Book Description

John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, had not yet become a famed conservationist when he first trekked into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, not long after the Civil War. He was so captivated by what he saw that he decided to devote his life to the glorification and preservation of this magnificent wilderness. My First Summer in the Sierra, whose heart is the diary Muir kept while tending sheep in Yosemite country, enticed thousands of Americans to visit this magical place, and resounds with Muir’s regard for the “divine, enduring, unwasteable wealth” of the natural world. A classic of environmental literature, My First Summer in the Sierra continues to inspire readers to seek out such places for themselves and make them their own. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Well intentioned but...
The Sierras are much nicer when visited in person. Reading about the natural wonders found there isn't the same as actually checking them out for yourself. Perhaps if you were already familiar with the areas Mr. Muir traversed, and wish to brush up un them or revisit them literarily when unable to do so physically... THEN perhaps this book would be better.

Repetitive and boring, but a good message....
My First Summer in the Sierra
By: John Muir
Review by Austin Bauer

My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir is a book published by Penguin Nature Classics in 1987 but written in Muir's diary in the summer of 1869. It seems almost as if Muir wrote one page and repeated it 264 times. He wrote of nature's beauty and bounty when untouched. John Muir was a naturalist who lived from 1834-1914, beginning his life in Wisconsin and later moving to California to observe the beautiful sierra mountains. His intention in the writings were to inspire people, naturalists or not, to enjoy nature at its fullest and keep it that way. I think that this book was very repetitive, but the message was a positive and, to me, true one.
The context of this book revolved around the idea of nature's true beauty and how it can exist freely. Muir spoke of the ecology of the Sierra. Nearly every page of the book had a new species of plant or animal that he had observed. He then told of what its affect on him was, whether it was annoying or satisfying, beautiful or ugly, natural or processed. In short, his main context was the loveliness he observed and wanted to share in his writings.
John Muir stated "...Mr. Delaney, a sheep owner, for whom I had worked a few weeks, called on me, and offered to engage me to go with his shepherd and flock to the headwaters..." This was the beginning of his journey to the most beautiful place he could ever imagine, a place that he returned to for the rest of his life. Muir had a good companion, a St. Bernard named Carlo. The book went on to tell how him and a few others led 2050 sheep up the Sierra mountain range in California. They encountered many obstacles along the way. Some of these obstacles were bear attacks, to which Muir said, "Bears are slow and awkward with their eyes." They went on camping at different sites, spending sometimes several weeks at one site. Here, Muir made endless amounts of sketches and recordings of his observations. The group faced a bread famine, the result of a slow and lazy Mr. Delaney, but recovered and returned to their trek with the sheep to the high mountains. John's helpful substance was tea. To another, tea was nothing and he needed tobacco. Everybody had something to keep them with it, so to say. The book did gain some excitement when Muir was sitting atop a mountain and had a sudden feeling that his old professor from Wisconsin was visiting. A few days later, he realized this was true and met up with him, speaking of old times and getting slumber in the hotel. Whenever John would observe tourists going through the mountains, he would shake his head at their ignorance to the size and beauty of the area. He just saw them looking at the ground, not fully enjoying it. Towards the end, John was sad to leave the mountains and return to the lowlands, farther away from the mountains he adored so much. He said "Now, however, I must turn toward the lowlands, praying and hoping Heaven will shove me back again." He returned many times in his long life, and each visit was never a disappointment.
The work that I read had very much information on the specifics of plants and animals found in the Sierra. I learned a lot about the sizes of these organisms and their characteristics. For example, there was a section where Muir wrote of how the ants were ¾ inches long and that they "check you out" before they have the colony attack you. If you are still and seem harmless, they will not bite, but a sudden move may jolt them to bite. He said that the bite from this species of ant felt like a terrible electric sting that nobody should have to endure more than once or twice in a lifetime. So these parts of the book were good because I found this activity quite interesting, but some parts, such as the tree descriptions, got boring. I am not interested in the texture and color of the tree bark. I can get the whole picture much easier. My own experiences tell me what nature is like, so I have a good feel of what Muir is trying to show us. The honors biology class has helped me by letting me know some of the ideas behind genus species names and writings, so that is how the course helped me out. That is what I thought of the book and why I thought that way. The only question I really had was why Muir described things so detailed and run-on and descriptive. I may have an idea, but I am not sure.
I believe that John Muir described the organisms so in-depth because he wanted his audience to really be able to visualize it and the beauty it held in itself. This all fits in with the context of the environment's ecology being a precious thing that can not go to waste. So while it wasn't the most fun book to read, it still held an important message, as I have said before, that we must follow to keep the environment beautiful.

