Utah's National Parks: Hiking and Vacationing in Utah's Canyon Country [Paperback]

Ron Adkison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1991

Discover soaring sandstone cliffs, ancient rock-art, sun-baked desert, and open woodlands of pinyon and juniper. Up-to-date trail and campground information are featured in this second edition and 124 different hikes are detailed. Includes descriptions of desert geology, plants and animals, and a topographic map for each hike.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you are planning a tour of Utah's national parks, this guide should prove handy if not essential. It includes easy strolls and multiday backbreakers for Bryce, Capital Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, and Zion. In all, it describes 123 hikes in a user-friendly format. Easy-to-read info blips provide data for hike distances, elevations, difficulty ratings, hazards, and in-seasons. Each hike also includes an ample route description and a few tips thrown in for good measure.

Product Details

• Paperback: 354 pages
• Publisher: Wilderness Pr; 1st edition (December 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899971261
• ISBN-13: 978-0899971261
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,481,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ron Adkison, an avid hiker and backpacker, began his outdoor explorations at age six. Since then he has logged more than 12,000 trail miles in ten western states. He has walked every trail in this guide multiple times, to provide precise, firsthand information about the trails, as well as features of ecological and historical interest. When he's not on the trail, Ron and his wife, Nancy, live in the Rocky Mountains of southwest Montana.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hikes for evey level of experience, May 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Utah's National Parks: Hiking Camping and Vacationing in Utahs Canyon Country (Paperback)

We have just returned from hiking & camping in Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches And Canyonlands (Island in the Sky area), and found this book to be one of the best of any guide book we have used (over 30 years of hiking). The hike descriptions were so interesting I read them again after doing the hike! The description of how one gets to the trailhead in in a separate section titled "driving to the trailheads", which may cause problems for individuals who don't read scan through the chapters first before deciding on a hike. We found the descriptions of the trees and plantlife on each trail very useful and I would not hesitate to buy another of Ron Atkinson's guide books, they are obviously very well researched.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wow- Beg, steal or borrow another guidebook, May 21, 2001

By 

"ryang74" (Glen Ellyn, IL US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Utah's National Parks: Hiking Camping and Vacationing in Utahs Canyon Country (Paperback)

Just back from a 9 day backpacking trip in Utah, using both this book and Adkison's book on Escalante. It left me with poor trail descriptions, (scarily) poor or wholly incorrect maps, and an "interesting" (read: madman-style insane) style of giving directions to trailheads. I am by no means new to the outdoors, nor to getting to remote trailheads, routefinding, etc; I can say with a degree of confidence that this is the poorest guidebook I have ever purchased. The second star is given for his "reccomended" hikes, which were, on the whole, generally right on.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but trying to cover too many areas, January 29, 2007

By 

S. Payne "mtnbikechick" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Utah's National Parks: Hiking Camping and Vacationing in Utahs Canyon Country (Paperback)

This was a decent guide book, but it really tried to cover too many parks at once. It seems like it covers more family type day hikes and not a lot of backcountry and backpacking trails. We used it to plan hikes in Zion National park and Canyonlands - Needles District. The book recommended a hike in Canyonlands National park that did turn out to be awesome (Chesler Park/Elephant Canyon to Druid Arch).

We also used it to plan a hike to the Subway in Zion. In this case, I wish it had given more detail, as we ended up a little over our heads on this hike. The water was a LOT higher than we expected based on the pics we had seen and information we had. Apparently, the water levels tend to be higher in April due to snow runoff. If the book had given more information, we probably would have never attempted the hike at that time of year to begin with. Oh well, I guess you live and learn, right?

In conclusion, I would recommend this to anyone who is planning to visit one or more of the parks for a short period and wants to hit the hightlights. If you want a more in depth hiking trip to one of the parks, I would recommend getting a more detailed guide book specific to that park.