Ranger's Guide to Yellowstone Day Hikes, A

Rating:
Summary: Best guide to Yellowstone day hikes
Review: This guide includes 29 day hikes, well organized by park region. Its 28 pictures also provide a nice glimpse into some of the terrain you'll see on those hikes. It's small and easy to carry in your pack, but it covers a relatively small number of hikes in the park.

Each hike listing provides the usual driving and hiking directions found in guide books. Unlike the other guidebooks here, each hike also includes a topographical map of the hike. (The Falcon Guide includes elevation information on a separate chart but I still find the topo easier to use.) This makes the book very useful for armchair planners who haven't yet taken my advice to buy the Trails Illustrated map.

In addition, each hike includes a brief "special attention" section that is surprisingly helpful. For example, if a given trail is closed in early summer for bear management, you'll see that fact highlighted here instead of being hidden in the text.

The best part of the book is the "naturalist notes," however. The selling point of this book is that it is written by two rangers who are used to sharing their knowledge along a trail. That's exactly what they do here. As a result, it is easier to visualize the trail experience from this book than from any of the other guides I've seen.


Rating:
Summary: Finally, a 1st Class true "Day Hiking" book for Yellowstone
Review: This guide was an invaluable resource for making the best of a week at Yellowstone. It was like carrying a park ranger in your pocket (just much less weight). First of all, the first few pages have trails listed by both (1) location in the park (Yellowstone is LARGE) and by difficulty. These lists include highlights of each trail. Approximately 30 trails are described in detail. For each trail, roundtrip distance, elevation change, difficulty level, and expected duration (hours) is listed along with a brief description, potential hazards, direction to the trailhead, and best times of year to hike. Subsequently, a detailed naturalist's description of the trail is provided. These notes are perfect for planning your hikes of using as a step-by-step guide for reading as you hike. The authors provide details about wildlife, flora & fauna, geology, history, and scenery along each trail. Each trails has a full-page easy-to-read contour map that provides the hiker with information on elevation changes and other useful details. As if the trail descriptions didn't already make you want to hike every trail, the guide provides a color photo from each trail making me wish I had time to hike the entire guide. The Anderson book also provides lists of what to bring on day hikes as well as tips for hiking in grizzly country. If a day hike for you is 15-20 miles or more, consider the Marschall book on Yellowstone trails (keep in mind, the first description of a trail often comes 5-10 miles into it). Trails you don't want to miss: Mt. Washburn, Storm Point, Avalanche Peak, Yellowstone Grand Canyon Rim (either or both), Pelican Creek, Trout Lake. We had the pleasure of meeting Ranger Carol Anderson (co-author) at the Lake Visitor Center - she spent an hour reviewing hikes with us. These folks know their stuff - I highly recommend this book for the average day hiker.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a 1st Class true "Day Hiking" book for Yellowstone
Review: This guide was an invaluable resource for making the best of a week at Yellowstone. It was like carrying a park ranger in your pocket (just much less weight). First of all, the first few pages have trails listed by both (1) location in the park (Yellowstone is LARGE) and by difficulty. These lists include highlights of each trail. Approximately 30 trails are described in detail. For each trail, roundtrip distance, elevation change, difficulty level, and expected duration (hours) is listed along with a brief description, potential hazards, direction to the trailhead, and best times of year to hike. Subsequently, a detailed naturalist's description of the trail is provided. These notes are perfect for planning your hikes of using as a step-by-step guide for reading as you hike. The authors provide details about wildlife, flora & fauna, geology, history, and scenery along each trail. Each trails has a full-page easy-to-read contour map that provides the hiker with information on elevation changes and other useful details. As if the trail descriptions didn't already make you want to hike every trail, the guide provides a color photo from each trail making me wish I had time to hike the entire guide. The Anderson book also provides lists of what to bring on day hikes as well as tips for hiking in grizzly country. If a day hike for you is 15-20 miles or more, consider the Marschall book on Yellowstone trails (keep in mind, the first description of a trail often comes 5-10 miles into it). Trails you don't want to miss: Mt. Washburn, Storm Point, Avalanche Peak, Yellowstone Grand Canyon Rim (either or both), Pelican Creek, Trout Lake. We had the pleasure of meeting Ranger Carol Anderson (co-author) at the Lake Visitor Center - she spent an hour reviewing hikes with us. These folks know their stuff - I highly recommend this book for the average day hiker.