Akin to reading the National Geographic Wildlife guide
Muir tells a story of his journey into the Yosemite area in California as a shephard. While his journey encompasses other places, the story remains essentially the same since the entire book is filled with him talking about everything being so marvelous.

Despite John Muir being very well known now to many people I'm left uncertain as to why this man should be one out of so many other 'mountain men' to become famous.

His story is filled with rantings about finding different little animals such as squirrels, rabbits, and indians and then peppers each description of the animal with some bantering about whatever it is that he finds extraordinary about it, or whatever he thinks is extremely interesting, or by simply saying such and such is truly amazing.

I did however enjoy the peripherial aspects of the book, such as Muir's growing insanity from being isolated in the woods for several months. He starts his journey talking about how he's heard stories of shepards gone mad and how he doesn't really believe he'll go insane. But near the middle of the book, he's put a personality to the plants...by the end, he's having in depth conversations with plants. Ha! It's almost worth reading just for noting little things like that.

The book gets 3 stars, as opposed to 1 star, because Muir writes VERY eloquently and if you have an interest and a solid knowledge of plant and animal life and the terrian Muir is traveling, the book is relatively interesting.

Quintessential Muir
In the summer of 1869, John Muir was invited to help herd sheep in summer pasture near Yosemite, California. This book is Muir's diary of his first summer in the Sierra Nevada. In the spirit of an ascetic mystic, Muir recorded his feelings of wonder as he discovered the awesome beauty of the Sierra Nevada. I held my breath and chuckled as Muir described his encounters with the denizens of the woods. "Having heard that a black bear will run from his bad brother man and deciding I would like to see his gait in running, I rushed and shouted at a large cinnamon colored fellow. To my dismay, he did not run. On the contrary, he stood his ground, ready to fight. Then, I suddenly began to fear upon me would fall the work of running." For the reader or nature lover who would like to become more familiar with the father of the conservation movement, this is the book to read.

The one book to buy on John Muir
This is one of John Muir's best books (the other being _First Summer in the Sierra_). It's Muir's slightly-edited diary of his 1000-mile trip through the Southern U.S. to Florida, then Cuba. He traveled on foot observing nature and the people. The book holds your interest as it's written on the spot through the enthusistic eyes of a young man. It reminds me a little of Mark Twain's book _Roughin' It_, another story through the eye's of a young man latter to become famous (about working on antebellum riverboats). ... Read more

Book Description

Reminiscences of a year spent exploring Northern New England. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Editorial review says it all
I felt it was necessary to counter the previous reviewer's negative rating. This is a truly excellent book. The positive statements in the "editorial review" are far more indicative of this book's quality. As one who has read Bill Bryson, all I can say is it's like comparing the proverbial apples and oranges. Bryson is fluff and cute little anecdotes. Sargent is meat and solid information on natural history and geology --which is the whole point. If that's what you want, this book is indeed 5 stars!

Read Bill Bryson instead
William Sargent is kind of the poor man's Bill Bryson: he gives natural history and geologic background while trying to maintain a loose narrative structure, and he succeeds about as often as he fails.

