The ecosystems within Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado-from natural meadows to alpine plant communities-support a wide variety of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals, and plants. This new addition to the Visitor's Companion series describes and illustrates in full color dozens of these plants and animal species. It also explores the park's geological history, land-use issues, native people, and past explorers-at once a traveler's guide, field guide, and natural history of one of America's most extraordinary national parks.
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The most complete guide to Rocky Mountain National Park includes stunning photographs and drawings of the park's wildlife. At once a natural history and a handy field guide.
About the Author
George Wuerthner has written more than 20 books, including other National Parks Visitor's Companions. He lives in Eugene, Oregon.
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George Wuerthner is a professional photographer, writer and ecologist. He has written more than two dozen books on natural history and other environmental topics. He is currently the ecological projects director for the Foundation for Deep Ecology. Wuerthner has visited hundreds of mountain ranges around the West, more than 380 wilderness areas, more than 180 national park units, and every national forest west of the Mississippi.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A visitor center in your pocket,
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This review is from: Rocky Mountain: A Visitor's Companion (National Park Visitor's Companions) (Paperback)
Most of this book consists of the kind of things that you see in a national park visitor center, such as brief texts on geology, habitats, history, and climate. In a book format, Wuerthner can go into a little more detail, and he does. Even so, most of the book doesn't dig very deep in providing this kind of information. Having read quite a bit about the park and visited on several occasions, I didn't really learn much. If you're planning your first visit, however, this would be a good source. These chapters are easy reads, and the book includes a lot of good pictures. It would have been nice to have more maps - - there is only one, a road map on the back cover. Geology, alpine plant communities, history, wildlife and elevation might each have been the subject of one or more specialized maps. The book suggests a nice sampling of hikes in its final pages. I've done many of them, and it's a good choice but again, maps would be nice. If you want to hike, see some of the other books on my Listmania page. What makes the book for me are the fauna and flora identifications, which take up more than half the book (about 125 pages). There are some pictures and a lot of side drawings of the animals of the park, with two or three species per page. Plant identifications show each species in flower, while tree and shrub pages show the overall shape of the plant, close-ups of leaves, and berries, needles or other up-close identifiers. These are very useful and have earned the book a place in my day pack.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Rocky Mountain National Park has one of the most invigorating and equable climates found in the United States. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
common summer resident, greenback cutthroat trout, two white wing bars, gray hack, montane zone, brown hack, brown upperparts, eyebrow stripe, common migrant, white underparts, yellow underparts, ponderosa pine forests, white eye ring, subalpine zone, riparian areas, aspen groves, whitish belly, limber pine, subalpine forests, mountain chickadee, cavity nester Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Front Range, Colorado River, Park Service, Continental Divide, Longs Peak, Grand Lake, Big Thompson, Never Summer Range, Trail Ridge Road, North America, United States, Moraine Park, Wild Basin, Fern Lake, Bear Lake Trailhead, North Fork of the Colorado, State Route, Horseshoe Park, Lawn Lake, Forest Service, Mummy Range, New Mexico, Thunder Lake New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Rocky Mountain National Park has one of the most invigorating and equable climates found in the United States. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
common summer resident, greenback cutthroat trout, two white wing bars, gray hack, montane zone, brown hack, brown upperparts, eyebrow stripe, common migrant, white underparts, yellow underparts, ponderosa pine forests, white eye ring, subalpine zone, riparian areas, aspen groves, whitish belly, limber pine, subalpine forests, mountain chickadee, cavity nester Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Front Range, Colorado River, Park Service, Continental Divide, Longs Peak, Grand Lake, Big Thompson, Never Summer Range, Trail Ridge Road, North America, United States, Moraine Park, Wild Basin, Fern Lake, Bear Lake Trailhead, North Fork of the Colorado, State Route, Horseshoe Park, Lawn Lake, Forest Service, Mummy Range, New Mexico, Thunder Lake New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 14
books:
See all 14 books this book cites
- The Rocky Mountain Wonderland by Enos A. Mills on page 59, and page 60
- The Snow Goose (NMSR) in Back Matter
- The Natural History of the Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains (1819-1820) by Howard Ensign Evans on page 49
- Wind River by Charles G. West on page 22
- New Mexico (Portrait of America) by Kathleen Thompson in Front Matter
See all 14 books this book cites
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