The Middle-Aged Hiker

Bibliofantastique

• Abbey, Edward. One Life at a Time, Please. New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1988. 225 pp. ISBN 0-8050-0603-6. $7.95. Typically political and invigorating, but the real reason to own this book? "Forty Years as a Canyoneer", a sweet look back at a purer time.
  --. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. New York, Ballantine, 1968. 303 pp. $2.95. ISBN 0-345-31313-5. A chance to explore Arches National Park before the land was seduced by macadam.
  --. The Journey Home: Some Words in the Defense of the American West. New York, Dutton, 1977. 242 pp. $7.95. ISBN 0-525-03700-4. Evocative essays about the West from the late desert curmudgeon.
  --. The Monkey Wrench Gang. New York, J.B. Lippincott Company, 1975. 387 pp. $3.95. ISBN 0-380-00741-X. DG: Read this book, then go pull up some survey stakes. DK: Required reading for environmental activists; the impetus for Earth-Firsters, and a novel-as-handbook for Glen Canyon Dam saboteurs.

• Annerino, John. Hiking the Grand Canyon. San Francisco, Sierra Club Books, 1986. 340 pp. $10.95. ISBN 0-87156-755-5. Plenty of useful information, but beware the backcountry route descriptions: some trail conditions have changed dramatically since this totebook was written.

• Beer, Bill. We Swam the Grand Canyon. Seattle, The Mountaineers, 1988. 169 pp. $15.95. ISBN 0-89886-151-9. Hey, it beats not going at all.

• Butchart, Harvey. Grand Canyon Treks. Glendale, California, La Siesta Press, 1970. 72 pp. ISBN 910856-38-9. $3.95. The first of the indispensable, simple guidebooks that have you wondering how anyone ever got down the redwall.
  --. Grand Canyon Treks II. Glendale, California, La Siesta Press, 1975. 48 pp. ISBN 910856-61-3. $2.50. More of the same, harder and more distant, with updates about GCT.
  --. Grand Canyon Treks III. Glendale, California, La Siesta Press, 1984. 72 pp. ISBN 910856-72-3. $3.95. And more, increasingly obscure and tantalizing, with more updates.

• Collier, Michael. An Introduction to Grand Canyon Geology. Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon Natural History Association, 1980. 42 pp. ISBN 0-938216-04-X. I suppose if I reread this another ten times, I might figure out why the schist hit the Canyon. Or something.

• Ehrlich, Gretel. The Solace of Open Spaces. New York, Viking Penguin, 1985. 131 pp. ISBN 0-14-00.8113-5. $5.95. Stunning essays about Wyoming, but with resonances for anyone alone.

• Evans, Edna. Tales from the Grand Canyon, Some True, Some Tall. Flagstaff, Northland Press, 1976. 90 pp. ISBN 0-87358-375-2. $7.95. Excellent out-loud reading if you don't want to lose those good feelings as you travel back home from the desert.

• Fletcher, Colin. The Man Who Walked Through Time. New York, Vintage, Random House, 1967. 247 pp. ISBN 0-679-72306-4. $10.00
  --. The Thousand Mile Summer. New York, Vintage, 1964. 232 pp. $4.95. ISBN 0-394-74631-7. A book about walking the length of California--an excellent warm-up for canyoneering.

• Foster, Lynne. Exploring the Grand Canyon: Adventures of Yesterday and Today. Grand Canyon Natural History Association, 1990. 150 pp. ISBN 0-938216-33-3. Written for youngsters, but containing plenty for the adult looking for a bit of Canyon background, including culture, geology, natural history, and critters.

• Granger, Byrd. Grand Canyon Place Names. Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1960. 26 pp. $1.95. It says "Matkatamiba" was the name of an Indian family, and that's good enough for me.

• Hall, Dave. The Hiker's Guide to Utah. Billings, Falcon Press, 1982. 212 pp. $7.95. ISBN 0-934318-06-9. There are a zillion dazzling canyons in Utah to explore, and this book describes them through the eyes, feet and words of dozens of hikers, one of whom introduced me to the southwest years ago (thanks, Heidi).

• Hinchman, Sandra. Hiking the Southwest's Canyon Country. Seattle, The Mountaineers, 1990. 255 pp. ISBN 0-89886-208-6. $12.95. A bland book with sketchy descriptions, but full of ideas for day hikes in the Southwest national parks.

• Houk, Rose. Grand Canyon Trail Guide: South Kaibab. Grand Canyon Natural History Association, 1981. [27 pp.] ISBN 0-938216-15-5. $2.50. A simple, beautifully written look at the trail, the rocks, the desert and the river.

• Hughes, J. Donald. In The House of Stone and Light. Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon Natural History Association, 1978. 137 pp. A human history of Grand Canyon with some dandy b&w photography.