I thought this book was going to be some kind of adventure tale of roughing it for a year, but it turns out that Sargent lives in the Notch, and kept a diary for a year. The book as a whole is kind of like the pictures in it: occasionally interesting, but fall short of being really beautiful because they're rendered in poor-quality black-and-white printing. ... Read more

Book Description

In the tradition of California the Beautiful, Galen Rowell's best-selling celebration of the natural beauty of the Golden State, comes Yosemite & the Eastern Sierra, featuring stunning color images by outdoor photographer Gary Crabbe.Here is a fresh look at the wonders of Yosemite National Park (visited by more than three million people each year), as well as the lesser-known vistas of the pristine wilderness that adjoins the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada.From the first light of sunrise cascading above an alpine creek to the last glint of sunset reflected on the joyful serenade of a waterfall ballet at Horsetail Falls, the spirit of the land will nourish your soul.The accompanying text of this small but exquisitely printed volume speaks through the voices of our great nature writers, from Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell to Joan Didion, Wallace Stegner, and Mark Twain.This is the perfect gift for anyone who has ever marveled at the beauty of Yosemite National Park and the glorious gallery of the Eastern Sierra's natural wonders. ... Read more

Book Description

This outstanding reference work is the first A-Z, English language compilation on the world's mountains. It contains definitions, explanations, and clarifications in more than 2,000 entries, which vary in length from a brief sentence to detailed overviews of more complex subjects. It includes listings of many specific mountains, but more important, it is replete with geological terminology, birds and animals, flowers and trees, climbers and mountaineers, as well as associated tasks such as logging, mining, skiing, and climbing. The Mountain Encyclopedia is invaluable as a source of data and information, but it is also enjoyable to read straight through. ... Read more

Book Description

“Sam Lightner, Jr., combines two tales of adventure, one historic and the other modern-day in his page-turner . . . With its rich sense of place and history, All Elevations Unknown offers a surprisingly fresh twist to an adventure-climbing tale.” –Climbing Magazine

In the spring of 1999, armed with little more than a description from a book and a map labeled “all elevations unknown,” Sam Lightner and his German rock-climbing buddy, Volker, found themselves deep in the jungles of Borneo on a mission to climb a mountain that was only rumored to exist. What little they knew about the mountain they had learned from the memoirs of Major Tom Harrisson, a British World War II soldier who in 1945 had been assigned the near-impossible mission of parachuting blindly into the thick Borneo rainforest–where the natives had a grisly habit of cutting off heads–to try to reclaim the island for the Allies.

A captivating, utterly original combination of travel adventure memoir and historical re-creation, All Elevations Unknown charts Lightner’s exhilarating and at times harrowing quest to ascend the mountain Batu Lawi in the face of leeches, vipers, and sweat bees, and to keep his team together in one of the earth’s most treacherous uncharted pockets. Along the way, he reconstructs a fascinating historical narrative that chronicles Tom Harrisson’s adventures there during the war and illuminates an astonishing piece of forgotten World War II history. Rife with suspense and vivid detail, the two intertwining tales open up the island of Borneo, its people, and its history in a powerful, unforgettable way, taking adventure writing to new heights. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

History and Modern adventure unite!
Sam Lightner's tale of his 1999 climb up Borneo's Batu Lawi is a wonderful mix of modern adventure and historical retelling of Major Tom Harrison's 1958 book World Within. His story is a classic first-climb adventure in which he and his friends attempt to be the first (as far as they knew) to climb a mystical spire deep in the heart of Borneo. Lightner learned of the peak from an obscure referrence in Tom Harrison's World Within and uses this text as both his guide to the land and the people.

In reading about his adventure, you gain insight into not only the heart of a true adventurist trying to step foot where few have ever been and the hardships involved in such undertakings. You'll certainly think twice about sponsorship of your next adventure, especially any video documentation after hearing of his conflicts with his camera crew. At the same time, you'll gain a love of the people and land of Borneo. This tale is perfect for those who love adventure as well as learning the history of a people and their land.

