Utah Books

Mediocre, with a few moments of good writing, but the entire theme is contrived. Spend your money on real environmental writing, for example Paul Shepard and Jerry Mander.

Overall, this book is a collection of essays having something to do with the environment and the Church of Jesus Christ (Mormon). If you're not Mormon you won't get a lot of the allusions to religion. However, there are plenty of essays mostly on environment or how family, community, and spirituality are tied up with environment.

Some of the essays are from critics of the Mormon church and some may be put off by these essays. Many of the essays are from Mormon authorities like Vaughn Featherstone or High Pinnock. Quite a few Utah politicians write about environment also.

The essays are quite uneven. Some are deeply intellectual;others are emotional. A few times I finished and essay and wondered what I had just read. But usually I finished an essay with a greater appreciation of this beautiful world we live in.

If I had to give a theme to this book it would be stewardship - that is, the idea that God gave us this beautiful world to care for and not to destroy and abuse. And as I watch the Utah I knew and loved turn into tract housing and fill with cars and people and smog, I think that many of us are not being wise stewards.

One criticism would be not including any conservative viewpoints. Congressman Hansen or Bishop ought to be in here. And writers who live on the land like ranchers, miners and the like. They too have a land ethic and excluding them so completely leaves a large gap.

In general, I commend the editors Terry Williams (Author of Refuge), William Smart (former Deseret News editor), and publisher Gibbs Smith.

Although the contributors to this book are all Mormons the plea they make is universal. Our ties to God's creations are real. We derive emotional and spiritual strength from them. The earth is given to us as a stewardship from God, to use, but also to protect and "replenish". The contributors cite personal examples to explain their interpretation of this "stewardship." I recommend this book!

This book is well-written, and gives a bit more information about some of the great legends of Utah treasure history, but it doesn't go into enough detail. This would be fine for the casual, armchair treasure hunter, but for someone who wants to hit the trail and find these places, it is seriously lacking. It makes me wonder if the real way to make money from lost treasure in Utah is by writing books about it.

This is an interesting addition to my collection of books on the old mines of Utah. It rehashes many previously told stories but with a different angle on some. It helped me find a couple of trails I hadn't pinned down so I found it useful. Good writing.

Stephen B. Shaffer is an amazing man on an amazing quest for knowledge. If you've read his previous works, and have an open mind, then you know what I'm talking about. I really enjoyed this book. Many tales of adventure and treasure, both lost and found. This book, though definately entertaining enough, does not shed a whole lot of new light on old gold. For the casual treasure hunter, it does offer some direction, but for the technical fanatic, you will find that Stephen stops short of disclosing the details.

A hiking guide book for Cedar Mesa, SE Utah. Also contains essays about hiking, Anasazi, and some imaginary concepts.

First of all, the reader has to understand that this book was self-published and contains many idiosycracies of the author. Second, this book serves as a companion to Jim's website: www.anasazis.com. For whatever reason, the author chooses to spell according to his own vernacular. However, the words still read clearly and the meaning remains intact. While sometimes annoying, one has to respect the right of an author to use his language in whatever way he sees fit.

This book is useful to those experienced in hiking the wonderful canyon country of Cedar Mesa. Many routes discussed can not be found anywhere else (book or Blog type of website). Furthermore, interesting sites can be gleaned out of the readings with enough previous knowledge and insight.

Very few people have hiked Cedar Mesa as thoroughly as Jim Beard, and intrepid hikers looking to get off the standard Grand Gulch, Fish/Owl, McLoyd and Road canyon routes will appreciate the author's information.

When not detailing nearly every hiking route into a myraid of canyons, the author offers his thoughts about the country and hiking (and his dogs..). This desert rat's mind is sharp and his ramblings interesting. But, only if you love this county and avoid the crowds.

I don't know what the author intended, but this book is of little value to anyone. It is not useful as a guidebook (the few bits of practical information are written in a way that would be more appropriate in a magazine) and the rest rambles on about the author's personal experience. Much of the book has a superior and sanctimonious tone. Even more irritating is the author's use of shorthand words or non-words, such as "vue" instead of view, or "thru" rather than through. Worst of all is a chapter called "Thots", which I guess was supposed to be Thoughts. Please don't insult readers this way. There is nothing inherently uncool about clarity and good spelling.
Bottom line: Don't buy this book. I can't see it being of any value to someone contemplating a visit to Cedar Mesa. There are two other books sold by Amazon about Cedar Mesa, both of which I found far more useful or enlightening.

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.

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!!

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.

I would not recommend this book. Many very common wildflowers are not included. Because most of the photos show only closeups of the blossom, without leaves or full views of the plant, identification is difficult. I haven't investigated other books, but I would urge you to look at others before purchasing this one.

This is an excellent introduction to the native flowers of Utah. The authors present a hundred high quality photos of Utah wild flowers. Each picture has a small informative blurb (about 100 words) about each flower.

The photography is the main value of the book. The authors captures the beauty of the flowers. Unfortunately, the book does not give enough information identifying plants. As mentioned in the first review, many pictures do not show the leaves. Although the author captures the beauty of the subject, the reader may find it hard to use the book for identifying plants.

