No comments about A Traveler's Guide to Monument Valley.

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4 comments about Highway 12.

1. Utah's Highway 12 is easily the most scenic byway in the continental United States. I've travelled it many times, but until I read Probasco's book I had no idea what a rich and variegated wonderland I was passing through. The author has done a really thorough investigation of the territory. Do not venture out on Highway 12 without first buying this book! Second best thing: Read the book in the comfort of your own home, with a good glass of wine and a dictionary near at hand. Probasco's prose won't insult your intelligence, and you will definitely learn a lot!



2. If you are looking for an unusual trip with a myriad of options as to the degree of challenge then this book is worth a look.Utah Highway 12 runs 124 miles in length from just southwest of Capitol Reef National Park in the north through Red Canyon in the west and passes through two national parks, a national monument, two state parks and literally thousands of acres of nationa forest and BLM land. It has recently been designated an All-American Road by the Federal Highway Administration, one of only 20 in the U.S. The lure of this trip is you can traverse the entire route in your car and still view some of the most spectacular scenery in North America or you may elect to get off the highway and explore the myriad canyons and side roads that are as much a part of the book as Highway 12 which really serves as the unifying theme of the book. Whether you spend a day or a month exploring this road and its environs, by foot or vehicle, you are guaranteed a memorable trip. I would have prefered more maps but still found the text informative and accurate. I have traveled this road a number of times and have gone "off-road" and can attest to a number of the sights noted by the author. As the author notes this trip can be as difficult or easy as you choose. A good introduction to a most interesting Highway.



3. More than a travel book, Christian Probasco's Highway 12 blends awesome accounts of scenery with unforgettable interviews and then adds a dash of controversy for a book that suprises the reader with every turn of the page. Illustrated by Probasco's stunning photography, the book is a must-read for anyone who has memories of traveling the Utah back country, and it is a should-read for anyone searching for that "road less traveled."



4. Wish I could write like this; "deserticulous" is certainly the right word for Probasco.
   Have had many adventures and misadventures in the very spots Probasco writes so well about, ah but never enough.
   Must load truck and go...

No comments about Slickrock: The Canyon Country of Southeast Utah (The Sierra Club exhibit format series).

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No comments about The Overland Journey From Utah To California: Wagon Travel From The City Of Saints To The City Of Angels.

5 comments about Canyon Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau.

1. Michael Kelsey guide books inspire only two reactions--you love them or you hate them--and I must admit to being a fan. These are not the greatest guides ever written, those would be the Steck "Loop Hike" guides, but for this area of the planet NOBODY knows more than Kelsey. The "readability" could be better, and yes, there is no index, but this book will get you to explore places nobody else even mentions. Kelsey does appear in the "fotos" (Kelsey spelling--kind of annoying, really) but I find this provides helpful scale. If you are buying a guide book for artistic photos, buy Sandra Hinchman's book--Tom Till did most of the shooting. Alternatively, you could just buy one of Till's books--they are ALL spectacular! Kelsey's hiking times ARE quite fast, but he gives these in the "Author's Experience" section and provides more "realistic" times in the "Time Needed" section so I don't see the issue. As for the metric system, well the USGS has started printing topo maps in meters so you might want to get used to it now.... The bottom line is this--if you have the canyoneering experience to be thinking about exploring these areas this guide is your ONLY choice!



2. Color photos, through coverage of hikes, lots of tips for traveling the backroads to these trails.



3. Controversy surrounds this hiking guide. On the one hand are those who criticize Kelsey for giving innacurate directions, exposing the pristine lands of southern Utah and northern Arizona to more people, and giving ridiculously fast hiking times. On the other hand are those who find this guide extremely helpful in exploring the Colorado Plateau canyon country, land which is open to all. I used different editions of this book for over a decade and found the book invaluable. This newer edition contains many beautiful color photographs and updated maps.
   
   Admittedly, the book is a bit eccentric. Kelsey insists on giving directions in metric, though this is certainly helpful to the many foreign visitors who visit the Colorado Plateau. I agree that an index would help as well. But the amount of time and energy that went into the research for this book must have been staggering. I never had a problem finding a trailhead or route with Kelsey's directions and maps. And after one hike, I had a general idea of how my hiking times compared to Kelsey's. His books have always contained ample warning about potentially dangerous canyons like the Black Hole.
   
   His book has helped me to explore canyons in one of the most beautiful places on earth.



4. Just looking at this book makes want you to go, let alone reading it ! Clear description of all the 120 hikes on this subjects :
   - Location and acces
   - Trail and route
   - Elevation
   - Time needed
   - Water
   - Maps
   - Main attractions
   - Best time to hike
   - Author's experience, adding a personal flavour.



