Trail Guide to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument [Paperback]

David Urmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2001

Devil's Garden, Death Hollow, Wolverine Creek--such names suggest the wildness of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Designed for both the drive-through traveler and those already somewhat familiar with the monument, this definitive guide leads adventurers through beautiful but challenging landscapes, and details hikes, campgrounds, and Indian ruins.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Contents How to Use This Guide Chapter One: Background Information Chapter Two: Canyons of the Escalante Chapter Three: The Kaiparowits Plateau Chapter Four: The Grand Staircase/Paria River Country

From the Back Cover

The definitive companion for the adventure-seeking traveler. Escalante Canyons - Kaiparowits Plateau - Grand Staircase Revealing its history, climate, and geology, this guide defines the monument's place as a breathtakingly unique part of Utah. -Remote, scenic hiking trails -Hidden waterfalls -Multicolored cliffs -Ancient Indian ruins -Rustic campgrounds -Majestic canyons

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith, Publisher; 1st edition (March 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879058854
• ISBN-13: 978-0879058852
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,514,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Less Helpful than the Other Guidebooks, January 19, 2005

By 

Matt Ebiner (Covina, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trail Guide to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Paperback)

As a lover of the region, frequent visitor, and avid hiker and photographer, I own several of the guidebooks for the Grand Staircase. After reading the favorable review of this Trail Guide, I ordered the book from Amazon, without ever actually perusing it in advance. The good things about the book are its compact size and introductory chapter for background information. The written directions to the trailheads are also good, but there are major shortcomings in the book, all of which are frustrating when you are actually out in the field trying to find something the book claims to be guiding you toward. There is no index at all in the back of the book, there are not even the simplest trail maps at all, and the descriptions are severely lacking for some of the trails. For example, the information about the hike to the One Hundred-Hand Panel of pictographs on page 47 simply says, "it is possible to hike up to the pictographs...but be sure not to cross the fence near the trailhead...Once the pictograph panel is found..." Those directions are woefully inadequate in directing somebody to find the panels. At other trails, the descriptions are sketchy and very brief in comparison to what other guidebooks have about the same trail. I would recommend Ron Adkison's "Best Easy Day Hikes" and Steve Allen's "Canyoneering" instead of this one.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor Quality Book, April 5, 2007

By 

Thomas S. Budlong "Tom Budlong" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Trail Guide to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Paperback)

The bad news:
-- The few maps are woefully inadequate.
-- In this computer age, there is NO EXCUSE to omit an index.
-- Uninspired and thin writeups.
-- No trail summary, listing in one place a table of all the hikes with length, difficulty, elevation change, ... for each.

The good news:
-- This hiking book won't increase hiker density, meaning increased chance of solitude.
-- It is indeed small and portable.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding guide to a the whole region, May 18, 2007

By 

Patrick E. Palmer (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trail Guide to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Paperback)

This is an outstanding guide to the huge region encompassed by the GSENM. On a number of earlier trips I had spent a total of at least three weeks backpacking along the Escalante River and its sidecanyons, but had never visited the Grand Staircase or the Kaiparowits Plateau. I just returned from two weeks backpacking and car camping in the latter two regions.

Urmann's book provided an excellent overview of the region. It was sufficiently detailed so that one could make effective use of it to locate various features, but not so detailed that one could not read through it easily to get an overview. (Of course, for backpacking one should alway use topo maps. No guidebook can be that detailed.)

I first read the about the regions with which I am familiar to "calibrate" the book. I found it remarkably accurate. Throughout I found very few errors (one a misspelling, one a mileage along a road). I recommend it highly as the best book from which to learn what is available to see and do in this enormous region.