geology and lacking other significant canyon hiking books! Frankly this is only a cosmetic revision, and not a very good one at that! Start with Adkison's book first. Avoid this edition until the publisher does a decent edit!

To be completely fair to the author his hiking descriptions and mileages are generally without serious error. So if you have an earlier edition of Annerino continue to use it.

Feel free to check my profile for my backgound regarding Grand Canyon as well as hiking. And feel free to check out my Listmania list "Grand Canyon - Best Books."

This is the only guide to GC I've ever used. It's taken me safely in and out numerous times. It has the necessities of info. on water, temperatures, distances, obstacles to the routes, elevations, etc.

It seems there is a trend towards people wanting to be held by the hand on their hikes: graphics of the trails, topos included in the guidebook, campsites designated, viewpoints mentioned, etc...

The reality is, one's better of getting the USGS topos, a compass (assuming you know how to use it), and with basic info. provided by a great guide like this, you're set. The detail of this guidebook is in the depth of general information: years of monthly temp. averages, highs, lows. Years of averages on precipitation. It is also reliable in determining the difficulty of a trail and what type of hiker it's suited to.

This book lets you sit down, determine what trail you want, the best time of year, for temps, precip., etc, based on YOUR preferences. The route descriptions are to the point and don't get bogged down in unnecessary detail.

If you don't want much adventure, take the huge practically paved trails (such as Bright Angel - you'll still be physically challenged and be immersed in tremendous beauty) or hire a professional guide, don't blame a great guide book such as this.

Happy hiking.

John Annerino gives his readers an abundance of information about the trails and geology of the Grand Canyon. My husband and I especially like the compact size of the book - great for tossing in a daypack while hiking the canyon.

I was disappointed by this book. Mr. Annerino seems to be trying to impress us with his knowledge far too often and is long-winded most of the time. I much prefer authors who try to inform instead of impress, especially in a book that is basically a how-to-hike-in-the-Grand-Canyon book.

For example:
"... the Tonto Trail is the major east-west camino through the Grand Canyon." Now many, maybe even most, people who live in the parts of the US with a Spanish influence know that camino is Spanish for road. But how about other English speakers around the world?

Or another example:
"Assuming that the Colorado River isn't rumbling along at 30,000 cfs or more, you can follow the left-hand (south) side of the river ...". How much is 30,000 cfs? Is that unusual? I think the author meant that to say something like "if the river doesn't cover the trail, you can ...", but I don't know for sure.

I much prefer Hiking Grand Canyon National Park, 2nd (Regional Hiking Series) for planning a trip and Hiking the Grand Canyon's Geology (Hiking Geology) for understanding the geology.

This book is full of intersting tidbits on the history of the canyon (who was the first person to run the canyon rim-rim, geology, ecology, people history and so forth) - this makes up well over half of the book. The rest of the book skims the trails offering less information than can easily be found on the net. I am planning a trip to GC and am dissapointed that I will clearly be buying another book to give basics like for starters - a diagram of the trails.

This book has good information about what a hiker will encounter on the trails in the Grand Canyon. I personally don't feel that ANY author could detail all the nooks and cranny's, twists and turns, and ups and downs that a hiker will encounter while hiking in the Canyon, so, I think that expectations should be evaluated for sure, but, as a reference - both about trails and about history, this book is awesome.