Customer Reviews

The Waterfalls of South Carolina

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Easily one of the most enjoyable and versatile field guides ever produced. Unlike the typical "cobbled together" field notes that seem to permeate the field guide market, The Waterfalls of South Carolina succinctly presents photography tips, directions, maps, stunning photographs, and even GPS coordinates in a neat 80 page softcopy, suitable for slipping neatly into a day pack, camera pack, or oversized pocket. In the past three years, I've given this book as a gift to friends, relatives, and co-workers. Two of these persons were so inspired by the book that they began hiking regularly. One of these persons actually lost close to 80 pounds during his travels. Thank you, Tim Cook and Benjamin Brooks for your wonderful gift to the people of South Carolina, and to others who will hopefully discover this masterpiece.

This book was immensely helpful in finding SC waterfalls, picking easy ones to see and filtering out those too difficult for a casual walk. It has gorgeous photos and great shooting tips. The summaries of the falls and surrounding nature were generally accurate and helpful.

The book has 2 weaknesses. First: Maps need to be better drawn; they omit or abort some roads. Maps are not always "North is Up", so we sometimes got confused comparing them to regular road maps. Second: it needs more detailed info on the difficulty of access. "Easy" ones were certainly easy, but one "moderate" just about killed me. There was really no calibration in the book to note what the the authors meant by the difficulty levels. They should also use a "fudge factor" to better estimate hike in/out times for casual hikers.

Overall it's a wonderful book that led me to waterfalls I never even knew existed. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in exploring the incredible beauty upstate SC offers.

The amazing thing about this beautiful book, to me, is the fact that these two guys (Brooks and Cook) wrote this book while they were still students at Clemson University. When I was a student, my weekends were never this productive. Heck, I couldn't even afford food. Any one who was able to produce such beautiful pictures on a student's budget merits my greatest admiration. Great directions, too. I really liked the inclusion of GPS coordinates for waypoints.

The amazing thing about this beautiful book, to me, is the fact that these two guys (Brooks and Cook) wrote this book while they were still students at Clemson University. When I was a student, my weekends were never this productive. Heck, I couldn't even afford food. Any one who was able to produce such beautiful pictures on a student's budget merits my greatest admiration. Great directions, too. I really liked the inclusion of GPS coordinates for waypoints.

As a photographer, I found the photography to be spectacular! Ihe commentary was equally well done. I highly recommend this guide.

I'm not sure what the previous reviewer is referring to because "The Waterfalls of South Carolina" is very clearly written. Perhaps all the pollution in Atlanta has clouded his judgement. The directions are easy to follow and very concise. The fromat of the book is also easy to use. There is a beautiful full color photograph on one page and the directions and description of the waterfall are on the facing page. I also particularly enjoyed the extra information about the plant and animal species that inhabit the area around each waterfall. While some other guides for the area include more falls, most of the extra "waterfalls" included don't quite qualify as such in my judgement. Brooks and Cook definitely offer the most authoritative guide to the waterfalls in South Carolina.

I love to hike to waterfalls and bought this book to broaden my geographic horizons. Although not comprehensive, this book has all of the major falls and many that I had never heard of and the photography is very beautiful. I've used the directions to visit four falls so far and found them to be easy to follow and accurate. I'd definitely recommend this book for hikers interested in visiting waterfalls in South Carolina.

This book was exactly what I was looking for. We are planning family trips to waterfalls in SC, preparing for a larger hike on the Appalachian Trail. The book has detailed information on locating the falls as well as items of interest on each trail. The photographs are beautiful.

Great book. Terrific pictures. Good directions. Limited corrections to some trails are needed since print date. Book was worth purchase price.

The third edition, published in December 2007, includes new waterfalls, updated directions (based on the excellent reader feedback we have received), GPS coordinates, new photos, and updated biographical information. Thanks to all of you who have read and enjoyed the book over the last 9 years (wow...and to think we were initially told that this book was a pipe dream). Thanks once again to Palmetto Conservation and to Duke Power for making the third edition possible. - tim cook