No comments about Gousha New Deluxe Road Atlas United States, Canada, Mexico/1995.

No comments about Universal Map 2007 Large Print Atlas United States, Canada, Mexico Atlas (Road Atlas) (Road Atlas).

1 comments about Fielding's Baja California.

1. This is a useful, detailed and interesting book, but it suffers from a number of defects as a practical travel guide. Firstly the layout is confusing, as the book is divided according to subject rather than location, which necessitates much cross-indexing and use of yellow stickies in order to find your way around (For instance, if you wish to visit La Paz you will find it in many different parts of the book, under such headings as accomodation, restaurants, camping etc). More disturbingly, the information on "side trips" contains many inaccuracies, as well as maps which can be feeble to the point of being misleading. Anyone who has tried exploring Baja by car knows that roads tend to turn into tracks, and tracks often disappear altogether. Good maps and clear information are essential if you want to avoid getting hopelessly lost. Maybe the trick is to take this book with you, but not to be too trusting.

No comments about Insight Pocket Guide Yucatan Peninsula (Insight Pocket Guides Yucatan Peninsula).

1 comments about Fun with the Family New Mexico, 4th (Fun with the Family Series).

1. It's not as comprehensive or inspiring as I'd hoped. I suppose I was expecting more of a Rough Guide / Frommer's / Rick Steves type of resource. This book, while adequate, is just a bit less than I was hoping for. I'll still put it to use and it's not a waste, but I'll definitely be supplementing with internet searches and other resources to really plan trips.

No comments about Cancun Can-Do Map & Guide.

5 comments about Rand McNally 2007 The Road Atlas & Travel Guide: U.S. / Canada / Mexico (Rand Mcnally Road Atlas and Travel Guide: United States, Canada, Mexico).

1. Is good map. I visit States from Norway now and driving on road trip. Shows good things to do off track; not crowded. I go to some, they very good places to see. Is nice they have this feature showing attractions, not just a map.



2. I wanted map detail and a spiral bound book. I will eliminate the Travel Guide section as it adds too much weight and isn't needed. Very pleased with the purchase.



3. I was planning on driving across the county and have found this collection of maps useful before I bought the high quality edition. It turned out to be big, heavy and awkward to use. I finally decided to take it apart and take only the pages I needed. I challenge you to pick this up at arms length from the back seat. Beware of putting you wife's eye out.



4. Great atlas. Has campsites and some topography, but is lacking one major road in Alaska. I would get a supplemental map if you plan on going there.



5. The new Rand McNally Road Atlas gives me all the information I need to drive from one place to another. As a matter of fact, there are roads shown in the Atlas which are not shown on other maps or even on the AAA Trip-Tiks. I actually contacted Rand McNally to make sure that the road shown on the map actually existed and was passable, and the lady I spoke with gave me details about what the street name was, and how that street name changed 3 times when you travel the road. I certainly didn't expect that kind of excellent service, but I got it. And knowing about the road, cuts about 50 miles off my trip.
   
   The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that I feel there is too much information in the Atlas, other than road maps. So, it is a larger document than I feel it needs to be.
   
   The ring binding is a real plus too, as it makes the Atlas simpler to use.

2 comments about Canyons of the Colorado.

1. As prior reviews state, the text is well-selected from Powell's journal, and the photographs are superb. But how can the author publish the journal of an explorer without a map keyed to the dates of journal entries? The photographs are superb, but again, not keyed to a map, or even associated with the text. The identifying data for each photo is listed in the front of the book, but is not given on, or near the photograph. A potentially superb book, but, because of these defects and faults, one that is maddening to read.



2. This book's photographs are gorgeous--though there's not enough of them--of snow covered mesas, sacred datura, Bryce Canyon (which isn't really on the Colorado at all), streambeds, waterfalls, canyon walls, cactus, clouds, and shadows.
   The introduction is by conservationist David Brower, and is a little pretentious, but most of the text is straight from explorer John Wesley Powell's own account of his trips in the late-1800s, and the photos do a great job of making that text seem especially readable.
   There are A TON of books about the Colorado River and the Colorado Plateau...and this...this is another one of them. It's a good one though, and worth considering--whether you're obsessed with reading every single book on the subject, or whether you'd just like one nice one to leave out on your coffee table.

No comments about In Search of the Magic Mushroom.

2 comments about The Wild Colorado.

1. Richard Maurer's new book chronicles Powell's second expedition through the eyes, words, and illustrations of Fred Dellenbaugh - a 17-year-old boy from Buffalo, NY who, along with some rowing experience on the turbulent Niagara River and a facility for drawing, had the gumption to make his dream come true. This story is very well written and quite compelling and will appeal to those who love adventure stories set in the Old West. The photographs and illustrations are remarkable. My hats off to the author!



2. I read Dellenbaugh's reprinted "Canyon Voyage" (the much abbreviated title) as a young man in the flatlands of western Kansas in the 1960's. The romance of the period of Dellenbaugh's youth, and the Powell Expeditions in particular (1869-72), stimulated in me an ongoing interest in the history of the region. I have read the edited and published diaries of most of the participants of the two expeditions, and continue to invest in an array of scholarly and coffee table books that even remotely address the subject. My annual crossings of the Colorado and Dirty Devil rivers to pursue research interests in southeastern Utah never fail to regenerate my own wish to have participated in such an epic adventure. Thus, when I saw the notice of publication of Maurer's book about Dellenbaugh on the second Powell expedition, with the expression in the title "the true adventures," I was expecting something on the order of D.D. Fowler's book about Jack Hiller's, another expedition participant. That is, a pretty serious biography of the man and a pretty faithful reproduction of the daily diary kept during his time in the field. Well, it might be the former, but it is certainly not the latter. Unlike the other expeditioners who kept diaries, Dellenbaugh's original diary has never been published. Perhaps this is because his 1908 "Canyon Voyage" was a timeline-based (albeit compressed) narrative and researchers may have believed there was nothing more of value in the original diary. While Maurer read the diaries of all the participants, including Dellenbaugh's, as well as Dellenbaugh's "Canyon Voyage" and the earlier "Romance of the Colorado River," Maurer's timeline is even more compressed than Dellenbaugh's. Consequently the book lacks the rich detail of Dellenbaugh's diary and earlier publications. For example, unlike the present book, the consecutive daily diary entries of "Looked for the Major today but of course he did not come; carried the rations over," "Looked for the Major again," and "Still waiting,"conveys a real sense of frustration at being in the same camp, on the bank of the Colorado, day after day, laying up under a boat to avoid the oppressive August heat, with nothing to do, waiting for the Major and Prof to come in so the party can continue the trip down the river through the Grand Canyon. Maurer acknowledged that in the writing of the book he "sometimes resorted to the methods of historical fiction to flesh out some of the stories" and that "footnotes would be out of place in a book like this." Thus despite having the best possible materials at hand from which to draw, this book was never intended as a scholarly work. In that context, the writing was a success. Maurer did locate some great historical photographs and drawings not published elsewhere, and that alone is an important contribution. More than that, though, the book was a really entertaining read. I can well imagine some person, like me once, never having heard of either Powell or Dellenbaugh, picking up the book and just marveling at what they did. And, interest aroused, they have an avocation.