Solid guide to key hikes in the Four Corners, stretching across Arizona, Utah, Colorado in parks such as Zion, Arches, and Grand Canyon.

It has beautiful photography throughout, a clean layout and is well organized including tips on hike difficulty, length and if dogs are allowed. There is also background on geological features and the history of the areas as relevant.

Highly recommend!

(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC)

Southwest Canyon Country’s Best Nature Walks

This is an excellent guide to this area of the country, and I’d highly recommend it for people with kids or who don’t have a lot of time or desire to hike very far.

Some specifics:
1. The title is important to pay attention to. These are “walks” not hikes. That means that they’re all pretty much under three miles (a few mentions of side trips for longer), many are much shorter, most are flat, and some are paved/wheelchair accessible. This is not a complaint at all, given the book is upfront about the aim here. But it does mean if you’re looking for hikes, or for spending a few hours traipsing through the canyons, this is not the book for you. If you’ve little kids, have issues walking far or with elevation, or want some options for people who need paved, flat ground, this is a great book

2. Pictures, pictures, pictures. Lots of fantastic photographs pepper the book

3. Each description opens with the location, the roundtrip length, whether or not it is wheelchair accessible, if it allows pets, and the difficulty (here again I’d say the book is accurate. “difficulty” is highly subjective, and I’ve seen guidebooks that are way off in both directions—either claiming something is challenging when it isn’t for the average person or claiming something is “moderate” which would only be true for a very experience fit hiker. This one is pretty spot on)

4. Trail descriptions themselves are clear, useful, accurate, and precise. I’ve done nearly all these walks, many more than once, so I can attest to all of that personally. You get some description of how to get to the trailhead (almost always a parking lot) and then a pretty detailed description of each hike. Better, descriptions often come with suggestions for things to look for, best times, spur trails, alternate return paths (with caveats as needed, such as how much distance it adds or how difficult it is), etc. Descriptions are always clear and easy to follow. They’re not the super detailed “at the .8-mile mark, you’ll see . . “ that you see in some hiking books, but since you’re always on a well-trod trail, signposted, often with lots of people, and you’re never far from the parking lot, they don’t need that level of detail. What is here is perfect.

5) The book is not over economical. It is filled with a wealth of information about animals, birdlife, geology, history, etc. I’m sure some people will skim that material, but I think it’s wonderful to have.

6). It’s a nicely comprehensive list. As mentioned, I’ve done nearly all of these along with many of the longer hikes in these areas, and I can’t think offhand of anything that was left out that would be considered a big oversight (or even medium) oversight. I also like that it doesn’t ignore some of the tour-led trails, such as Mesa Verde (highly recommend the ranger-led tour of Cliff Palace) or the Navajo tours of slot canyons. Yes, one has to pay, but it would be a shame to not let people know about these

Highly recommend this one

This is what I consider the perfect kind of travel guide. There are gorgeous pictures so I know why it would be great to visit along with clear instructions on how to get there. The descriptions of the walks themselves are wonderfully detailed too, with tips on what the physical conditions are and special things to look out for.

This is a perfect little companion guide of southwest canyons and trails for desert lovers. The photography was stunning, so while you had descriptive writing of what to expect, you also got pictures to know exactly what the author wrote about. I appreciate how he didn't just have details about the trails but also had the local flora, fauna, and fun historical facts in the mix. This would be something I'd buy for my hiking club's annual Christmas party as a white elephant gift. Thank you, Netgalley, for this wonderful informational piece.

Canyon

This is how you do a hiking guidebook!

The format is beautiful, the pictures are wonderful and abundant, and you can tell the author has done all of these hikes.

The quick information at the beginning of each hike is really helpful and the actual trail descriptions are really well done.

I also think the selection of hikes is perfect (as someone who lived in the area for six years and has done a majority of them), as far as hikes in the national parks goes.

I also really enjoyed the tidbits about the plants along the way (with pictures!)

This is a handbook for the serious walkers and was very informative making it easy to work out what you need, which walks to do, what fitness leave, etc. Great illustrations and images that make you want to get out and explore. This is a book to have in the backpack for sure. This is also the book you need to plan your next getaway. Love it.