If Borneo fascinates you, this is worth the read
Although Lightner's account of his climb up a mountain in Borneo is not in the same league as Eric Hansen's STRANGER IN THE FOREST (an account of his 3 mth. trek across Borneo--a great book) his historical accounting of WW 2 battles fought in Borneo (based upon the biography of Maj. Harrison) gave me more insight into the tribes and history of this magical land. Like other readers, I found Lightner's writings about Maj. Harrison's battles with the Japanese soldiers far more interesting than the snippy arguments he details between himself and the film crew that documents his climb. It was amusing (as a woman) to see that a group of men can be just as catty to one another, but Lightner goes into far too much detail about these highly personal spats, and many times, leaves me wanting more detail about the flora, the sights, the sounds and smells and to learn more about the indigenous guides that the author is traveling with. This book made me want to read more about Maj. Harrison's amazing and brave liberation of Borneo because Harrison, like author Eric Hansen 30+ years later, fell in love with the tribal people of Borneo; he grew to respect their customs, and in many instances their ecological reverence for the rain forest in which they dwelt. Hopefully, the biography of Maj. Harrison will not remain out of print for too long. If you're interested in climbing, the rain forest or Borneo, this book is definitely worth your time.

The quality of the writing equals the book's adventure
This book is smartly and excitingly written. I could feel the pounding rain, smell the dampness of the jungle, and the stinging and sucking of the leaches.

By combining two stories, Lightner displays the hardships encountered by any outsider trying to achieve goals in harsh, inaccesable Borneo. Lightner's inclusion of Major Tom Harrison during WWII adds depth to the story and his admiration of the major comes through as well as his conflict with the photographers who urge Lightner to take more climbing risks than he knows are prudent.

I hope to see more books by the talented rock climber who is also an excellent writer.

Enjoyable but missing something
I enjoyed the book very much but was disappointed that there were no photographs. I think that a few would have been appropriate considering the unusual terrain. This lack was ironic in that there was much described tension between the climbers and the sponsor's "video guys" because the filming actually interfered with the travel. It just seemed that the author by having sponsors for his trip gave away rights which would have made the book more effective.

Good but not great
This is a good book, but not a great one, undermined by three difficulties, not all of them the author's fault. Problem number one is an excess of hype on the part of the publisher; Lightner's interweaving of two stories, even if separated by more than 50 years, isn't revolutionary. It is entertaining, however, and it works nicely. It's just oversold.

Nevertheless, the dual stories make the book. Lightner correctly realizes that his own climbing tale is simply too thin. His other main problem is that the World War II story is far more interesting, especially since most people have no clue about how the war was fought on Borneo. (My own reference library on World War II devotes two sentences to the island: the Japanese captured it; later the Allies took it back.) Lightner has done a wonderful job of bringing this little-known story to life, but by so doing, he emphasizes the thinness of his own tale, whose central conflict turns out to be between himself and the film crew who helped finance the expedition. The "video guys," as he calls them, want things in exchange for their money that change the nature of the climbers' goals. That's interesting...but not as much so as a world war.

The third problem is that in his efforts to bring the story to life, Lightner's gone farther than needed, by fabricating dialog, characters' reactions to each other, and additional perceptual material to fill in gaps in the narrative. He admits this, but it's an ill-considered approach to a story with drama enough to stand on its own if he'd made it clear which material is based on someone's memoirs, and which is interpolated. Not doing it in the traditional manner leaves the reader wondering how much of the story is real, and how much is guesswork. Worse, it casts doubt on Lightner's own tale. Every time he intercuts from the present to the past, he does so by having himself reflect on the World War II story. The third time he did this, I wondered: Is this also a device? Might he have been napping at the time, rather than thinking about World War II? And if so, what else in the tale is a device?

