Colorado Books

An absolute must for a raft trip down the river. The book provides some worthwhile facts, photos and images to provide even the youngest traveler with a certain base of information prior to making the trip.

The waterproof pages make the book even more useful, as I witnessed a number of people reviewing it throughout the day on the river without concern for damage.

Provides an excellent sequence of maps useful to people running the river plus considerable background info on notable past river runners. Published on water resistant material. Very useful!

Outstanding and essential guide for running the rapids and for general information about the Grand Canyon from the Colorado River perspective. Good geology, history, and river map information

This was the perfect map to take on a river rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. It had a map of every mile of the canyon, with locations of the rapids, side canyons, points of interest, and essays on the history, the lives of canyon characters, the regional anthropology, the plant and animal life, the geology, and a guide to photography. Very appropriately the guide is sturdy and waterproof.

Beautifully illustrated story of family 100 years ago moving westward to Colorado and making a new home and battling the elements. Saving a family of geese, one injured, from a rough winter, and staying committed to each other thru rough times makes story engrossing and rewarding.

Grandfather's Christmas Tree is a beautifully written and illustrated non-fiction book. The story is about the author's grandfather and a tall spruce tree outside his home. The illustrations are done in oil paints. This is a wonderful story about family and should be included in everyone's Christmas reading collection.

Beautifully illustrated story of family 100 years ago moving westward to Colorado and making a new home and battling the elements. Saving a family of geese, one injured, from a rough winter, and staying committed to each other thru rough times makes story engrossing and rewarding.

This is a true story about the author's grandfather. Over 100 years ago his grandfather moved west to Colorado to start his family. All around the land was coved in spruce trees. One winter the weather is really bad and they think they will have to cut all the tress for fire wood. 2 geese have made their home under one tree and one is hurt and can't move on. The grandmother in the story begs the grandpa to leave the tree a little longer. He does and the story has a happy ending.

This book can be valuable as a teaching tool. It is a book that teaches the value of family, material things, memories, nature, and history. Life cycles, the seasons, and holidays are so important to the family in the book.
I would recommend this book to others. The book is a great holiday book but the themes in the story should be taught year around.

This book is just what I was looking for a reference book in the field and home. It has both photos and drawings of each plant. One plant per page and the pages are nicely grouped by flower color which is visible on the page edges as well. The indexes, as usual in nature books of this type, have both common name and Latin name of each plant. Included are black and white diagrams of leave types and flower head patterns with glossary. Each item listed has a synopsis of flowers, leaves, what"~ kind of immediate environment it grows in, "Life Zone(s)" i.e. foothills, alpine, etc., and flowering time.

Nice guide, grouping by color helpful for identification. Could use more detailed anatomical descriptions and photos are a bit small.

I grew up and live in the summer in a Colorado ghost town at 9,000 ft. altitude surrounded by 13,000 ft. mountains. This is the best guide for Colorado alpine flowers I have ever seen. Great illustrations, fine explanatory notes - a must have for alpine flower afficianados.

I go to Colorado backpacking, rafting and climbing every summer and of all the field guides I have ever had, this one is the best! It has very easy to use color format so you can find any flower in a matter of seconds. KEEP IT HANDY!

Both books serve as the focal point of our coffee table. I find myself thumbing through one whenever I need a 5 minute vacation! Thanks for the therapy!

As a fourth generation Coloradan, I admit to having a natural skepticism whenever I initially feast my eyes upon a photography book that, by its title, is intended to 'capture' the beauty, majesty and unique qualities of the Rockies. My close attachment to the Rocky Mountains makes me sometimes feel that most photographers will fall short. WRONG assumption! I'm delighted to report that Sue Neider has successfully captured the heart and soul of the Colorado Rockies in her latest book in honest, forthright, unique and spectacular images. 'High Country: Touring he Colorado Rockies' absolutely affected me as I moved from page to page---and made me feel as though Ms. Neider must have spent her life out here, which I've learned is not the case. Her latest book was like having a personalized guided tour of the Rockies and I recommend it 100% to readers living anywhere---including others like me who have spent their entire lives embracing mountains and scenery in the Rocky Mountains region. Terrific viewing, excellent text, and an experience I will revisit over and over. This is a book that I am proud to own!

