4 comments about New Mexico's Wilderness Areas: The Complete Guide (Wilderness Guidebooks).

1. This is a guide that the hikers, desert rats, and general wilderness afficionados of New Mexico have long been in need of. It is the first truly comprehensive guide to both the known and "desperately need to be known about and protected" areas in the land of enchantment. Not only does it offer good general info about the areas but their historical significance, why they qualify as wilderness, and how people can access the areas. The more major areas all have some additional text, which is clear and intriguing. Also nice are the authors "favorite hikes" for some areas - they are an excellent starting point for the hiker with a limited schedule. The photos which accompany some areas are also spectacular. I have but a few gripes with the book and they are as follows: Some areas could use a little more description - especially about why they are so ecologically important. It would also be nice if the maps were a little better, but they are quite adequate. However my most major complaint lies not with the book itself, It is such a good guide that my "secret" areas will scarce remain secrets...



2. I honestly don't see why anyone found this book useful. I was totally fooled into buying it by the positive reviews here! The first thing that happened was that I looked at the front page map of the entire state to find out what areas were near the town I will be in for an upcoming trip. The map had lots of highways marked with NO TOWNS OR CITIES. Now maybe New Mexicans all memorized the highway map of their state, but for a visitor the lack of any towns or cities made this key map pretty much useless. The book has lots of nice photos on glossy pages, and gives tons of information on history and ecology of the various wilderness areas. It mentions some hikes and climbs and gives sketchy verbal directions, but if you are looking for a climbing or hiking guide to New Mexico this book is pretty much useless. The "maps" it has for the different areas are not topo maps, but just line maps of some surrounding roads and trails. I bought this book to help me plan some hikes and maybe easy peak climbs while I was in northern New Mexico. If I could return it I would, it will not be useful at all. If you are looking for a climbing guide, or even a guide to serious hiking in New Mexico don't get this book or you will be just as disappointed as I was!



3. Despite reviews by people from out of state, this book is an excellent source of information on the Wilderness areas of New Mexico. I only hope they update it soon with any new information. This is obviously not meant to be a hiking guide and is not the reason i purchased it. Finding a good source of all of the wilderness areas of the state on the internet was troublesome, even for me, who surfs a lot. While i could get a good list of the wilderness areas out of the gazeteer, i couldn't get a list of wilderness study areas. The book also gives some trail suggestions which are very helpful, but in the end, i went to other sources. Maybe my honoroble friend from Colorado should stay up there and leave the wilderness areas of New Mexico to us.



4. This book is good at what it is intended to be: an introduction and overview of the different wilderness and wilderness study areas in New Mexico. No hiker/backpacker should rely solely on this book however, so if that is what you're expecting to be able to do, you will be disappointed. Each section describes the wilderness area, lists the basics (elevations, best season, map references) and lists a couple of hikes, and has a very basic map of the area with the trails, access roads, and campgrounds. Once you've found the area you're interested in based on the author's fantastic descriptions, you'll need to get a topo map of that area in order to actually do the hike (but personally, I'd rather carry a topo map in my pack that is specific to my hike than lug a book around). And no, the overall map in the front doesn't have cities/towns, but really, how hard is it to tell what part of the state you'll be in?

3 comments about Hiking New Mexico (rev).

1. This publication was my first purchase on the subject. Laurence Parent gives you a good detailed trail description. The maps though are poor. A problem with most Falcon Guides. For the casual day hiker this book will do, for the explorer, I would look for another book.



2. I found this book to be very useful.

   I particularly liked the start of each hike information- This helps me to decide in a quick second whether I want to read the rest of the information and consider this hike or not. The information includes the level of difficulty, location, attractions, maps to get, and other important information. The maps were very useful in determining starting points and ending points for planning purposes.

   I found that the level of difficulty was accurate. This is very important to me because I'm a non hiker to very easy type of hiker.

   My only comment would be that many of the pictures didn't add to the text and could have been left out.




3. This is your typical Falcon book. It does give you a good overview of many popular (and a few obscure) hikes in the state -but with info and maps that sometimes are lacking. And of course, the size of NM and its numerous wilderness oppurtunities makes this or any hiking book attempting to cover the whole state rather ambitious. This is a general guide by neccessity.
   
   If you know what area of NM you would like to concentrate your exploring in, I would recommend one of the area specific Falcon guides (Gila, Carlsbad, Aldo Leopold, etc) or a book by a different publisher instead of this overview. These other books offer a lot more detail and don't have to skip popular and obvious localized hikes for a lack of space.