None of this destroys the versimilitude of the whole, but it does undermine it. But that said, it's a good book, recommended to those with an interest in adventure travel, history, and to a lesser extent, climbing. ... Read more

Book Description

The Old Man of the Mountain is a timely photographic memorial to New Hampshire's beloved emblem, the colossal profile of natural granite in the White Mountains that suddenly collapsed on May 3, 2003. Many devoted friends of the Old Man have generously contributed to this remembrance. New Hampshire nature photographer William Johnson contributes his stunning portfolio of images showing the changing aspects of the Old Man in all seasons and atmospheric conditions. Dick Hamilton, president of White Mountains Attractions and member of the Old Man Revitalization Task Force, contributes his amazing close-ups of the Old Man taken from unfamiliar angles, including helicopter shots of the Old Man site for several decades before--and on the very day after--the collapse. The New Hampshire Historical Society contributes fascinating art images of this national icon over the last two centuries. Vincent Dunn, retired New Hampshire Superior Court Justice, contributes a thoughtful foreword about the enduring symbolism and emotional resonance of the Old Man. The natural and human history of the Old Man are reviewed in a lively text by geologist Robert Hutchinson. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Surprisingly good book.
As a native of New Hampshire, I grew up with the "Old Man" and enjoyed our visits throughout the changing seasons. I bought this book because of the beautiful photography. As a trained geologist, I am absolutely delighted with the geological information presented, and the detailed descriptions of the efforts made to preserve him. I truly had no idea. Thank you for this book.

A splendid tribute to the Old Man
Last May, after the New York Times reported--on its front page, no less!--that the Old Man of the Mountain was no more, I was as dismayed as if an old family friend had died. My wife has family in southeast New Hampshire, and during several visits we and our two young children had oohed and ahhed over the Old Man's craggy profile, which I found remarkably similar to that of the Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots of my youth. My family's sorrow over the gruff bluff's collapse has been ameliorated by this splendid tribute. I can't imagine a more apt eulogizer than Robert Hutchinson, a geologist and historian who has literally imagined himself into the Old Man's head, creating a narrative in which heaps of geological and historical arcana are lashed together with turnbuckles of wit and sympathy. The photographs, both archival and contemporary, are also superb, and captioned with fascinating mini-essays by Mr. Hutchinson. (One beneath a reproduction of the first known photograph of the Old Man notes that it was taken in 1841 by an eccentric, reclusive dentist named Samuel Bemis, once described as "not as odd as might be expected, yet sufficiently so to distinguish him from other men.") If only we all could be so fondly and entertainingly memorialized! ... Read more

Book Description

Some of the most beautiful views in Texas are also the most remote. Seemingly endless miles lie between the isolated mountain ranges of the Trans-Pecos and the more populous parts of Texas and New Mexico, ensuring that only those who really crave the solitude, rugged loveliness, and hundred-mile vistas of the mountains will ever make the trek.In this book, Laurence Parent and Joe Nick Patoski join forces to offer breathtaking views of the Texas mountains. With magnificent images and words, they take us on a journey not only through the familiar Guadalupe, Davis, and Chisos mountains, but also through lesser-known ranges with evocative names such as Sierra Diablo, Eagle, Chinati, Beach, and Christmas.Capturing the Texas mountains from first light to the glowing rays of sunset and from winter snows to summer droughts, Parent's photographs reveal many hidden treasures--pine forests, waterfalls, old forts, aspens, movie sets, Indian pictographs, and red-rock pinnacles. Patoski's text ranges as widely as the photos, using places from Marathon to El Paso's Franklin Mountains as starting points for "field notes" that explore the myriad ways in which the land has shaped and been shaped by the people who live on it. For everyone who longs for mountain views and wide-open spaces, Texas Mountains comes as close to being there as you can get without endless driving. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Magical Book
I'm a photographer not easily impressed. This book is simply the best rendering of this breathtaking, little known part of Texas that I've seen. The essay is well written and together with the photography makes for a classic. ... Read more

Book Description

When Bill Douglas was a child, he nearly died of infantile paralysis. To build back the strength in his wasted legs, he started hiking through the sage-covered foothills around his home in Yakima, Washington. The cure worked; and year by year he pushed his explorations further into the tangled, rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

Of Men and Mountains is a book of personal adventure and discovery - an account of the way Douglas and other men managed to find a richer life in the mountains, and how they found something else besides. Its pages are filled with the stories of the sheepherders, Native Americans, fishermen, and foresters who learned to survive in the wilderness, to enjoy it, and to learn the secret of the true serenity of spirit. ... Read more

Book Description

On a writing assignment, award-winning author Teresa Jordan spent twelve days traveling down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.As has happened to so many who have visited the Grand Canyon, this intensely verbal woman found herself speechless; she was filled with awe the whole time.