• Kelsey, Michael. Canyon Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau. Springville, Kelsey Publishing Co., 1986. 256 pp. $8.95. ISBN 0-9605824-3-6. A hundred and seventeen interesting hiking routes, but the text for each is limited to at most a page and is disconcertingly related in the third person; still the accompanying photos provide ample incentive to hit the road.

• Kuralt, Charles. On the Road with Charles Kuralt. New York, Fawcett, 1985. 363 pp. $4.50. ISBN 0-449-13067-3. Zowdy, tales of Americana at its best!

• Lavender, David. River Runners of the Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon Natural History Association, 1985. 147 pp. ISBN 0-938216-23-6. Fascinating historical accounts of people who got wet a lot.

• MacMahon, James A. Deserts. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1985. 638 pp. ISBN 0-394-73139-5. $15.95. You need this because a lot of what you'll see isn't in the Whitney Field Guide.

• Mazel, David. Arizona Trails. Berkeley, Wilderness Press, 1985. 312 pp. ISBN 0-89997-051-6. Hey, there's more to Arizona than just Grand Canyon, you know (see if I care).

• McGinniss, Joe. Going to Extremes. New York, Signet, 1980. 290 pp. $3.50. ISBN 0-451-11819-7. On the Road goes to Alaska.

• McHugh, Gretchen. The Hungry Hiker's Book of Good Cooking. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. 286 pp. ISBN 0-394-51261-8. $9.95. Nice old-fashioned, sixties-type line drawings, and quite a few interesting menus for the persistent. Good mostly for ideas, since it expects you have (a) a nifty kitchen, (b) money or (c) time.

• McPhee, John. Encounters with the Archdruid. New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1971. 245 pp. $7.95. ISBN 0-374-14822-8. Three wilderness narratives, including an instructive float down the Colorado through Grand Canyon.
  --. Coming into the Country. New York, Bantam, 1977. 417 pp. $4.50. ISBN 0-553-22570-7. On the Road goes to Alas ... wait a minute, am I experiencing déjà vu?

• Nash, Roderick, ed. Grand Canyon of the Living Colorado. New York, Ballantine Books (Sierra Club), 1970. 143 pp. $3.95. An older book now out-of-print, it is a beautiful photo essay with written text by Colin Fletcher and others.

• Péwé, Troy. Colorado River Guidebook, Lees Ferry to Phantom Ranch. Tempe, Troy Péwé, 1968. 78 pp. Good information about the first 88 river miles, although the river corridor's character has changed a bunch since this book was written. Never did find a guidebook for the rest of the river.

• Powell, John. The Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons. New York, Dover, 1961 (from an 1895 Flood & Vincent publication). $6.50. ISBN 0-486-20094-9. A bunch of guys get in a boat, float down the Colorado River; the paradigm after which all subsequent AAA tripticks were modeled.

• Seranne, Ann. The Complete Book of Home Preserving. New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955. 384 pp. Out-of-print but the best book of its kind, uncluttered by recipe detail; it expects a minimum knowledge of cooking terms, care and cleanliness.

• Spangler, Sharon. On Foot in the Grand Canyon: Hiking the Trails of the South Rim. Boulder, Pruett Publishing. Second edition, 1989. xviii, 196 pp. ISBN 0-87108-790-1. $11.95. An entertaining set of journals, though you get tired with the ever-perky protagonist; lots of fine Grand Canyon history and geology, though. Harvey Butchart liked it, and wrote the Preface.

• Stevens, Larry. The Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Flagstaff, Red Lake Books, 1983. 110 pp. $11.95. ISBN 0-9611678-7-4. An indispensable river guidebook. Don't leave Lees Ferry without it!

• Thomson, Barry. The Enchanted Light: Images of the Grand Canyon. Flagstaff, Museum of Northern Arizona Press, 1979. 73 pp. ISBN 0-89734-050-7. $7.00. DK: An art book for those who've already been there, full of eye-bending black-and-white photos of the land you'll come to love. DG: Camera jammed by Canyon sand and grit? Feast your eyeballs on these black & whites.

• Thybony, Scott. A Guide to Hiking the Inner Canyon. Grand Canyon Natural History Association, 1980. 45 pp. ISBN 0-938216-12-0. The first book to read, period.

• U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Region, Bureau of Land Management, Escalante and Henry Mountain Resource Areas. Environmental Assessment for Road Improvement Alternatives, Boulder-to-Bullfrog (Burr Trail). Denver, 1993. 121 pp., appendix.

• Whitney, Stephen. A Field Guide to the Grand Canyon. New York, Quill, 1982. 320 pp. ISBN 0-688-01328-7. $14.95. DK: This guide is filled with drawings, not photos, so the characteristics of the species come through rather than the details of a specific example; I like that, just like the Peterson bird guides. DG: Aha! So THAT'S what bit me yesterday!

The Middle-Aged Hiker is Copyright ©1993-97,2002 by Dennis Báthory-Kitsz and David Gunn. All rights reserved.

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