   I consider myself adept at reading maps and directions (what guy doesn't think that?) but I found some of the directions and maps in the book to be overly simplified or outdated. (As compared to "100 Hikes in New Mexico" - which is a better generalized guide). I particularly ran into this with the trails described in the White Mt. Wilderness. This also re-taught me that no guide book is no substitute for a good trail map if an extended backpacking trip is planned.

   After these critiques of the book, I do have to say it is a strong general guide in many ways that will give you a decent overview of NM hiking oppurtunities. The author's descriptions of trail difficulties are accurate and reasonable and the elevation charts in Falcon guides are very helpful. Aside from the instance mentioned above - the general descriptions of the hikes and the directions to the trailheads tend to be accurate.

2 comments about Saddle Up, New Mexico: The Statewide Horse Trail and Travel Guide.

1. This is a well written book that all trail riders in new mexico must own. You'll love it. The authors personnally rode every trail in their book and have outlined it beautifully. They wrote this book because no one else had and they noted a need for it.
   
   Donna Ketcheson, Back Country Horseman



2. This is a terrific guide to trail riding in New Mexico. This book gave valuable information on trail riding, camping with your horses and general information about trail riding gear. I would highly recommend this book for anyone visiting or living here in New Mexico.

2 comments about New Mexico, Rio Grande, and Other Essays.

1. If you ever read books of Tony Hillerman, be sure to take a look at this book. His love of the state of New Mexico is well known by readers of the Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn Mysteries, but this book is about the overwhelming beauty of the state. The vast open spaces, the silence and the history. This collection of essays together with the outstanding photographs is a must.



2. If Only!

   If only this book had been printed by the National Geographic Society, or Arizona Highways, or somebody who specializes in scenic calendars. The fabulous photos in here deserve top quality printing, and they didn't get it.

   However, I heartily recommend this book to all my fellow Hillerman fans, *anyway*, because the essays are great, and the background information on some of the events that inspired scenes in certain of the novels is priceless. If you loved 'A Thief of Time' as much as I did, you'll very much enjoy the descriptions of the actual site that inspired it. Hillerman's 'travelogue' down the Rio Grande is also wonderful.

3 comments about Day of Trinity.

1. This book is not entirely based on interviews with the scientists and other higher-ups at Los Alamos. It was written in large part using interviews with the "lesser" folks who were there... cooks, security guards, federal agents, family members of scientists, officers, etc. Mix those interviews in with all the historical information and you get a great alternate perspective on what it was like to have been stationed at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project years. A terrific book, and well worth reading if you can locate a copy.



2. Lansing Lamont takes an otherwise dry and sterile subject and turns it into a fictional type thrillride. This account of a momentous event matches anything that has been authored by Clancy or Crichton with one distinct differance...this actually happened.



3. This work is a highly readable look into the story behind the first atomic bomb. Some very minor factual innaccuracies can be discounted due to the lack of unclassified information available to the author at the time of writing (such as the presence of Einstein at Los Alamos).

   The book does a fine job of looking beyond the story and into the lives and personalities of the players. Excellent photo section, with what are probably the first-ever published diagrams of the general design of the Trinity bomb.

   Required reading for those interested in the most important story of WWII.

4 comments about New Mexico's Continental Divide Trail: The Official Guide (The Continental Divide Trail Series).

1. I have used the companion volume on a hike along the Colorado stage of the Divide trail. The format of that guide was excellent and the route description, although brief was accurate and most useful. My main criticism's of the Colorado volume are reserved for the Maps, reproduced from USFS sheets and inadequate in topographical detail, and the weight that for a trail Guide was rather heavy(too many nice photos, interesting but not essential bakground information, and heavy weight glossy paper).

   The New Mexico volume is in an identical format and so it remains on the heavy side. I will have to pare it down into individual segments and post them ahead to post offices along the trail to be collected. However the maps are a great improvement as they are reproductions of Topo Sheets with all the necessary detail of topography and land forms to engender confidence in route finding when bushwacking. As with Colorado, waymarks are included that use latitude and longitude so entered on a GPS set it can be used to keep you on Trail. All the necessary information for re-supply and access to and from the Trail is included although I will have to test its accuracy when I am on Trail this spring. There is some complexity in the route choices along Stages 19 and 20 North of Pie Town that make for difficulty in following the sequence of pages but I guess that this will resolve itself when on trail. There is an inconsistency in continuity between the Guides as the New Mexico volume is written assuming a Hike proceeding Northward while the subsequent Colorado volume assumes a Southward going trek. Incidently the Wyoming guide reverts to a Northward progress again. I expect this guide to be an essential purchase for any thru hiker for it establishes a definitive route for the CDT through the state. I will comment again on opinion of the book when I get back from the Hike when I have had real use of it.