She had brought along a small box of watercolors and stole away from her group each day to paint an illustrated record of her experiences.The results are these field notes from a re-enchantment with the world.She believes the sketchbook was the river's gift to her; in turn she offers the sketchbook to help us find the river for ourselves.

About the experience she later wrote, "I expected the canyon to astonish me.It exceeded my wildest imaginings by at least a power of ten . . . On the river I found myself drunk with visual excitement, engaged in a gluttony of looking . . . Often I would try to recall something I had seen on the river.Other times I would focus on something directly in front of me: a family of barrel cacti in the late afternoon sun, a single cube of zoroaster granite . . .trying to isolate, to understand, the purity of that particular gold of morning light on the ridge, or the muddy claret of the redwall limestone."

The first in a series of Sketchbook Expeditions, Field Notes from the Grand Canyon is the perfect giftfor yourself, or anyone you care about.The paintings are lovely, capturing the canyon's unmistakable luminosity, and the book is produced on special paper with the look and feel of a watercolor sketchbook.This stunning little gem will be a cherished souvenir for anyone who's been down the Colorado River, and an enticement for anyone who has yet to make this life-altering journey. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Teresa Jordan captures the soul of the Canyon
This is a beautiful book that not only explores the Canyon through words and watercolors but also our place in the world as human beings. Jordan introduces one to the rythyms of life on the river and shares with us her ability to interpret the daily wonders that make the Grand Canyon so majestic. She has created not just a journal but a moving piece of prose that carries the reader from the widerness of the Canyon to finding meaning in our daily lives. A wonderful journey. ... Read more

Book Description

North Bay Trails is the most complete and up-to-date trail guide for Marin, Napa, and Sonoma Counties. While the route descriptions pertain to hikers most of all, other outdoor enthusiasts-fitness walkers, joggers, equestrians, and bicyclists-will also find them useful.

This is the only substantial guide to trails in the North Bay parklands, including the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Samuel Taylor state park, and the natural areas of the Sonoma and Napa valleys. The book contains something for everyone, from families with children to experienced hikers. Each route description begins with a snapshot of the hike: distance, time, difficulty rating, and highlights. The route descriptions are clear, easy to follow, and contain information about native plants, animals, and history. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

North Bay Trails: Outdoor Adventures in Marin, Napa and Sono
I found North Bay Trails and the author's previous work, East Bay Trails, to be excellent.It provides great direction and is written from a hiker's perspective without confusing and unclear information that haunts so manyguidebooks.The maps are always accurate and as fine as a bound formatallows while the excellent photos help us choose where to go.Thehistorical background is fascinating and the information on wildlife andflora keep me and my child going from discovery to discovery along thetrail.This book has guided us to wonderful places we would not havethought or known to hike rather than take us to the often hiked Mt. Tam andPt. Reyes areas (although his picks in these areas are jewels). This is amust-have if you want to hike the glorious North Bay - now, if Weintraubcould just pack our lunch...