Thank you NetGalley and Timber Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Fantastic resource if you're planning a visit to National Parks in the Southwest area. Full of beautiful pictures as well as pertinent information about the flora and fauna found in this region.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

A good guide for finding nature walks and trails in the Southwest Canyon Country. I have been to all the parks mentioned and done many of the walks included. The information is helpful and includes trail length, difficulty rating, ecology, accessibility and highlights. The pictures are great and capture the beauty of the area. This book seems to be a good starting place for exploring the area. I like visiting Arches or Mesa Verda and surrounding areas best in the fall or late winter/early spring. It is less crowded and hotel rates are sometimes half the costs of later spring and summer. Thank you to NetGalley and Timber Press for the ARC and I am leaving an honest review.

This is the perfect guide for visiting the Four Corners. It highlights key trails and has great pictures . Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. I’ve been to most of these parks and really enjoyed them. I’ll definitely have to check out the hikes I haven’t done as well. The pictures were great! This is a great book to get started in hiking since most of the trails are a mile or less.

This book is full of beautiful images and TONS of information about nature walks and trails in the Southwest. You can easily find the right walk for you and your family with the information in this book, plan, and learn all about it before you go. This'll also make a great coffee table book because of the gorgeous pictures!

I received an advanced complimentary digital copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

An excellent guide - trail by trail - to great Southwestern walks. Graded by length and ease, with information on pet access and disabled accessibility, each trail also comes with a chatty description that highlights the scenery and the ecology and gives helpful advice on footwear and attire. Lavishly illustrated, the landscapes are beckoning. I want to rush and try them all. A handsome and useful guide.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book enters a crowded space. There are already numerous hiking guides for the Southwest Canyon Country, and several specifically describing the Four Corners area. Alas, I don't think this book adds anything new or anything that is not covered better in other offerings. In fact, there are some important things it gets wrong.
Curiously for a guidebook, the first thing this book gets wrong is geography. It claims to be a guide to the National Parks of the Four Corners. The Four Corners region is an area immediately surrounding the point where four states—Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico—meet. There is only one National Park in this Region (Mesa Verde). The state of New Mexico is not covered in the book at all, some of the hikes mentioned in the book are not in National Parks, and many are quite a long way outside the Four Corners area.
The hikes listed are characterized as "easy," which they are. This is not a bad thing and is likely to be of interest to most casual tourists. However, the selection of hikes chosen is very limited: they are the quintessential hikes in their respective areas, and thus are easy to find for free by a simple internet search or a quick visit to any source for tourist information for a given area. Other guidebooks for these areas are much more comprehensive.
The book is illustrated with many photographs, some of which are inexcusably amateurish: not especially well composed, sometimes showing technical flaws (e.g., poor focus), and some are garishly processed (see for example the very obvious and poorly done blend of the sky in the image on p.9 and in the double-spread image on p..22-23, the out-of-focus elements on p. 36-37, and others). In a time when there are more serious hobbyist and professionals photographers offering high quality work than ever before, and an abundance of excellent inexpensive stock photography available to authors, there is no reason for this.
The saving grace for this book could have been its emphasis on natural history. Alas, here, too, the information offered is riddled with errors. Some examples: on p.46, a buckthorn bush is misidentified as wax currant, on p.55 a winding mariposa lily is misidentified as a sego lily (Utah's state flower), on p.60 a Utah daisy is misidentified as rose heath, the caption on p.90 claims Bryce Canyon to be on the eastern edge of bristlecone pine range when in fact there are bristlecone pines in the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico, on p.135 a sagebrush bush is misidentified as rubber rabbitbrush, etc.
The upshot of all this: if you are going to purchase a guidebook for hiking the Southwest Canyon Country, there are much better options; and if you are specifically interested in the Four Corners region, you will find very little that is relevant to it in this book.

This is an awesome handbook that every visitor to the four corners area needs to have on hand.

All of the lovely national parks have some unique spots to hike to. This little nugget of awesome information shares the length of the trails, the rate of the trails (easy vs. moderate) and all that you can look for on the trail. It also goes into details, with photos, of the types of fauna and foliage in the area. The back of the book, with an index, categorizes each group (animal vs. plant vs. insects, etc). The pictures are also fantastic to refer to.

I highly recommend this one for the four corners area. I'll be grabbing a personal copy since I live in the area. This will be fun to go see all the attractions and it will be easy hikes that average about one and half miles. Perfect!

#NetGalley #SouthwestCanyonCountrysBestNatureWalks #RoddyScheer