Customer Reviews

Hiking the Southwest's Canyon Country

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

 

 

The Mountaineers Books may just be the best publisher of guidebooks for the Southwest currently being published. I realize this is a strong statement, but I have had occasion to use Southwest related guidebooks for years and have found theirs to be absolutely the most informative, accurate and user-friendly of the lot. This third edition of a classic is no exception. The 150-plus hikes, 35 new to this edition, are described in seven chapters ranging from Desert Reef and River Tours, Mesa and Pueblo Tours, to Painted Desert and Canyon Tours and will take the reader from the Colorado Plateau to the Grand Canyon, from Zion and Bryce Canyon National parks to the banks of the Rio Grande, and just about every nook and cranny in between. If it's in the Four Corners region and remotely worth visiting, the chances are it's mentioned in this book. The newly added material on the San Rafael Swell area, as well as the Canyons of the Ancients, indicates the up-to-date status of the material.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a suggested hike in the newly designated Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico. I visited the area this past summer and can vouch for the accuracy of the information.
Along with the hiking information there is background material on the region's geology, archeology, climate, flora and fauna there is an index, maps, color and black and white photos, a handy Contact information section for federal, state and local agencies and a suggested Further Readion section.
This is a comprehensive guidebook and trustworthy companion for hikers, backpackers, explorers and adventures of all skill levels seeking to experience the Four Corners region.

I got this book at my local REI, it was the best they had on the four corners area. That said, it falls short of the standards set by many other hiking or travel books:

1. I wish the maps were better. It made me think that most of the famous arches in Arches NP were in the Fiery Furnace area, while in fact they are not there -- just the map is rather crude.
2. I wish it had better overall area maps with clearly marked areas of interest etc. Something to help better plan your trip if you only have a long weekend at your disposal. The book is organized instead in multi-day linear itineraries which seemed at best arbitrary and useless to me.
3. Does not mention (beyond a couple of sentences) some obvious top spots like Antelope Canyon and other slot canyons in Arizona.
4. No ratings of hikes according to scenic-ness. Many other books do this and I appreciate it. Although the SW is usually great, some hikes and sights are way more impressive than others.
5. Black-and-white photos of the colorful Southwest (almost a crime!), and no photos of many of the landmarks...

In a nutshell, you should already know where you want to go (from reading on internet etc) and then pick up this book to glean some more detail. And then go again on the internet and search some more to determine if the specific sights are worth it.

UPDATE (July 2007):

After my second consecutive trip to the Southwest, I am impressed how comprehensive this book is. If something is worth *hiking* it will be in there, and sometimes the directions to the trailhead will be better than the "official" ones in the BLM / NPS leaflets. So my opinion of the book is somewhat higher, plus its idiosyncrasies grew on me.

That said, the weaknesses remain:

- organization is abysmal (although the index in the back helps a bit)
- maps are relatively bad
- not enough photos, B/W mostly, quality is rel. low

This is an unusual guidebook, in that the author lays out a series of suggested itineraries for the Colorado Plateau country, sized for a 2-3 week vacation. This would be an ideal guidebook for a first-time hiker-visitor to the US Southwest. But old hands won't feel left out, or condescended to -- Hinchman writes clearly and directly, and knows her stuff. She notes that her guidebook is directed towards the "non-jock" reader.

I've been to many of the places and specific hikes that she recommends, and I saw no errors, though I haven't yet used her guidebook in the field. The cartography, by Hannah Hinchman, is unusually good for a small-format guidebook. About the only flaw I noted was that about half of the color photos are poorly reproduced. The text index is sketchy, but the index maps are excellent. Previous Mountaineers guidebooks have been sturdily-bound and hold up well in the field. Highly recommended.

Happy hiking--
Peter D. Tillman
Desert Rat

This guide is excellent in many respects: the maps are well-drawn without drowning in detail, the multi-day itineraries are useful (but by no means necessary and can be broken into day trips), and the descriptions of the trails and the many photos let you know that you are on track. (Never underestimate the utility of a good photo to help you get your bearings.)

This is a hiker's guidebook--thick paper and glossy covers ensure it can handle occasional moisture and repeated stuffings into packs. The book's strengths are is comprehensiveness and its detail. The focus is on the southwest canyon country--a large area indeed, but nearly every worthy hike is discussed and each with enough detail to ensure no highlights are missed.

Finally, the author provides a good summary of the archaeological finds--including the amazing, ancient petroglyphs and pictographs--you will see along the way. If you are going to be hiking in the canyon country of the southwest, this is the book to have.