I would put this book at the top of the list for people wanting to get started learning about the native plants in Utah. I also feel that native plant entusiasts will enjoy the high quality photos. It would make a great gift for any one who enjoys walking in the Utah mountains. However, if you are looking for a primary reference for native plants, I fear that you will be disappointed.

If you live along the Wasatch Front and hike the many canyons of the Wasatch then this is the book for you. The Photographs are beautiful and show the flowers well, the text is interesting and tells of past uses of the plants by indians and settlers, and the book is small enough to carry with you on every hike. "Utah Wildflowers" does show many of the common flowers you may find in bloom during the late spring and summer months. If however you are looking for a comprehensive guide with field "identification" capabilities then I would look elsewhere. With only 102 flowers covered, little or no pictures of leaves, and little said of similar species, habitat or identification difficulties I cannot recommend this guide.

Are you kidding? This is great book. For anyone wanting to keep track of Utah artists, this is wonderful reference. For anyone serious about art, and art history this is a must have book. I'm an artist from Utah and I wouldn't feel like I had a complete art book collection without this book.

Granted, I was fooled. I had hoped this book would be a collection of Utah produced fine art. Instead it is mostly a listing of Utah's artists, interspersed with a disappointingly small number of examples of their work. The major figures in Utah art do get larger bios (at least some of them), but many of the "bios" are little more than one sentence long. Apparently, every kid who ever scribbed on his schooldesk is included here, too.

This is an ambitious work. The author attempted both detailed studies and a statistical overview of 100 pioneer emigrants from Great Britain to Utah. It must have been difficult finding accurate records on that many women. She organized the study by phase -- family roots, conversion to Mormonism, emigration, first impressions of Zion, settling experience -- using all 100 women's stories to create a composite pioneering experience. Despite some minor errors and typos, this approach gives a fascinating, in-depth understanding of who, why, and how about 50,000 British women succumbed to Mormon proselyting and opted to reinvent themselves in the desert of the American West.

An interesting account of British women's role in the Mormon settlement of Utah was somewhat spoiled for me, as a British reader, by the author's lack of knowledge regarding the basic geography of England. We are confidently informed, for example, that Birmingham is a city in Lancashire, close to Liverpool. Unfortunately it isn't-the author has evidently confused Birmingham (England's second-largest city) with Manchester (third-largest). Didn't the author look at a map during her research?

Jack Bickers knows his 4-WD trails. This is a wonderful book and the 4th in the Series. I found it great reading and very useful in the field. If you want to go where few people visit, this book will take you there.

I am a fan of the Colorado Plateau, particularly southeastern and eastern Utah. I have visited the Moab area several times, and bought the present volume with great anticipation. I like it, but......

Some the directions are a bit confusing, without a map being handy. I would have anticipated either an enclosure or an insert. A minor thing, perhaps.

The second, major disappointment lies in the fact that the book, except for its two color photos on the covers, has all photos in a black-white format. The area around Moab is remarkable for its multi-color rock formations. The brown of the Entrada, the cream of Navajo, the red of the Wingate, and the chocolate of the Moenkopi rocks each carry that layer's signature, and also provide a valuable guidepost for the tourist familiar with the differences. Here, the reader is denied that information. I wish the blurb for the book would have told me more about the photo layout.

So, even though the text of the book is sufficient for the most part, the foregoing factors prevent me from giving a higher rating than I do.

Whether you are a summer visitor traveling in a Class A motorhome or a weekend tent camper in Utah's backcountry, you shouldn't be without this indispensable resource guide. Camping Utah is a reference guide that to the best of my knowledge covers all of Utah's three hundred and seven public campgrounds. Included in the book are the campgrounds that are managed by the National Park Service, the National Forest, the Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Parks and Recreation, and local counties and city-owned parks. The guide is packed full of information on the campgrounds and their surrounding areas. There is detailed information on road conditions and driving directions, any recreation vehicle restrictions, the number of campsites, the elevation, the setting, the amenities, a reservation source, best season to visit, and activities in the area. The details in the book describes the types of toilets you'll find, whether or not there's a horseshoe pit, and if a trailhead is located near a particular site. The book is organized in regions that match the Utah's Department of Tourism literature. You will find that the book is more accurate than the literature put out by the managing agencies. The author was able to visit all the campgrounds listed in the book except four, due to either the campground being under construction or because of road closure. This book will simplify your task in searching out where to stay so that more time can be spent enjoying Utah's great outdoors.

This guide provides reasonable information on campgrounds. I found it hard to use for trip planning purposes and there is no index.

I enjoyed reading this book. I think this is a troubled soul needing a Mother's Love. He is searching for something in his life. He had a crazy life, to say the least. Chuck needs to write another book about what is going on in his life now. Where will he go next???

I cannot believe that you did not mention Bear, Muffin, Biscuit, Annie, Rattle, Thunder, Minnie, Katy Bleu, Sallie and Roxanne. I thought they meant more to you...