Grand Canyon Treks: 12,000 Miles Through the Grand Canyon (Paperback)

by Scott Baxter (Author), Joseph G. Hall (Author), Jorgen Visbak (Photographer), Wynne Benti (Photographer), Spotted Dog Press (Photographer, Illustrator)
Key Phrases: granite gorge, fault ravine, mescal pit, Grand Canyon, Buck Farm Canyon, Tonto Trail (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Harvey Butchart is the undisputed king of extreme and obsessive Grand Canyon hiking." -- Backpacker Magazine

"Harvey is the father of Grand Canyon hiking." -- John Annerino

"I set about tracking down the experts on the Grand Canyon...They totaled one...Harvey Butchart." -- Colin Fletcher, author

Butchart has travelled the abandoned routes . . . even the ones the very burros have given up.Ó -- Walt Wheelock, La Siesta Press

Harvey Butchart is the undisputed king of extreme and obsessive Grand Canyon hiking. -- Backpacker Magazine, June 2000

I had underestimated him. No individual had ever travelled so much of the Grand Canyon. -- Franois Leydet

I set about tracking down the experts . . . I discovered that they totaled one . . . Harvey Butchart -- Colin Fletcher,

Product Description
When Harvey Butchart arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona from Iowa just after the end of World War II, he had only seen pictures of the Grand Canyon in books. Soon, he made his first trip there and was hooked. For 40 years, the mathematics professor from NAU, later called the Òundisputed king of extreme and obsessive Grand Canyon hikingÓ by Backpacker Magazine, hiked more than 12,000 miles into remote and previously uncharted Canyon territory recording his routes on detailed maps and in journal entries.

From LeeÕs Ferry to Lake Mead, Harvey Butchart was credited with finding more than 116 new approaches to the Colorado River and with summiting 83 of the 138 named peaks in the Canyon, 35 of those being first ascents. In Grand Canyon Treks, Butchart shares his pioneering explorations with entirely new generations of Grand Canyon adventurers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Spotted Dog Press (CA); 1st edition (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964753022
• ISBN-13: 978-0964753020
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #604,386 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An essential guide, but beware of an error in this reprint, January 13, 2000

By A Customer

Harvey Butchart is of course the God of Grand Canyon hiking and this guide is essential for any serious backcountry canyon hiker. While hiking down to the river in Cottonwood Canyon, I was sent on a scary, exposure-filled detour by this guide. On returning home, I compared it to my old editions of the book and found that this reprint mistakenly drops an entire crucial line of text in the Cottonwood Canyon section, so beware.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not What You're Expecting, March 29, 1999

By A Customer

I bought this book thinking it contained maps and detailed trail descriptions for obscure Canyon paths, only to find that it did not. (If you want that, get Annerino's Sierra Club book, which is the best available that I've seen, and I have the Falcon Guide too, which is likewise more helpful than this work, though this one touches upon some tremendously obscure areas Falcon doesn't.)

As a guide, this book is ok, but *definitely* insufficiently detailed. I found it fascinating and entertaining, but it should be called Harvey Butchart's Fairly General Descriptions of Grand Canyon Trails, Very Well Written, and With Stories About Many of These Trails.

It was very frustrating to get the book without the highly detailed Butchart maps, which are alluded to (they show in red pen the paths and approaches he took, and in many cases, pioneered) but NOT INCLUDED.

Butchart has led a hiking life for all of us to envy, as this book makes clear.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the Only Guide You'll Ever Need, January 1, 2000

By	Clark B. Hinckley (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews

Harvey Butchart is one of the greatest Grand Canyon hikers and his books are classics. But don't rely on them as your primary guide. They make great supplemental guides if you already have Annerino's Sierra Club guide.

Of course, Harvey includes routes you won't find in any other book, since he pioneered them. If you are a serious Canyon hiker, your library is incomplete without Harvey.