Trail Guide to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

by David Urmann

Book Overview

Devil's Garden, Death Hollow, Wolverine Creek - such names suggest the wildness of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Designed for both the drive-through traveler and those already somewhat... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879058854
• ISBN13: 9780879058852
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith Publishers
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding guide to a the whole region

This is an outstanding guide to the huge region encompassed by the GSENM. On a number of earlier trips I had spent a total of at least three weeks backpacking along the Escalante River and its sidecanyons, but had never visited the Grand Staircase or the Kaiparowits Plateau. I just returned from two weeks backpacking and car camping in the latter two regions. Urmann's book provided an excellent overview of the region. It was sufficiently detailed so that one could make effective use of it to locate various features, but not so detailed that one could not read through it easily to get an overview. (Of course, for backpacking one should alway use topo maps. No guidebook can be that detailed.) I first read the about the regions with which I am familiar to "calibrate" the book. I found it remarkably accurate. Throughout I found very few errors (one a misspelling, one a mileage along a road). I recommend it highly as the best book from which to learn what is available to see and do in this enormous region.

Decent Guide

I used this, along with resources on the internet, to plan a couple of day hikes to Grand Staircase National Monument last year. It seemed to be a decent guide and helped us pick out a nice hike in Lick Wash. I don't generally use guide books on the hike itself and I always refer to resources on the web as well, so I might not be best person to review this. If you are just trying to decide where to hike and figure out what options you have in the are you are in, I would recommend this book. (The Monument covers a pretty large area - we were staying in Page, AZ, so we stuck to the southermost hikes). I just wish we had more time to hike the area while we were there.

Just like being there!

This book is not only concise but also very descriptive. The trails are described very well, as well as driving directions on how to get to them, and you are told what you can expect to see on each trail. It's very portable in case you'd like to tuck it into a backpack, too! Good job!