Colorado Books

Rocky Mountain is difficult to capture on film because the beauty is beyond my simple digital. Every time I visit the scenery changes colors with the season and time of day. The author manages to capture the essence of the park in his photos. This is a good book to collect.

I received 2005's calendar and was totally impressed with the photography. My copy of 2006's calendar just arrived and it's just as good as the other one. Keep up the good work!

I bought this book two years ago before my first trip to Rocky and am now preparing to use it for my third trip. It's compact enough to carry around, yet contains all the info you need, plus some great photos. Each hike displays exact distance and elevation, so you know exactly what to physically be prepared for. Best Tip:
the final hike,#42 states "high on list of places in Rocky you are most likely to see moose". That statement sent me straight to that trail and sure enough I turned a corner on the trail and came face to face with "Bullwinkle". Highlight of the trip.

Enos A. Mills was known as "the father of Rocky Mountain National Park." After spending years as a guide in the Estes Park area, making hundreds of ascents of Longs Peak, and then purchasing and operating the famous Longs Peak Inn, he became an advocate for various conservation and nature appreciation causes, most notably with the National Forest Service. Mills criss-crossed the country giving speeches (actually basically the same speech countless times), outlining the history of the Forest Service and relating his own personal experiences in the wild. A controversial figure (he seemed to have an uncanny ability to make enemies wherever he went), he eventually broke with Gifford Pinchot's Forest Service and began campaigning to make the Estes Park region a national park. Tireless in all things he put his mind to, Mills wrote hundreds of articles and a half-dozen books about (especially) the natural wonders of the Rocky Mountain region. In 1915 Rocky Mountain National Park became a reality.

This book collects a number of nature articles Mills wrote and had published in various magazines (The Saturday Evening Post was a favorite publication). Subjects include wild sheep, mountain lakes, the grizzly bear, beavers, reforestation, the Chinook wind, and some personal adventures (one involving a trip over the San Juans between Ouray and Silverton on a "mountain pony"). Mills makes his presence felt in all the articles, and he has the ability to make the reader feel privileged to be in his company. Unconcerned with bookish information, he would much rather relate what he's seen and learned with his own eyes. Some of the articles are a bit self-serving in their unwavering praise for the Rocky Mountain NP region, but he can be excused pushing his pet project so diligently. Mills's mountain adventures in all seasons and conditions are legendary, and anyone with a hankering for first-hand mountain experiences from a master naturalist will find this book a pleasure to read.

Events, dates, names, and places--this is the stuff of historiography, the art of documenting the past as a permanent chronicle for the future. Professor Wilton Eckley's Rocky Mountains to the World: A History of the Colorado School of Mines is a prodigious compilation that draws a comprehensive picture of a serving educational institution, from its inception in 1874 to continuing emergence. Eckley's objective portrayal details the School's spirited evolution against the backdrop of social and political forces that shaped a nation.

Thus, some of the chapter introductions may seem digressive; however, they establish the ambience in which the School evolved. Eckley masterfully weaves industrial-technological developments, market forces, social changes and international currents into the School's tapestry. He succeeds in detailing how the School's leaders have kept attuned to the times and adjusted to the demands of a global society.

Highlighted in each chapter are those administrators - weak and strong - who piloted the School through good times and bad. Very little escapes Eckley's scrutiny; he provides a balanced treatment of the various personalities and is evenhanded in assessing the successes and failures. From the leadership of founding fathers like Bishop Randall, through the tumultuous reigns of Victor C. Alderson and William Battle Phillips, to the steady guidance of Melville F. Coolbaugh, the School's voyage is traced through early instability, faculty upheavals, legislative budget woes, the Depression, and wars. Also documented are the more recent efforts of such leaders as Parker, Vanderwilt, Childs, McBride, and others - presidents who confronted a multitude of difficulties and moved the School through internal and external challenges.

Throughout the book are anecdotal inserts and photos that enliven and rattle the dry bones of history. Here the reader encounters many Mines traditions in all their glory and disrepute:
among them Senior Day, Engineers' Day, whitewashing the "M," Blue Key activities. Even the mercurial adventurer Dominic E. Perigo is accorded a place. The photos depict a range of student highlights (note the hairstyles, uniforms and attire) and campus scenes that are in themselves markers of the School's journey into the 21st century.

Professor Eckley's depth of research, crystalline analysis and conversational writing style result in a highly readable, informative and interesting history - a fitting tribute to Clio, the ancient muse of history.

Submitted by Anita Pariseau for Anton G. Pegis

In this book, former National Park Service (NPS) scientist Karl Hess argues that the NPS has damaged the environment of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) by failing to deal with an overabundance of elk. Without natural predators such as wolves, these elk have eaten all the available forage, such as young willows and aspen. These trees have been unable to remain in their former range, where they have been replaced by stands of ponderosa pines (among other trees). Their loss also affects habitat for beavers, ptarmigans, black bears, and many other animals. The harm to beavers is particularly damaging, leading to the destruction of the park's meadows and wetlands.

It's quite an indictment, and Hess makes it forcefully. He explains the ecological consequences of having too many elk in accessible terms.

