Top Adventure Guide Books

[uintahiker]

I'm wondering what everyone's favorite guide books are. When you're planning a trip or adventure, what ones do you reach for most? List your top three and what's so cool about them.

1. Complete guide to Wyoming Fishing. By John Baughman. The author worked for the DWR in Wyoming and then compiled this book. It's got every body of water in Wyoming listed, down to the ditches and mudholes. It lists the location, species of fish, size, and how good the fishing is. Great book!

2. Non-Technical hiking guide to the Colorado Plateau. By Mike Kelsey. Great pictures. Offers a great place to start when planning a southern utah trip.

3. High Uintas Backcountry. By Jeff Probst. Lots of trails, has some good ideas for getting away from the crowds. Also includes lakes for fishing. A few pictures.

[erial]

1. Natural Arches of the Moab Area (North) [ or (South)] by Chris Moore
When in Utah I like visiting arches. Moore's chapbook guides get you to them with accurate and succinct directions.

2. North Carolina Waterfalls by Kevin Adams.
This nearly 600 page guide covers 'em all. Good directions as well as photo tips.

3. Colorado's Fourteeners by Gerry Roach. You can "bag 'em all" with this volume. Color photos and topos included.

[Cirrus2000]

Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia by Matt Gunn (http://cairnpublishing.com/guidebooks/scrambles.htm) - I use this a lot, being my local area. Great trips, with a fun level of difficulty - between hiking and climbing/mountaineering. Lots of trips, with short, pithy descriptions and good graphics.
Zion: Canyoneering by Tom Jones (http://canyoneeringusa.com/shop/product.php?productid=16309&cat=112&page=1) - Fun to read, and packed with information. Indispensable for Zion adventuring. Lots of info for beginning canyoneers. The "beginner" trips have lots of detail, and as you reach the more technical trips the hand-holding backs off, and you are more free to discover on your own.
Canyoneering 3 by Steve Allen (http://www.amazon.ca/Canyoneering-3-Steve-Allen/dp/0874805457) - Another book that's fun to just sit down and read. Lots of great loop trips around Escalante, ranging from a few hours to a week or more. Also has some good tales from the history of the area.


In addition to these, I also like some more straightforward hiking guides, like Falcon's guide to hiking in the Grand Staircase - Escalante region (Ron Adkison), and our local "103 Hikes in SW British Columbia" (Jack Bryceland) - now in its 6th edition.

[uintahiker]

I'll have to check out the natural arches of the moab area- sounds cool.

Zion Canyoneering is already on the list of future additions to my collection.

Any other ones you'd recommend?

[Iceaxe]

Two obscure books that I love and find useful:

"A Hiking and 4WD guide to the arches of the San Rafael Swell" by Chris Moore

"Arch Bagger - A Scrambler's Guide to Arches National Park" By Gerry Roach

And good luck finding a copy of the latter.... only 300 copies were printed. The book also forced the NPS to defined new rules for climbing in Arches National Park.

:popcorn:

[Iceaxe]

And good luck finding a copy of the latter.... only 300 copies were printed.

Wow.... it looks like finding a copy isn't too difficult.... but paying for it might be. :popcorn:

Here is a copy for $357.59
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/B000XP3XY2/ref=aw_d_ol

and Here is a signed copy for $200
http://www.climb.mountains.com/Book_Land_files/Arch_Bagger.shtml

And here is a signed copy at Back of Beyond in Moab for $200
http://www.backofbeyondbooks.com/rare.cfm?mode=detail&id=1235334931236

:bootyshake:

[uintahiker]

I tend to favor the obscure books. They offer a bit more then the top half dozen popular ones that regurgitate the same hikes over and over again.

The wyoming fishing has 2 editions, both of only 1000 copies. I actually had to track down the publisher to find a copy of it...

[jb]

For sheer reading pleasure, nothing beats Fred Beckey's 3-volume Cascade Alpine Guide. Beta is sometimes detailed, sometimes not, but it is extremely informative and his admiration for the area shines on every page. The whole thing is surprisingly literate. Almost poetic at times.

[UTJetdog]

I'm wondering what everyone's favorite guide books are. When you're planning a trip or adventure, what ones do you reach for most? List your top three and what's so cool about them.

1. Complete guide to Wyoming Fishing. By John Baughman.

I've thought about getting a copy of this. How is it for Wind River's lakes info.?

[uintahiker]

1. Complete guide to Wyoming Fishing. By John Baughman.


I've thought about getting a copy of this. How is it for Wind River's lakes info.?

It's awesome. If you can find a copy, get it!
It divides the whole state into counties. The Wind Rivers are in Sublette and Fremont County. Streams are listed in 1 section, lakes in another.
It lists the lake name, size, location (township & range), fish, fish size, and quality of fishing.

I wish I'd had it the last time I was up there. We wanted to get into golden trout, but our plans had a last minute change (Stupid guy on the res locked a gate across the road to Dickinson Park). If I'd had the book, we could have picked another spot, intead, we ended up at the Cirque of the Towers. Not that the Cirque was bad by any means, just no goldens.

If you can't find a copy, PM me about where you're going and I'll send you what you need.