Customer Reviews

Non-Technical Canyon Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Before Kelsey, all the guide books declared many canyons impassable. In this book, Kelsey has provided the information to hike canyons safely that were unvisited before his book. I've used this book since the First Edition in 1986. It's a classic and still tops. One warning. Kelsey is a stronger hiker than most of us. Add about 50% to his hiking time estimates if you're not under 35 and in good shape.

This is the bible of Canyoneering in SE Utah. The simple maps, concise descriptions and knowledgeable tips will get you into as much trouble as you want . . . and that's why we do this, right? The park service has baned Kelsey's books from their bookstores because he "reveals too much," and they claim people "get into trouble" following his guides -- bugger to them! People can be unprepared idiots. If you read the damn book you'll realise that only trained people should be stemming up slot canyons, swimming hypothermic plunge pools and gingerly investigating delicate Anaszi ruins -- not your average hee-haws looking for a good place to swill a 12-Pack of beer. The beer swillers don't want this book, go to Lake Powell instead.

My son and I have personally hiked many of Michael Kelsey's routes as described in this book. Yes, you need to know something about hiking and route finding, Michael does not baby you along the way or remove responsibility from the hiker. But he does not overdramatize the hikes to avoid liability, and he also does not preach to his readers. What he does do extremely well is concisely give you an idea of how to get to some of the most remote, pristine, and special places in the entire world, places innaccessible merely because most people were unaware of their existence. Michael has opened the door to these places. For this I will be forever grateful.

I bought this book based on the recommendations of a fellow hiker due to the fact that it covers a large number of area trails. I will give the author kudos on packing in information on many trails, however, in doing so, he often combines 2 or 3 area trails into 1 description. He goes back and forth between descriptions telling you how to get to each hike, then goes into trail info on each hike, etc. It is very confusing. Also, there is not enough information about each hike. Many times he mentions Anasazi ruins, pictographs and petroglyphs that he describes as hard to find but then does not go into detail on how to locate them. He seems to have a real problem with the various park authorities here also and often stops to pontificate on their 'outrageous' policies such as limiting access to some of the more delicate areas. He also uses maps he's drawn instead of topo maps. They have little detail with few landmarks to orient to. There is also the issue that he describes trails as 'easy' then describes having to chimney down a slick, narrow passage to get into a canyon or says you may need 2-3 people to help each other up or down an obstacle, or recommends taking a rope along to repel down a dryfall. Not my idea of easy or nontechnical. If you buy this book, definitely read the full description and make your own decision on the difficulty of the hike. Also purchase the topo maps of the area. Hiking in canyons in this area is dangerous enough, you shouldn't go with just a small amount of information.

For all of those people giving this book one and two stars either you need to come more prepared or the desert is no place for you. I have been on many hikes in this book and his other books and the only time I had a problem is when I forgot a map or tried to find a trailhead in the dark. Yes he gives you enough rope to hang yourself but there is nowhere else you will find this much info on these remote incredible places. If you can't negotiate these canyons maybe you should go on a ranger guided tour at your local national park.

I have used this book to hike and camp in the Colorado Plateau over the last ten years.

Excellent maps and directions, including accurate mile marker information for road turn-offs. Most of the hikes have geological cross-sections, and give interesting facts, from geology to archeology.

This book has the most thorough coverage of the canyon country available. It's allowed us to find several sites that we couldn't find in any other guidebook. That's the good news. The bad news is that what Kelsey considers non-technical often requires a harness and rope. He's obviously a climber, and on several occasions we've had to backtrack because we came to an impassable pour-off or cliff. So just be advised that hikers will often find the non-technical to be more technical than they'd expect from the descriptions.

I really like this book, but I take it with a big chunk of salt. It has information about hikes all over the Colorado Plateau, from Zion to the Res to Grand Junction, and this is its big win - variety. A few classic canyons in each area.

But the information is not always accurate. Bring the map, a pack full of common sense and read with skepticism, and you'll be just fine. Be a beginner, take this as the bible and you're heading for trouble.

Okay, the title is a little sarcastic - Lord, I apologize for that... I'm sure there is some great information in this book - I haven't had the chance yet to put it to the test - but there are some things that really annoy me that will probably hinder getting the most out of it.

Early in the book Kelsey talks about hiking times, which seems to be a common complaint in the reviews. He says he has, "...a business type motive in mind..." and that, "...normally he hikes faster than the average person." The question then becomes; if hikers "may want up to twice the time as he took", why not put those times in the book rather than his commercially motivated hiking times, thereby avoiding some potetially dangerous confusion?

My second grump is spelled out in the subtitle "Metrics Spoken Here". Well, come on Mike! Who's your audience, anyway? Is it the mass world market or those of us in the U.S. who are going to flood the canyons 1000 to one over the foreigners? Kelseys claim that this way when the U.S. catches up with the rest of the world he won't have to change his books is, at the very least, beyond lame.

I don't like the way this book is laid out. It's cluttered, it's hard to read, and you shouldn't have to work at reading a guide book as if you were reading The Scarlet Letter.

Last, but certainly not least, is his arcane insistence on using the spelling, "fotography". Being a photographer - and by the way, I'm pretty sure I'm spelling that correctly - I find it annoying, distracting, and some other things that I won't mention. Maybe this is his personal crusade to bring the U.S. up to speed with the Newly Revised Slavic Dictionary. But all in all, I like the photos.

Sure Kelsey has an ego thing about himself being in all his photos, and the hiking times are off by 50% (Add that 50%, however, no one else has come close to offering a guide to such remote places. I've used it to find indian ruins, weird in-the- middle-of-nowhere canyons, etc. Most of his info is quite accurate. People who can't find something through his descriptions probably would become lost looking for anything. Most places he mentions you'll never find another soul at...that's the best part.