San Juan Adventure Guide: Hiking, Biking, and Skiing in Colorado's Most Beautiful Mountains

Rating:
Summary: very good text but somewhat disappointing on the graphics
Review: Jeff La Frenierre's San Juan Adventure Guide is a complete outdoor recreation guide to hiking, biking, and skiing in southwestern Colorado's San Juan Mountain range. Of special note is an "Adventure Locator" which is divided into four sections with maps and tables. This quick and handy reference for planning activities will admirable serve any excursion from a day trip to an extended weekend to a major vacation outing. Ideal for the armchair traveler and the on-site thrill-seeker, San Juan Adventure Guide is enhanced with b/w and color photography and a "must" for anyone heading out for the San Juan country.

Rating:
Summary: A complete outdoor recreation guide and reference planner.
Review: Jeff La Frenierre's San Juan Adventure Guide is a complete outdoor recreation guide to hiking, biking, and skiing in southwestern Colorado's San Juan Mountain range. Of special note is an "Adventure Locator" which is divided into four sections with maps and tables. This quick and handy reference for planning activities will admirable serve any excursion from a day trip to an extended weekend to a major vacation outing. Ideal for the armchair traveler and the on-site thrill-seeker, San Juan Adventure Guide is enhanced with b/w and color photography and a "must" for anyone heading out for the San Juan country.

Rating:
Summary: good text but disappointing on the maps and photos
Review: The book gives you roughly 100 pages of hiking trail descriptions, 50 pages of bike trails and 50 pages on snowtrails. The writing is smooth and competent- a real book rather than just a list of a few facts about traihead location, distance, major route turns, and elevation change. However- I expected more and better photos & maps based on the nice cover photo, the other evaluation of this book, and the backcover proclaiming this to be a book from "a professional cartographer and award-winning photographer". There are about 20 black & white photos and a small insert of 10 color photos that are somewhat generic and dont really give you a full sense of the special flavor of the San Juans. And the "maps" are worthless- they are small hand-drawn sketches of the region and only show major roads! No trail lines or topographic details.