The best characteristic of this hiking book is that it is more focused on the day hiker than the backpacker, describing an abundance of shorter and easier hikes than the average hiking guide catering to the young and strong. Longer hikes are here; but there's plenty also for the duffer, i.e. yours truly.

Hinchman describes 160 hikes in the deserts and canyons of the Four Corners region of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah, including the Grand Canyon and several magnificient National Parks in Utah. Along the way she also points in the direction of other lesser known walks. For example, despite my familiarity with New Mexico, I never knew that Petroglyph National monument just outside Albuquerque had good short hikes. I'll visit there next trip.

Along with all the good, I have a complaint that the guide is somewhat difficult to use, divided as it is into six different, sometimes overlapping "tours." I had to search for a while to find hikes in Mesa Verde which were placed in Chapter IV rather than Chapter V which seemed a equally logical place to find them. Once you get the hang of the author's methods and madness, however, the guide is easily usable. An improvement would be a map showing the location of hikes described and a less complex numbering system.

Smallchief

If you hike and tour: good for size of area covered. Small page maps of scenic byways and trails in planometric. If you want representative area hikes with road/tour route/itinerary this will work for you. Add atleast Trails Illustrated and AAA Maps and you should have a nice trip.

This is an excellent book for planning trips in the Southwest. My wife and I used it for a three week tour based in Albuquerque and going on excursions that included Petroglyph, NM, Acoma Res., El Malpais, El Morro, Canyon de Chelly, and Chaco Culture NHP. We found the time estimates in the book to be far short of the time we spend touring an area and/or a destination. Unless you do "New York Minute" tours you will need to double many of the time allotments in the book. That said, the book is excellent for an overview of things to see and do in an area. It can serve as the one book to plan your trip and to take along with you.

This book covers a wide geographic area and combines some driving tours with day hikes and short to medium backpacks. The author says that she and her husband did almost all of the hikes described so this is first-hand information. She seems to have a great appreciation of the region even during the heat of summer, and I can tell you that summers there are often very hot.
I've driven many of the roads in this book in your basic rental cars and in my own sedans with no problems. But some of these roads are rough and can become impossible in snow and rain so be aware of that.
Some of the advice is outdated, at least in the edition of the book that I have. So if you decide to try some of these hikes, especially in the National Parks, be sure to follow the rules of that park.
I've used this book to provide basic outlines and ideas for hikes and backpacks. It's a good idea to have topo maps and local advice before proceeding into some of these areas. I don't live in the area so am unaware of the lost and found hiker statistics of the area. I do know that here in Oregon many hit the trail with limited skills, poor equipment and guidebook advice only to require a search and rescue a few days later.
But this is off the subject. I like this book and believe that it's useful.

This book outlines several extended trips through the desert southwest. Many of them are about a week or longer, and if you follow them you will surely see some wonderful sights. This is great if you are a fully outfitted backpacker, and own a 4wd vehicle. The pictures are a mixture of color and b and w, and they help to frame the descriptions well. There are some serious drawbacks, though. For each hike an evaluation of the difficulty of the hike is given. This is, as far as I can tell, a blind guess--it shouldn't be trusted. Moreover, the book describes doing things which are entirely illegal. In Arches National Park it describes doing all of this backcountry camping and this is strictly prohibited because people were destroying the desert by hiking off trails Moreover, the maps included are more confusing than useful. You'll have to buy the appropriate topo maps, and trying to compare them to the amateur-looking maps in the book is difficult. This book WILL give you at least an idea of where you should go and what you can expect when you get there. It DOES have some stupid ideas--like hiking up a bunch of washes, which I think is often boring, difficult, and dangerous (for obvious reasons). I did get some good ideas from it, though..so it's not all bad.

I bought several books to plan for my Utah trip and I like this one the best. I actually bought a copy of the 1990 1st edition of this book and not the most recent 3rd edition. This book may not have tons of color photos (in fact, they are all black and white) but it gives you the right details to plan your trip.

The table of contents shows six different loops you can visit; each will keep you busy for a week or two. That's perfect for most peoples vacation plans and what they can do.

By scanning the table of contents for something you've heard about and want to see, you can pick the general area you want to visit. There is a beautifully drawn map of the loop roads and a section on each day.

For each day on the loop, there are recommended day hikes, scenic drives, and a map of the local hiking area to get you oriented.

This book gives you a great geographic feel for the area you are planning to visit and the information about what opportunities you can explore. Highly recommended.