Three years ago, Susan Neider's photographic and literary guide to the Colorado Plateau, Color Country, moved me to write a review on this site in the hope that others would discover her work as well. Her new guide to the Colorado Rockies, High Country, proves that Color Country was no quirk. If there could remain any doubt from the choice and intensity of her photographs that Neider's accomplishment is to understand the landscape and what that means to the human experience, here's how she, in a few words, shows that she gets it: "The peaks are here," she says of the surroundings, "so are the valleys. So is the range of vision that draws me away from an intense and restless inner self." And that's it. Neider's descriptions, advice, and photos all reflect a passion rarely found in guidebooks. Those who want more than a passingly pleasant experience with the places Neider visits would take her, or at least her books, along.

I tend to carry a lot of books when I travel, so I'm careful about what I pack. But Neider's guides are essential travel gear and take the place of a lot of other books I might have to take along. I learned this when she published Color Country a few years ago and wore out my first copy traipsing around Utah with it, planning trips and choosing places to visit. Now she's done the same thing, in spades, for Colorado with High Country and it's a welcome addition to my travel library, too. I'm a nut about geology, but a lot of what is written is hard to read. But Neider's a first-rate explainer and provides just what you need to understand the landscape. And then there are her pictures. Direct, clean and engaging, the same clarity evident in her writing shines through in her photographs. If they weren't so inspirational I'd be tempted to put my own camera away, knowing I'll never get the same feeling of a place she manages to capture so well. Her photo tips keep me shooting, though. I think, as with her first book, I'll be giving a lot of copies of this one to friends who are traveling west.
Brava, Neider, once again!
Alex Connor
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

I read this book for the first time about ten years ago. On re-reading it, I experienced the same general mood I remembered from the first time around: sadness.

When the men in the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis after their two-and-a-half year journey to the Pacific Northwest, they were amply rewarded, with money and land, by a gushing Congress. All of them but one, that is. York, William Clark's slave, had traveled with all the rest of the men. He's mentioned occasionally in the journals written by some of the expedition's members (not the least of whom are Lewis and Clark). He pulled his weight in the physical toil of the journey; he appears to have been a good hunter; his blackness, a fascinating novelty to a few of the Indian tribes the Corps encountered, seems to have been a cultural ice-breaker on at least one occasion; and he was accepted as a bona fide member by the other Corpsmen, given that there are no negative comments made of him by any of the journal writers and that he was given a vote equal to any other Corps member's on two separate occasions. Yet, on the Corps' return to civilization, York became invisible again: a man with no last name, a slave, a piece of property. Chattel.

So it is with the invisibles of history, the people who our cultural blindspots just won't allow us to see. For too many years, blacks and Indians have been the invisibles in US history. It's as if they never existed. They vanish without leaving a ripple on the pond, and this is incredibly sad.

That's why In Search of York is such an important book, because in it Robert Betts tried to overcome cultural blindness by painstakingly searching out and documenting as much information about York as he could. Needless to say, what emerges is more of a silhouette than a portrait. There simply isn't a lot of available information about York. But in the process, Betts (as well as James Holmberg, who ends the book with an historical essay on York) accomplishes two noteworthy things.

First, his research underscores the strangely schizophrenic relations between masters and slaves in antebellum America. York became Clark's servant when both were still boys. They grew up together, felt affection for one another, and served together on an adventure that could've only made them closer. But afterwards, back in proper society, Clark immediately reverted to the role of master, complained mightily that York had become surly and uppity, even daring to ask for his freedom, and didn't hesitate at all to hire York out to hard taskmasters as a form of punishment. Clark eventually did free York, but only a decade after the expedition. The strangeness of the relationship between York and Clark is not unrepresentative of the love/hate attitude many masters felt for their slaves. But it's still startling.

The second noteworthy feature of this book is Betts' exploration of how York (and, by implication, many other black Americans) was made invisible by caricature. In the novels and "history" texts about the Lewis and Clark expedition published during the first half of the 20th century, York is usually depicted in ways that conform to the racist stereotypes of the day. He comes across as thick-witted but jolly--your typical happy negro servant. He's portrayed as a randy stud who sired half-breed children with every Indian tribe the Corps encountered. Understandable but equally false are the latter revisionist attempts to transform York into a hero who was one of the expedition's most valuable members. There's absolutely no evidence for any of these portraits of York, negative or positive, and the real York drowns in them.