An excellent reference promising lasting value.
David Weintraub's North Bay Trails will please California residents who want to locate hiking areas north of San Francisco. This is the first comprehensive guide to cross county lines to include Marin, Napa and SonomaCountries, exploring scenic routes and trails for both avid hikers andcasual walkers. An excellent reference promising lasting value. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Are there hidden patterns in the natural world?Do naturalevents take place at the same time every year?The answers are in ForEverything There is a Season, a book unique in the literature ofnatural history.Dr. Frank C. Craighead, Jr., one of America's mostdistinguished field biologists, has studied the plants and animals ofthe Greater Yellowstone Area for more than forty-five years.Keepingdetailed journals, Dr. Craighead has recorded the patterns of life thatrevolve around the changing seasons, and he shares his discoveries inthis fascinating book. For example, did you know... That grizzly bearsare leaving their dens when the first dandelions appear. That salmonflies are hatching when wild strawberries begin to ripen. That bull elkare bugling when aspen leaves turn to gold. For naturalists, this bookis a remarkable chronicle of the interrelationships between all livingthings.For anyone interested in the Teton-Yellowstone area and theentire Northern Rockies, this book opens the door to greaterunderstanding-and amazement-of the natural cycles of one of America'slast wild places. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Biologist's Lovesong to Wyoming
As one who was first shown the Northern Lights, alerted to a bull elk's bugle and introduced to Blue Flax (Linum lewisii) by Frank Craighead, one who was favored with the chance to rent a cabin from him facing the Tetons and enjoy many hours of conversation and dinners with him and his family, I feel qualified to say that this rare book, FOR EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON, is a portrait of the man as well as the biologist---there is nothing detached or dry in Frank's telling, but a thinly veiled almost poetic passion for the natural world he so intimately knows---and wants others to know as he does. For if you can love nature, you will want to save it; And I see that as one of Frank's primary goals. Yet he is generous, not hoarding, in his knowledge of secret sites where exciting biota interact: He could easily withold where and at what exact time of year one finds morel mushrooms or certain unusual flowers, but he doesn't. He trusts the reader enough to not harm what he discovers through Frank's book. A valuable, valuable read and resource. There could not be any better for that region.

Science and Celebration
For anyone who's in love with the land of the Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, Craighead's book is required reading. What a joy to follow the changes of the seasons and the cycle of birth and migration of the area's animals with this knowledgeable man as a guide! Craighead focuses on weekly changes in climate and life, and each week is brimming with details of flora and fauna. I am constantly learning about my home, but this book isn't just for Jackson Hole dwellers - there are vivid photos on every page and extensive appendices for birders and amateur ecologists, as well as mammoth additional reading lists and a detailed index. Thanks, Frank. ... Read more

Book Description

Mountain Gazette offered proof that "outdoor literature" need not be an oxymoron. Running a scant eight years, from 1972 to 1979, the magazine featured material by major writers and artists on outdoor and adventure subjects. This volume collects the best material ? nonfiction, fiction, photography, cartoons, and illustrations ? from the old and new Mountain Gazette. Selections include singer-songwriter Katie Lee?s "The Ride," a meditation on biking through town naked; "The Monkey Wrench Gang: A Review," by George Sibley; and Karen Recknagel's "Climbing the Walls in Berkeley." Other contributors include Edward Abbey, Galen Rowell, Steve Wishart, and Cindy Kleh. ... Read more

Book Description

Welcome to the ancient, rumpled realm of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Writer Ron Fisher and photographer Rik Cooke guide you through the gentle mountains that rise in a sky-wash haze from Pensylvania to northern Georgia. The New River, America's oldest stream, flows across the entire range while a 470-mile continuous span of skyline road leads from Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Seven national forests harbor 130 species of trees and an astonishing diversity of mosses, fungi, flowering plants, and wildlife. Meet Cherokee Indians who continue the artistic traditions of their ancestors as well as descendants of European settlers who developed their own lasting heritage of folk crafts. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

An easy look at Blue Ridge flora, fauna and folk life
Ron Fisher wrote this "bookazine" in a very plain, homespun style which causes one to learn tons of information about people and places of the Blue Ridge without realizing it. There was too-scant mention of the region's physiography and natural history; however, once I got far enough inside to notice that, I was already sufficiently captivated by the tales of human history and folklore that the book was well worth finishing. Like Fisher, I cruised the Blue Ridge Parkway on a cool, misty weekday; and he captured the peaceful mood perfectly in his description of that jaunt. Whether from watching a Salem Buccaneers minor league game, interviewing Foxfire writers, or recording the tales of an elderly wood whittler, the hundreds of micro-stories of Blue Ridge folk life come out well done. Of course, as is the Geographic's gold standard, the photography is splendid. Any high school or college student writing about the Appalachian way of life must have this work in his reference list. And I strongly recommend this book for anyone planning a driving trip (off the interstates!) through western Virginia, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee or far northern Georgia.