5. An ton of useful information is packed into this book. That leads to what I think is the only real fault, which is the denseness of the type and the lack of white space. But I'm not going to mark it down for that. There is more covered here than any other guidebook I've seen on the subject. Some fine photos, too, although I also find his spelling "fotos" annoying.
   As to directions, in the wilder parts of the southwest it only takes one small mistake and you're off the route pretty quickly. Anyone who used the guidebook only and didn't have a good map and compass or GPS would be making a mistake.
   In response to those who think guidebooks like this are a bad thing, since they expose the natural and archaeological sites to more people, I can only say: How would you feel if you hadn't yet found this treasure, and those who had tried to keep you out? I know it's an instinctive thing to want to protect certain areas from overuse, but really, not that many people will visit this area. It's too harsh and unforgiving for all but those who are serious hikers, so we don't really need to worry about hordes of people overunning the canyons.
   While I'm as concerned as anyone about the effect more people will have on the Colorado Plateau, I applaud Mr. Kelsey for giving us the benefit of his many years experience in book form.

3 comments about Meeting the Tree of Life: A Teachers' Path.

1. On-Line Review by Leo Goldman, Natural Resources Defense Council.:

   In one way, this book is in the tradition of the author's admired nature writers -- such folk as Emerson, Thoreau, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold. But the framework is an autobiography, beginning with brief mention of his childhood in suburbs, which he describes almost as if they were crowded cities, and from which he began to escape at age 15 to backpacking and climbing. A college student during the Vietnam War, he later sought in wilderness "authenticity" and " a model for just and sustainable human societies" -- which he did not see in the world he and his friends had grown up in.

   He begins the detailed story with a difficult High Sierra climb -- between his military service (having volunteered for a program of Russian studies and intelligence work in order to avoid Vietnam itself) and graduate school. As he seeks for understanding of his motivations and feelings, he speaks first of challenge, thrill, danger, and athletic pleasure, but eventually realizes that he has become a naturalist, appreciating nature in all its complexity, not just the physical challenges and dramatic views. We follow his wilderness explorations, first in the mountains of the southwest during his first three years as a professor in Utah, then his disappointment in leaving the mountains for his next job, in Minnesota. There, however, he develops an appreciation of the wilderness of the flat country, mostly in canoe trips.

   Certainly an offbeat English professor, he had his students read nature writing, then accompany him on difficult treks to mountains and lakes, and return to write about their experiences. This approach was not appreciated by his colleagues, who apparently preferred traditional methods of teaching literature and writing. He ends this volume with the shock of being denied tenure -- but finds new awareness in the metaphor of a pine cone that releases its new life only in fire.




2. Tallmadge uses the events of his own life to illustrate mankind's connection to the environment and the necessity of wilderness. Writing in the spirit of his admired predecessors, Thoreau, John Muir, Edward Abbey, and Aldo Leopold; Tallmadge attempts to find his own unique voice in the enlightenment of his experience. At times he may get a little too "intimate with the rock", but he leaves the reader an optimistic feeling of the joy of discovery and knowledge.



3. I read this book for the first time when I was in my last semester of graduate work at Kansas State University. I was about to graduate with an M.A. in English that I had no idea how I was going to use. Tallmadge's autobiographical tale of his struggles with nature, self, career, and others encapsulates perfectly the agonizing dilemma that strikes any teacher with the slightest amount of idealism still in their blood. He wants to be true to himself, to, as Joseph Campbell put it, "follow [his] bliss." But he keeps getting derailed: first by the army, and then by a succession of teaching jobs that seem intent on crushing the budding idealism out of his teaching methodology.
   While the book is at times a bit overly idealistic and starry-eyed, you can't help but admire the enthusiasm and passion with which Tallmadge tries to instill his passion for nature in his students. He's the kind of teacher that any lover of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, or modern writers like Terry Tempest Williams, Leslie Marmon Silko, or the like would immediately take to. He wants his students to understand their connection, not only with the land, but with each other, as a community of learners as well as a community of human beings. And then, at the end, when everything seems to fall apart, he finds solace in the simplest of items: a jack pine cone. I'd say more about that, but I don't want to ruin the moment of revelation that comes at the end.
   Sufficed to say that "Meeting the Tree of Life" will leave you with a greater appreciation as well as understanding of the complex relationships that exist within nature as well as within the human soul. Like this review the book can be a little overly flowery at times, but the understanding that comes with reading this book makes those moments of saccharine sweetness almost pleasant. Give this book a try and I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed.

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