2. I have used the companion volume on a hike along the Colorado stage of the Divide trail. The format of that guide was excellent and the route description, although brief was accurate and most useful. My main criticism's of the Colorado volume are reserved for the Maps, reproduced from USFS sheets and inadequate in topographical detail, and the weight that for a trail Guide was rather heavy(too many nice photos, interesting but not essential bakground information, and heavy weight glossy paper).

   The New Mexico volume is in an identical format and so it remains on the heavy side. I will have to pare it down into individual segments and post them ahead to post offices along the trail to be collected. However the maps are a great improvement as they are reproductions of Topo Sheets with all the necessary detail of topography and land forms to engender confidence in route finding when bushwacking. As with Colorado, waymarks are included that use latitude and longitude so entered on a GPS set it can be used to keep you on Trail. All the necessary information for re-supply and access to and from the Trail is included although I will have to test its accuracy when I am on Trail this spring. There is some complexity in the route choices along Stages 19 and 20 North of Pie Town that make for difficulty in following the sequence of pages but I guess that this will resolve itself when on trail. There is an inconsistency in continuity between the Guides as the New Mexico volume is written assuming a Hike proceeding Northward while the subsequent Colorado volume assumes a Southward going trek. Incidently the Wyoming guide reverts to a Northward progress again. I expect this guide to be an essential purchase for any thru hiker for it establishes a definitive route for the CDT through the state. I will comment again on opinion of the book when I get back from the Hike when I have had real use of it.




3. I completed the southern-most segment of the CDT, along with 4 other backpackers from Middle of Somewhere Expeditions. We (myself and the other trip guide) found the book to be as complete as possible, given the difficult current circumstances of the Bootheel area. The problems we encountered were mostly due to problems with the trail markings, or the complete LACK of a trail at all - not the book. Writing is excellent, and most all the information present was current. The "official" route chosen for that section was only established with the publishing of this book - in fact, our group were among the first people to navigate it. The bootheel section is an adventure - barbed wire fences, scrambling through deep canyons and over ragged peaks with no trail to follow, a wide variety of (sometimes dangerous) desert creatures, and spectacular scenery. Julyan's book (along with a GPS unit and some MapTech maps) got us through - and that's pretty impressive. Don't believe me? Try hiking that section.



4. This is a guide to a dream that is still unrealized -- a trail from Mexico to Canada that follows the Continental Divide. Like the Appalachian Trail which took decades to complete the Continental Divide trail is still in the making. Thus, the many complexities of finding a trail that in some places doesn't exist -- and in others has several alternatives for finding your way.
   
   The maps, the photography, the detailed descriptions, the elevation profiles all combine to make this an outstanding guide. The guide divides the 700 miles of the CDT in New Mexico into 28 segments and describes each in detail for the hiker going south to north. You'll nead the description, especially near the Mexican border where "trail" is an exaggeration. Time to learn to use that GPS that's been gathering dust in my desk drawer.
   
   The guide is a a bit heavy, so if I were carrying it on the trail I would tear out the needed sections. Also, it was published in 2001 and perhaps a new edition is needed. One would hope that there have been improvements in routing and marking the trail since then. As with the Appalachian trail progress toward completion is slow and opposition from landowners along the route is intense. It's a noble endeavor, however, to create what may become the longest and finest wilderness hiking trail on this planet.
   
   Smallchief

No comments about A Travel Guide to the Plains Indian Wars.

1 comments about Historic New Mexico Churches.

1. Terrific book with great photography. Really gives a sense of the place. My husband and I grew up in New Mexico and know many of these locations first hand. Seeing the pictures made me feel right at home. New Mexico has a varied past in which these churches have played an integral part. The author has provided an interesting text to give everyone a sense of that history.

1 comments about Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into New Jersey.

1. So far, about half way through the book and I find the acticles as good or better than the General BR series. I love American History, and this book is quite an addictive read! Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein would be proud, as they are both written about as New Jersey residents.

1 comments about The World Map, 1300--1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation (Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Staunton, Virginia).

1. THE WORLD MAP 1300-1492: THE PERSISTENCE OF TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION is an excellent choice for any college-level collection strong in cartographic or world history: it investigates the state of maps before Columbus, beginning with a 1436 atlas of ten maps produced by Bianco and using maps of the 14th and 15th centuries to consider how missionaries and merchants changed the state and presentation of the world. Makers and users of maps struggled with both technological change and changing world views brought on by discover, and mapmakers often blended old and new worlds to reconcile tensions between opposing viewpoints. The result is a fine, unusual perspective of world history and cartographic influences.