Great with alot of awesome pictures
I am from the Blue Ridge Mountains and I think this magazine was great. It has alot of information about the people, parks and places of the Blue Ridge. There are tons of pictures and suggestions of places to visit. READ IT! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Telluride, Colorado, was once a place where a man could earn a beating for wearing his hair long, a woman an unsavory reputation for living alone. No more, writes Rob Schultheis in this lively portrait of the old mining town.

Set in the San Juan spur of the Rocky Mountains in a landscape that Schultheis calls "the most twisted, convoluted, cantankerous, crumpled, moiled, roiled, paradoxical, and one-step-forward-three-steps-back terrain the Great Spirit ... ever conspired to create," Telluride wasn't quite ready for the 20th century when Schultheis arrived in 1973. By the time he and his freewheeling fellow travelers finished putting their touches on the mountain-bound burg, Telluride had become a hippie Shangri-la. The place was so attractive, in fact, that it soon fell victim to the gentrification that had undone so many other rural countercultural havens, and Telluride emerged by the end of the 1980s as one of the West's most expensive and exclusive resorts.

Schultheis, the author of The Hidden West and a longtime correspondent for Outside magazine, offers an entertaining chronicle of the way things used to be in the era of VW vans and Grateful Dead tapes, before big money rolled into town. Even today, he notes, some of the old ways remain: despite new dams and condominiums, he tells us, San Miguel County still lacks a single stoplight--"and as for stop signs, it [is] hard to find one that hadn't been riddled by a shotgun blast or perforated by small-arms fire." Celebrating the landscape and its people without false nostalgia, Schultheis's essays are shot through with good humor and sharp observation, and his book marks a welcome return. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Book Description

Mountain-minded locals enjoy the backyard playground they call K-Country. It's far less crowded than much of Banff or Jasper parks, yet equally wild, vast and spectacular. 40 premier dayhikes and backpack trips—all within two hours of an international airport—lead to astonishing alpine meadows, ridges and peaks. Discerning trail reviews help you choose your trip. Detailed route descriptions keep you on the path. ... Read more

Book Description

"New Era" is a graceful and literate collection of personal essays on the human and natural history of the Oregon high desert, focusing on what happened to the people and the land of this region during and after the homesteading era of 1900 to 1920. It is a book full of stories-about early Indian/Anglo connections, about the ghost town of Opal City, about a family fishing site on the Crooked River, about homestead ranches and the families who struggled to make their lives there.

Each chapter offers a new perspective on the interplay of human and natural history in a challenging time and place. Although Ramsey's focus is intensely local, he explores how these local details have larger Western and American meanings, too. ... Read more

Book Description

This new edition of Donald L. Baars’s classic The Colorado Plateau incorporates new text, maps, photographs, figures, tables, and bibliography to provide the most up-to-date geology of the red rock and canyon country of the Four Corners of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Baars’s comprehensive geological summary of the canyonlands is detailed enough to satisfy a geologist looking for an overview of the region yet clearly enough written to appeal to anyone interested in learning the scientific story behind this magnificent scenic area. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Good luck.
This book contains lots of information about the geology of the Colorado Plateau... the problem is that it's incredibly difficult to read, even for folks like me who studied geology in the Southwest. For one thing, it provides little overview information, which would help introduce key concepts and tie them together. (Of course, tying key concepts together might be easier if the author were comfortable with plate tectonics as a driver for the structural features of the region... but that's another story). The fact that this book is chock full of mistakes--for example, referencing figures that don't actually exist--doesn't help, either. In fact, I generally found the illustrations to be more confusing than helpful. They never appear in places where they'd actually help you understand the text, and when they do appear, they're often confusing because they lack labels... or, worse yet, they are not discussed at all. It's too bad; with a good editorial and peer review, this book could have been a worthwhile reference. I definitely would not recommend it for the lay audience. ... Read more