On The Mesa Review

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On The Mesa ReviewNichols' primary objective in this short work of non-fiction is to describe (in intricate detail) a year in the life of a stock pond. He begins with its birth from a flash flood, and then chronicles the happenings throughout the year, including all the small species that live off the fleeting resource. The book is bursting with paeans to rodents, snakes, flies, lichens, manifold species of birds, coyotes, beetles, giant salamanders, etc, etc. Any lover of nature writing will revel in Nichols' skill in bringing this world to life; he executes Thoreau's injunction, and skillfully backs life into a corner and learns what it has to teach. Nichols' relationship with his environment is deep, and the work benefits from his long hours spent in quiet observation of it.
The books is also a memoir describing a blossoming relationship with a woman and fellow-nature lover who also frequents the mesa, as well as the author's dealings with a local group of citizens fighting to save the mesa from encroachment. It is in these personal passages that we get the linear narrative, which helps bind together the nature passages.
The book succeeds as description of mesa nature, as poetry of the southwest, as memoir of a writer/naturalist, as a chronicle of the loss of nature to development's unthinking rapacity. The chapters are short, on average 3-5 pages, and interspersed with photographs from the author. After reading On the Mesa, I was inspired to get outside (in the middle of winter) and touch noses with the non-human world.
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Rocky Mountain National Park: The Complete Hiking Guide Review

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Rocky Mountain National Park: The Complete Hiking Guide ReviewIn my life, I have literally read hundreds of hiking and climbing guidebooks from around the world. There are two things most of them have in common and are readily apparent. First, the author does not have intimate, first-hand knowledge of every location, every route; relying instead on other's trip reports and descriptions. Second, details important to the reader are brief, missing or just downright incorrect. This makes for a potentially deadly combination when a climber or hiker is facing darkness, dangerous weather conditions and fatigue.
Within Rocky Mountain National Park, an area I have explored and enjoyed over the past 25 years, I have carried and relied heavily upon guidebooks by 'renowned' local authors and on more than several occasions, have faced incredibly frustrating and sometimes harrowing circumstances, quickly coming to the realization the guidebook was worth less than the paper it was printed on.
Then, Lisa Foster entered the picture. Lisa established her credibility, professionalism and attention to detail long before writing this book, as a backcountry adventure columnist for the Estes Park Trail Gazette and as a host/guide in many local television and video productions; aimed at promoting safe and responsible adventure travel in Rocky Mountain National Park. This, coupled with her years of experience as a National Park Service Biological Field Technician, a top-notch alpinist and backcountry explorer, made her the perfect candidate to take on such a formidable challenge-to write a comprehensive guide to every named point in Rocky Mountain National Park as well as several areas on its borders.
Lisa was successful in accomplishing this totally unique objective, I feel, not by her wealth of knowledge nor years of experience as a writer-adventurer, but by her uncontrollable zeal for life and unconditional love of the outdoors; a passion for which I have never seen equaled.
The fruit of Lisa's tireless labor is in an extraordinarily beautiful book, both in appearance and in content. The guide is constructed so that both Park aficionado and newcomer will embrace it and find it an invaluable resource. Its layout is concise, easy to navigate and despite its 400 pages, easy to carry. Lisa's color photos are alluring, inspiring and illustrate the Park's beauty in all four seasons. The historical passages afford the reader a greater appreciation and better understanding of the area than any other reference I have studied.
I've written this not to be flattering nor to help the author sell a million books. My review is directed to you, the person with adventure in your heart, who is intelligent enough to read these reviews, diligent enough to do some research and wise enough to make an informed purchase. In the mountains, there is no room for error...you need to have the very best guidebook available, and this is it.
I live two miles from "Rocky", and thought I knew almost everything about it. Boy, was I wrong. Thanks to Lisa Foster and "Rocky Mountain National Park - The Complete Hiking Guide", I have been given the opportunity to experience this gem of the National Park System in an entirely different light - through Lisa's eyes. I can tell you with all sincerity, the journey so far has been nothing less than magical.
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Hiking the Southwest's Canyon Country Review

