Customer Reviews

Yosemite National Park: A Complete Hikers Guide

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

 

 

I agree with Fritz's review: this is not a book for casual hikers, but fit day hikers and dedicated backpackers. I've enjoyed all of Schaffer's previous guidebooks and this is perhaps his best offering yet. The book is loaded with details and the separate map attached to the rear page is excellent. Schaffer gives detailed descriptions of each hike, directions to the trailhead and most importantly, trail conditions. Almost all of the trails in Yosemite are in excellent shape, but occasionally, one encounters rocky terrain, boulders or other obstacles.

The only criticism I have is that the hike descriptions are sometimes *too* detailed. The author likes to describe various "side routes" which clutter up the book. He often spends 5 pages on a 10 mile hike and the book occasionally bogs down with simply too much information, much of it superfluous. There's also brief sections on skiing, boating and other activities which do not belong in a hiking book. Finally, the original edition was written in 1972 and though it's thoroughly updated, some readers might balk at such an "old guide.

Still a detailed book for experienced hikers.

Most hiking guides to Yosemite cover the main trailheads that are easily reached by road within the park. They offer numerous day hiking opportunities and generally include a smattering of local and natural history. This book, however, is not a typical hiking guide. The 83 routes described here are long treks covering many miles of backcountry. The average hike in this book exceeds 15 miles in length, and 5 are loops or one way treks that cover more than 50 miles. Taking the recommended side routes will add even more distance (and often elevation gain) to your trek. So, while this book does mention some of the shorter walks in the park (the Tuolomne Grove trail, for example) it is primarily written with backpackers and extremely fit dayhikers in mind.

That said, however, almost everyone with an interest in natural history should get this book. Schaffer has done more original research into the geology of Yosemite than anyone else. His startling conclusion is that glaciers have had only minimal effect on the creation of the valley as we see it today. Instead "mass wasting" (more commonly called rockfall) along joints within the rock created most of the valley formations before the glaciers even arrived. Evidence for this claim is scattered throughout the park and almost every hike Schaffer describes treats readers to some of it. Indeed, many hikes are included precisely for their geological features. Schaffer does an excellent job explaining the significance of these to his readers. So even if you are not planning to hike the "Rancheria Mountain - Tiltill Valley Loop" (Trip 12) with its 24,080 feet of elevation gain and loss over 53 miles, you will still gain a greater appreciation for the history and development of this spectacular region. For this alone, the book is well worth the price.

I'm going to second the other reviewer who said that this book is pretty useless because it has no route maps. It's true, and as a result it's really hard to pick a few spots you'd like to visit and then find a route in the book best gets you to those spots. It's kind of a shame because the book is otherwise very detailed and descriptive. It's just very hard to use because there's no way to visualize where a given route goes without reading through all of its text.

I borrowed this book from my local library. I was looking for information on hiking Mt. Dana. I must say that there appear to be some typos as it took me a few tries to find the correct pages for this particular hike.

Because I was in Tuolumne Meadows, I browsed this section for other ideas on hikes for a return trip and to determine why certain parking spots were were packed with cars. The booked helped me identify which trails started from these popular parking spots and offered great detail about the challenges and scenery that hikers would encounter.

I'm looking forward to having my own copy of this book and I can see how it's a priceless source of information for any frequent hiker of Yosemite.

In my opinion, a hiking guide is not something you read linearly. You take it, choose a hike you want to do and then read the description to do it. And, importantly, you want to choose the hike fast, without reading the whole description. It is possible to do so with a few statistics (distance, elevation, rating, trailhead) and a map of the route. In my opinion, the latter is extremely important. In fact, you can gain an idea of the stats from the map, but not vice versa.

The guide does a very good job at giving the stats, both before each hike section and (very handy!) in a table listing all hikes. But there are no route maps. Instead, there is a companion map of poor resolution (1:125000) and quality. Understanding the route using the map and the text description is no easy task, especially if you are not familiar with the park.

I might be a great guide for those who are fairly familiar with the park and want to get more information on the routes they know about. But personally, I found this guide completely unusable, hence the harsh rating. Luckily I had another one with route maps (Falcon Guide).

On the plus side, it has a lot of useful information in the appendix and a good index (important if you want to see a particular place, but again you need to know about this place first). If only the author put the route maps and trailhead names (so that the reader is somewhat equipped to fight the permits reservation system) in front of each hike's description, this guidebook will be impossible to beat.

This is a great book for a person going for the first time to yosemite. It help you decide hikes in your skill level for the time period you are visiting yosemite. It has a good desription on how to find the trail head.

First written in 1978, Yosemite National Park: A Complete Hiker's Guide is the classic in-depth reference by outdoors enthusiast Jeffrey P. Schaffer, who has personally hiked and rehiked the 1,000+ miles of trail covered. Black-and-white photographs illustrate this reference to the region's geography, history, flora, and fauna, and of course, extensive discussions of the hiking trails with highlights of the best places for views, wildflowers, camping, swimming and other activities. A separate fold-out map rounds out this one-of-a-kind must-have for any traveler interested in personally experiencing the natural wonders of Yosemite National Park.

It has the detail I was looking for. I wanted the mileage and info on the hike. I didn't want a lot of photos.