Robert Betts and James Holmberg have done more in this sad but enlightening book than shed some light on a specific historical invisible. They've also brought the cultural blindspots that creates invisibles to our attention, and in doing so have hopefully helped all of us to open our eyes just a bit wider.

I loved the way the author cleared the air on others who wrote about York in a negative way. The speculations about facts that are not known about York make a lot of sense. The footnotes alone were very informative. Great reading.

There's some good information about York on the web, but the best source is the biography In Search of York. This fascinating and well-illustrated book brings together all that is known of York. It is not only a great book about York, but one of the best books in the L&C literature.

This was the only book I could find about the slave who went to the Pacific with Lewis & Clark. It was published by Colorado Associated University Press in 1985. Exellent foundation for further research on York. very readable with good illustrations & footnotes.

Behrendt's account of his winterover and subsequent traverse is a very interesting read, and most importantly, a very relevant contribution to the history of Antarctic science. It shows the clash between the old generation of explorers rooted in the "Heroic Age" with the younger generation of scientists, ultimately marking the beginning of the "Scientific Age" in Antarctic exploration.

The book is reasonably well-written although in a strange style: a mixture throughout of diary entries from 1957 and current commentaries. The narrative about the science and logistics is interesting enough, but the real heart of the book is the battle between the scientists and Captain Finn Ronne of the U.S. Navy. Captain Ronne, who wrote his own version of the IGY expedition at Ellsworth Station, appears to have been a completely arbitrary martinet, a self-serving dictator and political string-puller, and a bad-tempered paranoid and coward. He repeatedly put the expedition in danger by his refusal to provide equipment. He censored much of the communication in and out. He insisted that the scientists share dishwashing and other duties even when they were barely able to complete their scientific assignments. He evidently believed that the Navy support team of 30 or so men had more important things to do than assist the scientists, even though the sole purpose of the whole expedition was scientific. The sad tale of how he killed two emperor penguins 'in the most brutal way imaginable' is enough to turn one's stomach.

There are parallels, as Behrendt notes, with Captain Queeg of the Caine Mutiny. Unfortunately in the nonfictional world of the Navy, Ronne's outrageous behavior, although known to his superiors, apparently went unpunished.

The characterization of other individuals in the book is rather thin. But I would strongly recommend the book.

The title is very appropriate for Behrendt's diary of events at Ellsworth Station on the Weddell Sea margin of the Filchner Ice Shelf and their long geophysical traverse as far south as the Dufek Massif during IGY (1956-1958). The diary, that of a graduate student geophysicist and neophyte Antarctican, is made much more interesting by the running commentary from one of Antarctica's most accomplished, still active, scientists. The underlying plot describes a group of young scientists trying to cope with a system designed for the Navy and the harsh realities of exploring an unknown part of Antarctica. Many of the stories are amusing and almost unbelievable; they show the stress of wintering over and working in harsh conditions. I am amazed at how much was accomplished by Behrendt and other pioneers in the IGY program who worked with the relatively primitive equipment of the time. We need to hear more of their stories!

Behrendt's book is an interesting and rewarding read on several levels. At the core of the book are the extremely complete field notes of a 20-something scientist-adventurer on an exploratory journey into an unmapped part of Antarctica during the 1957 International Geophysical Year. Interspersed with this narrative are the reflections of the same man from a vantage point 40 years in the future. Part history, part science, part an examination of expedition psychology, this book will be of interest to a wide audience.

Funny, horny, passionate, insightful and a damn good read!

Foreman gives testosterone a good name!

This is Earth First! founder, Dave Foreman's first novel. Set partly in New Mexico's Diablo National Forest and partly in southeastern Arizona, Foreman's natural descriptions read as if they were drawn from his own field notes. This story is as much about commitment to wild places as it is about survival.

