Customer Reviews

Yosemite: The Valley and Surrounding Uplands ((5th) High Sierra Hiking Guide)

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I haven't read this book but this is for the person who rated this book earlier. There is a great backpacking guide "Yosemite Natl Park, A Natural Guide to Yosemite and Its Trails" by the same author. Unfortunately it is out of print. When it is reprinted (and it will be) this is the best book about the park that I have found. It has any trail mentioned that you would want to know about. Check it out if you get a chance.

This book is a real disappointment. My impression is that the author is speaking to someone who already knows the trails and the area well. It may be better than nothing, but it could have been much more.

In fact, I have been unable to find a Yosemite backpacking guide that wasn't a disappointment. There must be one somewhere. I am spoiled on excellent guides such as Hiking New Mexico (I don't recall the author), and particularly the Arkansas guides by Tim Ernst. All backpacking guides should be as thorough and thoughtful.

HAS ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED TO PUT TOGETHER A GREAT HIKING TRIP. READING THE OTHER REVIEWS, I THINK SOME PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE NEXT RESTING BENCH IS..

THIS is the one you slip in the daypack or backpack for the walk you've been evangelized to take after reading his Yosemite National Park guide (there's a new edition), the classics Sierra North and Sierra South or one of the others. Sure some people even carry The Complete Walker (! ) but for those less robust the Hiking Guide series offers compact, area specific guides that are perfect for on-the-trail reference. As for prose I've never encountered any backbacking guide that surpassed the wonderful descriptions Wilderness Press has established as it's standard. I only wish there were guides of that caliber for here on the East coast to replace the souless mileage lists that pass for "trail guides" here. My first edition Sierra South has fallen quite apart I've read through it so many times just to enjoy the words: I've been there and those books bring the Sierra to life as you read.