He's much weaker on what to do about the elk. He doesn't explicitly advocate shooting the elk, though that solution certainly comes to mind (and once was used). Hess recommends handing the park over to a conservation trust whose incentives would differ from those of the NPS. It's easy to pick that apart, and he hasn't thought it through in sufficient detail.

Despite the weak policy recommendations, this is rightfully a classic book among critics of the NPS and its management. Tourism and local economic development take precedence over the natural resources in the park.

I use this book and have run a few of these trails already (just got it a couple of weeks ago, new to the area). The book has great, concise descriptions and a useful format for the trail info (distance, difficulty, wildlife, etc), good maps and useful information on local running resources and bits of running history. It's a good read as well as informative. Also, the descriptions fit the trails pretty well. Even from memory, while I'm out running I can note what was mentioned in the book and find my way if necessary.

This book is divided into five (5) equally important chapters. Chapter One deals with the Collecting, studying, and retaining human remains. Museums and the curation of sacred objects is the subject of Chapter Two. One of the hardest and most difficult subjects for the museum professional is the care of landscapes and sacred sites, the topic of Chapter Three. Chapter Four addresses the subject of tribal preservation offices while Chapter Five is about living tribal cultures. A widespread belief that the Indian was disappearing was widely help during the middle to late 1800s. To preserve the Indians, the white culture sought to display the bones, pottery, weapons, and othe ritems used in everyday life. The white man probably did this as a way of atoning for past injustices against the Indian. As time would bear out the Indian was anything but disappearing. With federal legislation such as the Antiquities Act passed in 1960 and most recently the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, there has been a concerted effort to recognize the right of the Native American to claim the human remains of their ancestors.

Chapter One deals with the problems some of tribes have with the mountain of paperwork required by some museums for repatriation and that most tribes have inadequate staffs to properly receive and process the items.

Chapter Two deals with how Native American tribes have requested and received many of the sacred objects that have been displayed. Medicine bundles, for example, have been carefully cleaned then x-rayed or CT-scanned to determine its contents. For sacred and trust reasons the bundles were not opened. The CT-scan was used only to determine the contents and therefore a determination on the proper curation methods could be utilized.

Chapter Three deals with the sometimes overwhelming task of preserving sacred landscapes and the much more difficult individual sacred sites. Not only sites used by tribes and clans, such as Devils Tower, WY, Wallowa Lake, OR and King's Highway, HI, but also vision quest and other individual-use sites may need to be deemed as religious sites.

Chapter Four ends with over fifty pages describing places sacred to Native Americans such as Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming and Mount Shasta in California.

Chapter Five deals with the effort of tribes to survive intact. This chapter also deals with the invasion of religious ceremonies by curious site-seers and how tribes have had to close these ceremonies.

"Sacred Objects and Sacred Places: Preserving Tribal Traditions" would be a valuable addition to the library of any individual interested in Native American studies.

This collection of 14 shorter pieces by Tim Robinson, mathematician, teacher, artist and cartographer, gives a portrait of the west of Ireland which is unrivalled in recent writing from that country. Its' integrating device, and central metaphor, is the map. A map, stripped bare, is a distillation of topographical knowledege about an area. Onto this rudimentary two-dimensional scaffolding layer after layer of detail can be added. These are the details of culture, of history, personal memory. Robinson navigates the process of regarding a landscape with the notion of the fractal -- the notion of self-similar structures at multiple levels of observation (in "A Connemara Fractal"). He enjoyably talks us through the technical details of making maps, and has some wonderful stories of his mathematical training. I will not attempt to summarize the various chapters but would urge all those interested in landscape, biography, Irish history, coastal walks, fractal theory, natural history archaeology, literary fiction, and "home" (and that, I suppose, includes just about everyone) to read this. In a time when many find themselves living at some distance from their homeplace this book shows how a fresh intimacy with new landscapes can enrich and invigorate. As an Irish emigrant I am both compelled to return to Ireland after reading this and yet am encouraged to persevere in understanding of my new homeplace in the United States. I have loaned this book to friends in Costa Rica, in the American Northwest, and here in Georgia. All have felt its power. It should stimulate the reader to get his larger works on the Aran Islands. Be warned however these books, the present one included, eccentric masterpieces, will make you want to crumble soil between your fingers, circum-navigate your local terrain, and fumble into the interstices of your jaded soul. Liam Heneghan (heneghan@sparc.ecology.uga.edu; Athens, GA)

Those of us who live and ride in or near Salida have known for years that there is much more to love about the area than the famed Monarch Crest Trail. But we would be the first to admit that some of the best of the riding in the area is rarely seen because it isn't necessarily easy to find.

Salida Singletrack has helped me to know the Upper Arkansas Valley better than I knew it before. I expected riders visiting here to benefit from a good guide book, but I never expected to have the book help me find new great rides right close to home.

Nathan's section for every "The Ride: Mileage Log" can help anyone with an odometer find the route. His descriptions are enticing and full of background information. Salida Singletrack is a fun book that's also very accurate and useful.

Pick up a copy of Salida Singletrack, then pay us a visit and find out just how good is some of Salida's lesser known riding.