Interestingly, Foreman's novel is similar to Barbara Kingsolver's current bestseller, PRODIGAL SUMMER (2000), in many respects. Both novels involve sensual love affairs that unfold in nature. Whereas Kingsolver's lovers, Deanna Wolfe (a forest ranger) and Eddie Bondo (a hunter) debate coyotes, Foreman's lovers, MaryAnne McClellen (a wildlife ecologist) and Jack Hunter (a burned-out, Sierra Club lobbyist) protect Mexican wolves. Like Deanna, MaryAnne understands: "If life in all its fecund, blooming, buzzing, beautiful diversity is to survive, we humans must find within ourselves the generosity of spirit and the greatness of heart to make room for the full flowering of other species and natural life processes" (p. 176). Kingsolver even lives in Tucson, where parts of Foreman's novel unfold.

Jack Hunter is a complicated character. No longer a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., Hunter has become "a hard-drinking, sullen horseshoer in a backwater nowhere;" yet he remains "a man born to greatness" (p. 206). When confronted with Forest Service logging plans and saving the lobos, "Hunter knew he couldn't run any more," Foreman writes. "It was time to stick his spear in the ground and fight for home. He saw the grand cottonwoods and bouncy stream of Stowe Creek Meadow. He saw the tall ancient pines of Mondt Park. He saw the wolves of Davis Prairie. That was what was real. That was what was important. That was what made his life worth living . . . he would fight for it now. No matter what the cost" (p. 200).

Dave Forman has written a howling-good first novel which, like Kingsolver's, I recommend to those who share a love for wild places.

G. Merritt

This was a wild read. Sex, romance, wilderness, wolves, good guys, bad guys, and a moral to the story. The story is about those who love the west and do battle to protect the land and its wildlife. Many of the characters and events are probably emulations from the author's own life that has been dedicated to the protection of wilderness and wildlife. If you want to gain a sense about why some people are willing to devote their lives to the wild then read this book. When you are done, choose your place to stand and defend.

Having moved to the New Mexico outback myself a few years ago with the notion that cowboys and ranchers were noble and strong caretakers of the land, I was shocked to learn about the whole public land multiple use system and what arrogant cretins the abusers of it really are. Dave Foreman has ripped the masks off every wise-use, militia belonging, united nations fearing, and custom-and-culture ranting local rural resident and revealed them for the ignorant, bombastic yahoos they really are. I hope I live long enough to someday hear the howl of a lobo here. This book let me dream that might someday come true.

I love this book and refer to it often. This was the most up to date book back when I purchased it. Well put together, easy to find Campgrounds. I have recommeded this book to everyone in my RV Club and many are going out to get their own copy after using mine.

I've been very happy using this Moon guide to pick good places to camp this summer. The book is well-organized, with clear, honest, and up-to-date information about camping in Colorado. Best of all, author Sarah Ryan manages to convey the spirit of a place in concise and creative descriptions, with sentences like "The Gates of Lodore sounds and looks like a place out of Lord of the Rings." I've camped during summers in Colorado for over a decade, and I'm impressed with how accurately this book describes familiar places. And I've been particularly delighted with how helpful it's been in my search for hidden campground gems.

Almost 500 campgrounds in Colorado, from the plugged-in to the primitive are rated by author, Sarah Ryan according to facilities, scenic beauty, and activities. Ryan manages to be practical, informative and thoroughly engaging. Take, for instance, the quote she gets from Rosy Lane camp host Ray Zimball on the cliffs full of mica that surround his campground: "on a full moon you could read a newspaper by the light." This book is a must for Colorado campers and an excellent gift for outdoor-types. The guide is absolutely up-to-date but so well-written that it will be cherished by campers for decades.

As indicated by other reviewers, the Moon Outdoors (previously Foghorn Outdoors) 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 Moon 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 Moon Outdoors Guides the only ones we carry? No. But they are ALWAYS the first place we turn when selecting a destination campground.

As I read Murder in the Brown Palace, I found myself muttering again and again, "What were they thinking?" This ill-starred love quadrangle: Isabel and John Springer, Frank Henwood, and "Tony" von Phul - through incredible naiveté or lack of common sense - could only have ended in tragedy. The author sticks to the meticulously researched facts and resists "filling in" or extrapolating when the historical record is silent or lost. The attorneys, the judges and the old Brown Palace herself have riveting roles that might seem outrageous today, but maybe not when compared to the shenanigans of the O.J. Simpson trial. And to think all of this happened in Denver at a time when she thought she had outgrown her wild frontier reputation. Not so!

