Visitor's Companion to Olympic (National Park Visitor's Companions) [Paperback]

George Wuerthner (Author), Douglas W. Moore (Author)

Book Description

Series: National Park Visitor's Companions | Publication Date: July 1, 1999

56 color photos
* 202 color drawings
* 6 x 9
* Guide to one of the nation's most popular national parks
* Illustrated in full color

Praise for Wuerthner's Grand Canyon:

"The best, most useful and most attractive [book] I have seen on the canyon."--Stephen Allen, publisher of The Guide

The ecosystems within Olympic National Park are diverse--from coastline to forest--and support a variety of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, mammals, and plants. Olympic describes and illustrates in full color each of these plant and animal species and 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 popular and extraordinary national parks.

George Wuerthner has written more than 20 books including Grand Canyon: A Visitor's Companion. He lives in Livingston, Montana. Natural science illustrator Douglas W. Moore lives in Tucson, AZ.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books; 1st edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811728692
• ISBN-13: 978-0811728690
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,271,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good introduction to the Olympic Peninsula, January 11, 2009

By 

Michael Diehl "Crossings author" (WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Visitor's Companion to Olympic (National Park Visitor's Companions) (Paperback)

The primary focus of this excellent "visitor's guide" is not on specific places to tour (although its contents do suggest many destinations simply by portraying them), but instead on understanding the natural and human history of the area. After living on and exploring the Olympic Peninsula for several years, I found that I was frequently recommending Weurthner's "Olympic" to visitors and newcomers as an invaluable introductory examination of the region's mountains, rain forests, shorelines and history.

Starting with geology, the author explains the attributes that shaped the area's land forms and natural ecosystems and then examines the long history of the competition between those seeking to preserve the heart of the peninsula and those viewing its rich timber resources as a proper target for human exploitation, a clash of interests that has not ended. Throughout, the writing is efficient, clear, and free of jargon.

Although the book devotes its final pages to an abbreviated pictorial field guide for some regional flora and fauna (sufficient, perhaps, for a casual visiting naturalist), the meat of this book is its broader look at the region as a whole - its origins, geology, climate, unique ecological features, and the influences of industrial-age mankind. The book is well organized and written, with excellent illustrative photos, and it welcomes an interested reader. It is, as its title forthrightly states, a "visitor's guide" - those who seek a more comprehensive study of the area's natural history likely will follow this book with Arthur Kruckeberg's encyclopedic (and much weightier) "The Natural History of Puget Sound Country".