On Foot in the Grand Canyon: Hiking the Trails of the South Rim

by Sharon Spangler and Spangler Sharon

Book Overview

ON FOOT IN THE GRAND CANYON is a detailed, interpretive hiking guide to the trails of the South Rim, woven with a lively narrative and adventures of real hikers. Harvey Butchart says: "Exhaustively... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871087901
• ISBN13: 9780871087904
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: Westwinds Press
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Must for Hiking History in the Grand Canyon (and still useful practical information)

Today this book is still valuable for its orignal purpose: a testimony to the accessibility of the Grand Canyon Backcountry and practical advice on trails and hiking. If you are wondering if you can successfully hike in the canyon, this book will help convince you to go ahead. Ms. Spangler's trail descriptions are still very relevant. Of course there is a wealth of trail description data available that was not at the time of publication. The avid GC hiker/mystery buff is attracted to this book by the poignancy of Sharon Spangler's personal story. As you read her accounts (as well as when you follow the same trails) you are overcome by an eerie sense of foreboding knowing she hiked with and lived with a cold-blooded killer...and you are following his route as well. This is even more the case due to the large number of references to husband Bob Spangler in the book. Sharon's story and her book are part of the lasting lore and mystery of the Grand Canyon.

Excellent Book

I have almost completed this book. It has detail on the trail conditions at the time. It is a shame her life ended so soon, I would like to read more books on the treks in the Canyon. Very good reading for anyone who has hiked or plans to hike in the canyon. She has information on other books that she read and gained info from for more Grand Canyon reading.

The back story

This book is an interesting piece of a complex puzzle involving Sharon Spangler's life and death as well as those of her ex-husband, his first wife and the children of that marriage, and his third wife. Before he died, Bob Spangler confessed to the murders of his first wife and children and his third wife, whom he pushed off a trail in the Grand Canyon. I worked with Bob Spangler and then Sharon Cooper in the 1970s before she became his second wife.

Grand Canyon hiking as it really is

This is the most accurate representation of the true experience one gets in hiking the Grand Canyon. Other books I have read, actually written by super-hikers, can seriously misrepresent what a typical hiker will get into down there. Her style is also a very comfortable read. Nobody should hike in the Canyon without reading this book!

Great book!

This book is full of wonderful stories and very useful information on particular South Rim trails. It is not a trail guide, but rather a well-written and very interesting report on what it is like to backpack in the Grand Canyon.