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

With the seemingly disproportionate amount of salacious news stemming from Colorado over the past few years (see CU, JonBenet, Columbine, AFA, Kobe...), each with their corresponding legal and journalistic blunders, it's perhaps equal parts refreshing and frustrating to know that this isn't new. Denver Post columnist Dick Kreck paints a rich and detailed picture of the `scene' in Denver and the West during the otts and teens of the last century. That scene included media obsession with scandal, a rouge legal system, DA improprieties, criminal celebrity, right wing 'values' politics, adultery, murder, money.... Sound like that could be the otts of this century in Colorado?

This is a great read, and Kreck has left no stone unturned in his quest for accuracy and detail. Anyone interested in knowing what Denver was like 100 years ago, and in many ways how we got to where we are today, should read this book- or just anyone who loves good murder mystery or courtroom drama!

i found this book intresting. it shows a side of denver that is not seen sometimes. this book gives a look at a man who believe he was innocent and tries with two trials to prove it and recieves a unthinkable twist when he recieves a worse sentence. this book is wonderful for anyone intrested in colorado and murders.

Senior columnist Dick Kreck is a journalist with the Denver Post. He has also worked with the San Francisco Examiner and the Los Angeles Times. He has two previous books to his credit, Colorado's Scenic Railroads and Denver in Flames.

Murder at the Brown Palace chronicles one of the most famous high society murders of the twentieth century. The Brown Palace is one of Denver's grand old hotels, and the principals of the case were all of a free-wheeling social set. In the middle, and probably the cause of the murder was Isabelle Springer, who was married to would-be politician and wealthy Denver businessman John W. Springer. Not content to be a proper social wife, the narcissistic Isabelle enticed two men, and then set up a showdown which ended in two tragic deaths. Unfortunately for Frank Henwood, the killer, Denver was trying to gain a dignified reputation and had no sympathy for the cause of the shooting:

"That the said Sylvester L. von Phul came to his death by gunshot wounds having been fired by Frank H. Henwood in the City and Country of Denver in the state of Colorado about 11:35 p.m. on Wednesday, May 24, 1911, in the barroom of the Brown Palace Hotel at Seventeenth and Broadway; and we further find the said Sylvester L. von Phul died at St. Luke's Hospital about 11:30 a.m. May 25, 1911, and we further find that said shots were fired with felonious intent."

Dick Kreck, no doubt, went to great lengths to reenact the events leading up to the shooting. Although he presents the facts in an impartial vein, Frank Henwood was obviously led on by Isabelle Springer, as was Sylvester L. von Phul. The irony of the situation is that neither man really wanted to murder the other...but both men acted and reacted passionately to create a chain of events from which both of their lives, and two innocent bystanders' would be ruined. Kreck gives a wonderful historical overview of the politics at that time which would prove to be rigid and unforgiving towards Henwood. Another twist to the story is that John W. Springer really did not blame Henwood for what happened, although the public was not as forgiving. Kreck not only is a dogged historian, but he is faithful to the attitudes and trends of the time, giving the reader a unique perspective on this woeful tale. An excellent read!

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer

Real interesting book. We have different places to go in Colorado now that we didn't know about before.

If you live in Colorado, or just want to learn some interesting and fun trivia about this wonderful state, this little book is well worth the money! For example, the first restaurant in Denver, CO to receive the liquor license # 1 is still in business! Every state should have something like this! Hmmm maybe Jerome Pohlen would like to take on this little endeavor? LOL

This book is incredible! I have both the Colorado and Illinois ODDBALL books, and they are hilarious. I had no idea the amount of odd stuff that could be in one state. This is a great travel book! And makes a great gift!

We recently moved to Colorado and purchased about a dozen travel guides to help us get oriented. Oddball Colorado was one we just sort of grabbed in the melee. My wife and I would burst out in spontaneous laughter as we read it. Rather than read it cover to cover, I found myself bouncing around from page to page. Just when I thought I had finished it I would discover another golden nugget I had overlooked. It was a sad day when I realized I had finally finished it!

Now all other travel guides seem inconsequential. Pohlen identifies the natural wonders that really matter (to me!). The cheesy roadside attractions that seemed to capture my father's big station wagon with their tractor beams. Reading the book is like taking a ride with my dad all over again.

Now I've moved onto Oddball Illinois. And I thought nothing could make me want to visit Illinois!