Customer Reviews

Hiking Yellowstone National Park, 2nd (Regional Hiking Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I first came to Yellowstone to work in the summer of 1998, I was a little overwhelmed by the number of trails in the park. I had never been hiking before, either. Thanks to this book, I had a wonderful summer of hiking, and I now have a new hobby. The book has hikes for nearly every mile of trail in the park. The hikes are listed by trip, not by trail, so you have several options on each stretch of trail. For each hike, there is a handy elevation profile, list of key points and mileages, suggested itinerary, hike options, and a detailed description of the hike itself. There are also many nice photographs. I highly recommend this book for beginners or old backpacking pros. It has hikes for everyone.

We used this book for a two week stay in Yellowstone. The ratings for hills and difficulty of the hikes are accurate and helpful when selecting hikes. The trail descriptions also help when picking a hike depending on effort, scenery, wildlife, amount of other hikers, etc. We saw parts of Yellowstone only a tiny percentage of visitors get to see, thanks in part to this book. Be sure and check at the ranger stations for bear and other wildlife activity prior to beginning a hike.

I generally like Schneider's guides, and appear to be in the minority here, but I did not love this one. It is a surprisingly thick book with lots of trails; unfortunately most of them are either short tourist strolls or long, multi-day back country excursions. We had difficulty finding hikes that called out to us in the 12-16 mile range (usually not a problem for us - most guides leave us wishing we had 2 weeks to do all the long day hikes we are interested in) and ended up going with ranger recommendations when we got there. If you have 5-10 days for a backcountry trek, this is definitely the book for you. But if you are looking for long day hikes you may want to look elsewhere.

I found this guide indespensible in planning (and executing) my family's trip to Yellowstone. As has been noted, there is a quirky regional grouping problem with this guide (it groups the trails geographically rather than by how they are accessed). Yet this book is far better than any of the others I investigated (Orville Bach's is a distant second still worth investing in).

The Lonely Planet guide to the Yellowstone region really goes hand in hand with this one. The Lonely Planet gives a good overview with some regional coloring. This guide really lets you know what you're up against trail-wise.

One thing that humored me greatly in our jorney across country were the varying uses of "easy, moderate, and strenuous" in the different parks between my house and Yellowstone. A free tip: An "easy" trail in Yellowstone is substantially more difficult than any "strenuous" trail at Mount Rushmore.

Yellowstone is a place of haunting beauty. It was probably inadvisable for me to go at such a young age (I am in my twenties)--I will spend years longing to go back.

Get this guide. Go to Yellowstone. Explore the trails, not just the boardwalks.

You'll never regret it.

There is no place on Earth that I give a higher recommendation (with the possible exception of the Tetons).

In preparation for a family vacation in Yellowstone I sampled 4 different hiking books, and this was by far the best. It had the best descriptions, maps, photos, and readability. I liked the way the author categorizes hikes by special interest: fishing, wildlife viewing, etc. It also provides good information on backcountry campsites if you're looking to backpack. There is no index, which is annoying, but otherwise it's a key buy.

This book is an excellent guide to the many trails in Yellowstone National Park. I was impressed with the number of trails covered and the detail with which they were described. The guide also includes helpful ratings of the trails' difficulty and estimated time for completion, which I found to be very dependable. I highly recommend this book for anyone new to hiking in this area.

This guide lists 109 trails, organized by region and sorted into short, medium, and long hikes. Like other Falcon guides, it provides maps of each trail and valuable information about elevations and steepness. The information is clearly organized, and summarized at the head of each trail listing.

Like other Falcon guides it has a chart listing best flat terrain day hike, best wildlife viewing, most strenuous, best scenery, and so on. The information here is good for those hikes I've taken. Bill Schneider writes well and does a good job describing the hikes so that you can decide which ones are best for you. If you consult just one book on the trails of Yellowstone, this is the one to use.

I'm not fond of the regional organization of the book, which sorts hikes into Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast. Reasonable as that sounds, it's not really how the park is organized spatially. The Belcher area, for example, is a region unto itself that has to be accessed from outside the park in Idaho. Yet this book lumps it together with the trails around Old Faithful. The Southeast trails include those on the South Entrance road, which is really much closer to Old Faithful, as well as trails around Lake and Fishing Bridge, which are closer to Canyon. This means that if you're staying at Old Faithful or Canyon and looking for day hikes nearby, you have to flip back and forth between two (or even three) sections. (See the Lonely Planet Guide for a more successful organizational scheme.)

I have not had much time to read it, but so far it looks to contain valuable and specific information about many different hikes, both day hikes and overnights, in Yellowstone. Information includes difficulty ratings, mileage, trail descriptions, and good descriptions on how to reach each trail. The book appears to be well organized as well.

I used this book extensively on a recent trip to Yellowstone. I found the book was an excellent resource in planning hiking trips in the park. It rates most of the backcountry campsites as well as the difficulty of climbs. It proved to be a valuable resource and I would highly recommend it to anyone planning hiking trips in Yellowstone.

I found this item useful in reviewing the trails and planning which trails to take prior to arriving at Yellowstone. The only things that I feel could be improved were: more detailed maps of the trails, a more detailed description of the vertical aspects of some of the trails, and how difficult parking for certain trails would be during the prime hours of 10:00 to 5:00,