Customer Reviews

A Hiking Guide To Cedar Mesa

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

 

 

Bad news first.
-- Directions to trail heads are infuriatingly compressed, hard to read, and in some places silly (ex: Major state route paved highway intersections are identified with GPS coordinates.)
-- Despite the 2001 copyright, 7-1/2' maps names are not given, but the obsolete and no-longer-available 15' maps are given.
-- Some of the detail maps are not oriented north-up -- hard to use for our north-up oriented minds. Worse yet, the maps don't say where north is, despite the north arrow in the map legend that lies, since it always points up. Hard to orient yourself, even after you discover the lying arrow.
-- The maps have no scale.
-- No index. Unpardonable sin, especially in these days of computers.

OK, now good-bad news:
-- Lots of GPS coordinates. But they are in a table following each route description, not embedded in the description. So you have to flip pages back and forth, and try to figure which set of coordinates apply to which text passage.
-- This is the only book that covers the area efficiently. Mike Kelsey's books cover larger areas. (Perhaps there are others that I have not found.)

Ready for some good news?:
-- It appears appropriately comprehensive. I say appropriate, since it is not totally comprehensive about the area. This leaves room for independent exploration, and does not divulge secret last best places.
-- Use the nicely made table and overview map starting on p.45 to efficiently sort through the walks he describes in the rest of the book.

I recently completed an outing to the Cedar Mesa/Comb Ridge area for which I had specifically purchased this guidebook. On first glance it appears more comprehensive then the Kelsey "Non-Technical" hiking guide, but first impressions can be deceiving. Most annoying were the UTM co-ordinates. Aside from the fact that they are inaccurate, see below, they are also largely worthless. An example from the "Fish Mouth Cave" description includes these handy co-ordinates: carpark-0,620,633E;4,142,890N, 1st Alcove-none, 2nd Alcove-none, Fish Mouth Cave-none, carpark-0,620,633E;4,142,890N! Why bother? Kelsey has no UTMs at all, but he obviates their need by providing accurate and helpful written descriptions of the hikes he describes. The Tassoni descriptions are, imho, MUCH less helpful. Kelsey also provides clear, color "fotographs" (Kelsey spelling--kind of annoying, really) of the features/attractions on the hikes he describes. Page 80 of the Tassoni guide includes a picture of the Abajos mislabled as the La Salles, and p.85 features a picture of Comb Wash-somewhere. In one fell swoop Tassoni has become inaccurate AND irrelevant! Oh, the Tassoni pics are also grainy B&W images of the wrong, irrelevant feature. The Tassoni guide is not entirely unhelpful, but your money would be MUCH better spent on the Kelsey guide.

I found this excellent book at the library. I was going to Cedar Mesa for a few days the following week with a group of adults and kids from western Colorado. I was not familiar with the area, although I'd lived in Utah for 6 years in the 80's. The author has the hikes divided into car, day, and backpack hikes with ratings for difficulty and time required to complete them. Each hike has a description, as well as GPS info. He has 64 hikes listed. We did one shorter day hike (SF Mule Canyon) on arrival and spent about 3 hours exploring a "car" hike area which had many ruins tucked into the cliffs (Mule Canyon Cave Towers). The ruins were accessible beneath the cliffs, though access is not straight forward, but not dangerous either. In the book the author says there is no route down to these, but we were able to get to them, including my 9 year old daughter. Perhaps he is reluctant to encourage people to climb down to them. If I return to the area, I would purchase this book to plan and use there. I'd also purchase the topo maps. Have fun.

The trail and access descriptions are accurate. The GPS coordinates were invaluable. I only wish the author had also provided GPS coordinates for some of the sites along the way. There are occassional small lapses in accuracy on the listings of the time it rakes to hike from one milestone to the next. It is useful to complement this guidebook with a comprehensive map such as the TrailsIllustrated series which provides mileage for some of the same routes for which Peter Tassoni provides GPS and times.

This guidebook is definitely a good resource for exploring this fascinating corner of Utah. I largely agree with Tom Budlong's earlier review.

A word of warning to GPS users. This guidebook is copyrighted 2001. In May 2000, the US military discontinued GPS "selective availability", greatly improving the accuracy of civilian GPS signals from that date on. Unfortunately, it appears that the author recorded many of the GPS coordinates in this book prior to this date. Thus, the author's GPS coordinates are frequently inaccurate- I've found some errors of 200 meters or more. The author's coordinates are still helpful, but GPS users accustomed to (spoiled by?) high accuracy should be wary.

This is a hiker and ruins explorer. Very low on pictures and pictures in black and white. Look up the
pictures of the ruins on the web before you go. This book gives GPS Cor. and distances to ruins.
Excellent resource.

This seemed to be a decent guide...and then after using it, it was found to be lacking. The routes are sometimes awkward, and missed better routes that are easier to trek, and thus safer. Some of the trails are either poorly noted, or have changed since publicaton in 2001.

This is a guide that can be greatly improved upon.

There are locals in the area who can give far more accurate directions, and better yet, guide you to the places safely, if you are not experienced at hiking this terrain. This optionis highly recommneded to photographers or those hiking with children/teens and weekend warriors/older folks.

Kelsey's Canyon Guide is thought of more highly by those with both books.

I was dismayed to find, in the Introduction, urging from the author for readers to contact their congressional representative to designate excessive amounts of Utah acreage as wilderness areas, thus rendering them useless to much of the population that lives in these areas, of which I am one, and many who visit. While I believe that these areas should be kept from vandalism and destruction, I also believe educating the populace on the proper treatment of the land is a better alternative to closing off access to many who do not have the physical ability to hike long distances to see the beauties of nature.

Not wishing to support those who want to keep my family and I from enjoying and responsibly utilizing the land around us, I considered returning this book. But in spite of the author's extremist environmentalism views, the book offers good descriptions, maps, and photographs of some beautiful sites that I am anxious to explore with my young family. So, I will keep the book and try to ignore the preaching.