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Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good guide, but has some downsides
Review: Overall this book is well put together. The hikes are organized according to their location in the park so you can quickly find hikes that are close the entrace you are using. The descriptions of each hike are clear and and easy to follow and include a small map of the hike with the description. Each hike is accompanied by color photos which really set this book apart. This is a worthwhile purchase, but it has a couple of downsides:- None of the trails are rated. I really enjoy guides that rate each hike and define their rating system (such as the "Don't Waste Your Time" series) so I can quickly determine what the authors really thought of the hike. When I picked up this book to quickly find a hike to do the next morning I had a hard time figuring out which hikes would be most worthwhile. I ended up picking one close to the entrace I was using since that is how the book is organized. - The maps included with each hike could be more detailed. Having the maps is nice but they aren't very helpful in pinpointing your location on a trail or knowing that the upcoming terrain is going to be like. A full topographical map would be ideal. - It would be nice if each hike had an area for writing notes.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good guide, but has some downsides
Review: Overall this book is well put together. The hikes are organized according to their location in the park so you can quickly find hikes that are close the entrace you are using. The descriptions of each hike are clear and and easy to follow and include a small map of the hike with the description. Each hike is accompanied by color photos which really set this book apart. This is a worthwhile purchase, but it has a couple of downsides: - None of the trails are rated. I really enjoy guides that rate each hike and define their rating system (such as the "Don't Waste Your Time" series) so I can quickly determine what the authors really thought of the hike. When I picked up this book to quickly find a hike to do the next morning I had a hard time figuring out which hikes would be most worthwhile. I ended up picking one close to the entrace I was using since that is how the book is organized. - The maps included with each hike could be more detailed. Having the maps is nice but they aren't very helpful in pinpointing your location on a trail or knowing that the upcoming terrain is going to be like. A full topographical map would be ideal. - It would be nice if each hike had an area for writing notes.
Rating: 
Summary: A fine book on a fine National Park
Review: Some of my favorite trails in WA--glaciers, high ridges, waterfalls, flowers--a must for exploring the park.
Rating: 
Summary: A Yawner
Review: The best thing you can say about this umpteenth edition of this guide is that it has some nice color pictures. Even then, though, they aren't always accurate - like the picture of Ranger Falls, which really isn't Ranger Falls, but a lower falls about a quarter-mile down the trail from the real Ranger Falls. Or the picture of the "Avalanche lily" on page 69, which is really a glacier lily. You'd think a pair of old veterans like Ira Spring and Harvey Manning would know things like that.
That first photo is on the Green Lake hike, which the author tells you starts at elevation 985 feet. In fact, the elevation at the trailhead is about 2,100 feet. There are several mistakes like this throughout the book, which makes me wonder how carefully the book has been edited. After all, they've had four tries.
The maps aren't really maps at all, but confusing little sketches which show you very little about the trail you will be walking. There are no contour lines and pitifully few elevations given, and you've got to wade through paragraphs of boring, often preachy text to find out whether the trail is uphill or downhill on specific sections. Compare these useless cartoons to the clear, excellent topographic maps in Ron C. Judd's new "Day Hike! Mount Rainier," and see which you'd rather try to follow with a compass.
Of all the guides to trails on Mount Rainier, this has got to be the worst.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty pictures; but info shows its age
Review: The new color pics are great, but one has to wonder if Harvey, et al, are letting the details slip in their golden years. One whole section, for trails on the (washed out) West Side Road, tells you to get on the "shuttle bus" and be dropped off at the trailhead -- when in fact no such bus exists, and probably won't for years, according to park rangers. This minor inconvenience adds as much as 10 miles to some of those hikes -- and these distances are NOT spelled out in the guide. There also seeems to be sloppy editing; more than one altitude-gain stats are wrong, as in, 2,300 rather than 3,200. That's a big difference. Also, like other Mountaineers guides released recently, the authors in this one seem to be at war with their own publishers. Example: The route they suggest to Indian Henry's Hunting Grounds is no longer even maintained by the park, and another route is described on the next page as "safer." Why, then, include the old route? The authors might want to spend less time defending their old choices and more time making new ones. I'm frankly not interested in the best hikes in the park circa 1965. In sum: Worth having for the pics, but supplement it with something else for trail data.
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful
Review: This book is a great resource to help you plan your hikes in Mount Rainier National Park. The trail descriptions are good and show trail lengths and level of difficulty. My only complaint about the book is that the individual trail maps throughout the book don't maintain a consistent North/South orientation and can be confusing to follow from one to the next.
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