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Hiking the Southwest's Canyon Country ReviewThe Mountaineers Books may just be the best publisher of guidebooks for the Southwest currently being published. I realize this is a strong statement, but I have had occasion to use Southwest related guidebooks for years and have found theirs to be absolutely the most informative, accurate and user-friendly of the lot. This third edition of a classic is no exception. The 150-plus hikes, 35 new to this edition, are described in seven chapters ranging from Desert Reef and River Tours, Mesa and Pueblo Tours, to Painted Desert and Canyon Tours and will take the reader from the Colorado Plateau to the Grand Canyon, from Zion and Bryce Canyon National parks to the banks of the Rio Grande, and just about every nook and cranny in between. If it's in the Four Corners region and remotely worth visiting, the chances are it's mentioned in this book. The newly added material on the San Rafael Swell area, as well as the Canyons of the Ancients, indicates the up-to-date status of the material.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a suggested hike in the newly designated Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico. I visited the area this past summer and can vouch for the accuracy of the information.
Along with the hiking information there is background material on the region's geology, archeology, climate, flora and fauna there is an index, maps, color and black and white photos, a handy Contact information section for federal, state and local agencies and a suggested Further Readion section.
This is a comprehensive guidebook and trustworthy companion for hikers, backpackers, explorers and adventures of all skill levels seeking to experience the Four Corners region.
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The Course of Empire Review

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The Course of Empire ReviewOccasionally, I discover a book that is so great that I just want to grab my friends by the lapel and shout, "You just have to read this!" DeVoto in THE COURSE OF EMPIRES is not only highly informative, he has helped alter the way I view the course of American history and the way I view the geography of the United States. The book is not only informative and vision-altering: it is superbly well written. As a writer, Bernard DeVoto reminds me a great deal of Shelby Foote's historical work on the Civil War. Both DeVoto and Foote are novelists who brought their formidable literary skills to historical subject matter, and who framed their histories as narratives. Also like Foote, DeVoto never allows his narrative to overwhelm the history. At this point, this is my favorite book of all that I have read in 2002.
On one level, the content of this book is displayed by the maps that begin each chapter of the book: a topographical map of North America is shown, with the areas as yet unexplored by Europeans in a gray shade. With each successive chapter, less and less of the map is shrouded in gray. But in a way, this is deceptive, because, in fact, the book is less about the history of the exploration of the US than in illustrating the geographical logic of the landmass currently making up the core of the United States. Or, as DeVoto writes in the Preface, he wants to provide an extended gloss on some paragraphs of Lincoln's Second Address to the Nation (i.e., what today would be called his second State of the Union address). In that Address, Lincoln argues that the geography of the United States makes it impossible for there to exist more than one nation in the region. The notion of secession and the formation of a second nation is repudiated by the land itself, not merely the lack of natural barriers of one area from another, but the way in which the entire region was unbreakably linked together by the extensive river system in the American interior. Lincoln saw that the geography, the river system, made it inevitable that there would be but a single nation. In this way, Lincoln, like no American president since Polk and Jefferson, understood the logic of the land. DeVoto's primary task in his book, far more than recounting the history of the exploration of North America, is the elucidation of the fact that the United States was destined to be a single country, and why this was inevitable.
THE COURSE OF EMPIRE has the best maps I have ever seen in a history book. No matter what part of the book I was reading, it was possible to turn only a few pages away to find a map of the area under discussion. The only exception is near the very end of the book, where a key but cramped map of the Lewis and Clark expedition appears. It was, however, the only time that I had any trouble following one of the maps. Unfortunately, it was during the highpoint of the book: the recounting of Lewis and Clark's discovery of a route from the Missouri to the Columbia River, and the exploration of the region.
Although this is the third book in the trilogy of history books DeVoto wrote on the American West, this is the one that should be read first. Both ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI and YEAR OF DECISION: 1846 will be enriched by having read this one first. I heartily recommend that anyone with any interest in American history read this. For those especially interested in the American West, it is nothing short of essential.The Course of Empire Overview

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