3 comments about Utah Camping: The Complete Guide to more than 400 Campgrounds (Foghorn Outdoors).

1. The Foghorn series of campground guides is not without flaws. Even so, we know of no directories which do a better job of addressing campground aesthetics than these wonderful guides. In our experience, the look and feel of a campground is often the single greatest factor influencing the quality of a camping experience . . . and the factor totally ignored by nearly all other campground guides.
   
   There are a number of directories which rate facilities, provide directions, tell you how to make reservations and give you an idea of the cost for a night's stay in a specific campground. This series gives similar basic information and then goes beyond that. The Foghorn guides actually give you a feel of what it is like to stay in a specific campground - a bit of a narrative description and a "scenic beauty rating" for each campground plus information about nearby recreation opportunities. We like that a lot.
   
   Have we found instances where we liked a campground more or less than the book's author? Of course. Tastes differ and things change over time. Even so, we would rather have an admittedly subjective rating of a campground's intangibles than to have nothing to go on but a recitation of facts and figures.
   
   Are the Foghorn Outdoors guides the only ones we use? No. But they are ALWAYS the first place we turn when selecting a destination campground.



2. I BOUGHT A PRIOR EDITION OF THIS BOOK AND FOUND THAT IT DOES NOT LIST ALL THE C.G'S. MAYBE IT'S ME BUT, I COULDN'T FIND ANYTHING ON NAVAJO NAT'L MONUMENT! AGAIN, THE SAME CAMP GROUND HAS BEEN LEFT OUT. MAYBE IT'S A WELL KEPT SECRET. A WELL MADE EFFORT TO DUPLICATE "TOM STIENSTRA". NOW I SEE WHY TOM STIENSTRA GETS AWARDED "OUTDOOR WRITER OF THE YEAR"!!!! COM'ON GUYS, GET OFF THE ARM CHAIR AND DO SOME EXPLORING. GET OUT THERE!!! LEAD ME TO SOMEPLACE THAT I'VE NEVER BEEN TO BEFORE. SOMEPLACE WHERE I CAN SAY, WOW! I LOVE THIS BOOK!!



3. We used this book extensively for a Utah car camping trip last month. While it does offer a lot of useful information, we found that we could not rely on the ratings given the campgrounds in deciding where to camp.
   
   In the other foghorn guides, a 9 or 10 rating is relatively rare and usually well deserved. In this guide, however, they are dished out quite often in campgrounds other than private ones.
   
   For example, if you look at the campgrounds along the Colorado outside of Moab, almost all are 9s. Yet these are located right by the road, have little shade, and very little privacy. Yes, the view in front of you is very nice but the road noise is very disturbing.
   
   Also, in Capitol Reef, they awarded the Fruita campground a 10. This might be a 7 or even 8 but it's not a 10.
   
   As far as not including Navajo National Monument as another reviewer complained, I believe NNM is located in Arizona and not Utah.
   
   Other than the generous ratings, it's a fairly informative guide.

No comments about Navajo Nation: A Visitor's Guide.

1 comments about Arches: The Story Behind the Scenery.

1. The Story Behind The Scenery books are very interesting. They have pictures of whatever park they are about such as Arches: The Story Behind The Scenery. A must read for anyone planning to visit one of our great parks.

3 comments about Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns.

1. Stephen L. Carr's book is the funabental source for information on Utah's Ghost Towns. Carr has taken a very practical approach, county by county and given background to the town's orrigin, how to visit the town, and what to expect once you arrive. Our family has used it for years as we venture around the state of Utah and attempt to visit Utah's historical past. This book is a must for understanding Ghost Towns in Utah.



2. A great book to get started with. This was my first book and one of the staples of my collection. Great history on the towns and great instructions to get there. If you are serious about ghost town hunting... get this book.



3. Stephen Carr's Utah's Ghost Town book is excellent to help you understand the history of the past ghost towns and to see what you might find at the towns. Reading the background information is full worth the book's value.

   The problem we found was that the book was published in 1972. In order to use the book, you need to consult other maps due to new highways and streets and other things changing. Also, many of the ghost towns have denegrated or disappeared within 30 years. It seems that Hollywood liked all the ghost towns available, but after visiting many of the ghost towns, I don't think Hollywood would ever set foot in them again after the great movie sets they can make today.

   Book Example: "Grafton is one of the most pictursque ghost towns that Hollywood used for many movies."

   What We Found Out: There are only four structures left in Grafton with one locked up on private property. The church has been completely refurbished so it looks brand new and another structure is about to fall down and is off-limits to people.

No comments about Southwestern Utah Map.

2 comments about Wild Weekends in Utah: An Outdoor Adventure Guide.

1. I have lived in Utah for over 20 years. During that time I have hiked, backpacked, paddled, skied, biked, swam, and crawled through much of the incredible backcountry this state has to offer. I have done these adventures with skilled outdoor enthusiasts as well as young children. I have never seen a book that covers a wider variety of trips and it happens to contain many of my favorites. Use this book to plan your vacation or if you live in Utah make a goal to complete each trip in the book over the next five years and you are guaranteed to have some of the greatest experiences of your life. The book is an amazingly complete guidebook as well as an informative natural history guide. It is obvious that Lori has a love for outdoor adventure as well as a strong commitment to conservation. Enjoy the book but more importantly use the book to help you enjoy Utah.



2. Wild weekends in Utah is the best guide I have found for short weekend trips. This book provides excellent reviews of each possible excursion and great safety tips and difficulty ratings to help determine who may or may not be appropriate to bring along with you. Excursion time frames are useful and help know which trips can be hit in one, two or three days.

4 comments about Coyote's Canyon.

1. The book captures a remarkable series of photos of desert canyons. The photos are good enough to keep the book on my office conference table. Ms. Williams' text provides stories of people encountering wilderness at the near edge of mystic experience.



2. Coyote's Canyon is a collection of photography of the Southwestern US, coupled with Terry Tempest Williams's haunting prose. The photographs are, by and large, rich and full of the sense of the desert. The collection of short essays by Williams includes two of my absolute favorite stories about the Southwest--the one about the Man who Buries Poems, and the one about finding the Perfect Kiva. Worth the read, for anyone who yearns for the desert, or who lives there and wants to rediscover an appreciation for its magic, both in photographs and in lyrical prose.



3. Straight to my heart. If you love the red rocks and enjoy Terry's writing, this is it. The photography is excellent!



4. Gorgeous photographs taken in National Parks and other wild lands in the southwestern U.S. combine with New Age vignettes.
   
   I loved the photos, but found the narrative didn't appeal to me. One vignette stood out as disturbing: the narrator makes the mistake of telling a local that a mountain lion just ran across the road in front of the truck, and the local's response is to say he and his buddies will be out there the next day with dogs and guns. I found it sad to think that in the modern day people still have no better solution for living with predators than to exterminate them. Other than that -- I found the narrative generally sentimental and information-free, but it's just not my kind of thing and I'm sure it will appeal to others.

No comments about Bryce Canyon National Park (True Book).

No comments about Compass American Guides: Utah, 5th Edition (Compass American Guides).

1 comments about Insiders' Guide to Southwestern Utah.

1. This book has the best non-tourist type information I have been able to find in Utah tour books. It offers 'friendly' advice and comments on what to do and where to go, and where to avoid. It is simple, concise, and comprehensive. I found the format of the book, which is divided by activities and subjects (i.e. accomodations, outdoor activities, parks, etc) rather than cities/towns to be particularly useful. It was so helpful that after borrowing from the library twice, I decided I couldn't go to Utah without it, so I bought it.