Customer Reviews

Hiking the Wasatch

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
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This is by far the most detailed hiking guide to the Wasatch I have come across. It covers a good range of difficulties, from easy hikes to mountaineering scrambles. Has much more detail than books that cover the entire state of Utah. I recently moved to SLC and have been using this book consistently. I find that hike descriptions given in the book match reality in almost all cases for me which is not the case with some other similar books (especially hiking times).

John Veranth's book, Hiking The Wasatch, is the greatest work ever written for people who hike in the Salt Lake County Area of the Wasatch. It covers everything from easy family hikes to challenging ridge and mountaineering scrambles for the most experienced hiker. It includes great route descriptions, moderate hike times, trailhead locations, geological information, and historical references. There are other books that cover Wasatch Front Hiking, but only Veranth's book is a complete guide. I enjoyed this book, because it helped me accomplish my goal of climbing all of Salt Lake County's 32 10,000-foot peaks. If you enjoy peak-bagging, check out "Climbing Salt Lake County's 32 10,000-foot Peaks" by James Barlow, and Keith Stevens. His book is better than "Climbing...Peaks", because it also includes trails that are not routes up these peaks. It also has sections for the Foothills, Milcreek Canyon (North Side), and North & East Areas, where the peak-bagging book doesn't mention, due to lack of peaks. All the peaks are accessed from Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, American Fork, or Milcreek (South Side). It also goes into much greater detail than Michael R Kelsey's "Utah Mountaineering Guide", and David Hall's "Hiking Utah", because it focuses just on the Salt Lake County section of the Wasatch, not the entire Range, or State of Utah. In the end, it is the Bible of general hiking in the Wasatch Range.

Hiking times are real, not just best guesses. When planning those half-day hikes, timing is everything! Lots of info on plants, animals, sites, best routes, alt routes, common sense advice, etc. Good book, buy it.

I bought this book because people rave about it like it's the be all and end all in hiking guides for Salt Lake's canyons. I do think it has a lot of very helpful and detailed information but I find it terribly difficult to use. There is no standard format for trail descriptions. Some of them indicate level of difficulty but most do not. Some of them include directions to the trail head but others do not. What the heck! How is that helpful??? Thanks for all the detailed information on the hikes but I don't really care a whole lot about it when I can't even get to the dang trailhead! I have found myself using the book to find a hike and then using the internet to figure out how to get to it. I'm returning this book.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who hikes the Wasatch mountains around the Salt Lake area. Whether a person prefers easy hikes or difficult/advanced hikes, this book has it all. I could easily turn this into a 2 page review highlighting the good content in this book, just buy it!

Ryan.

Found places I have never heard of to hike. Great information and for those who like to hike, its a great reference point.