California Waterfalls: Featuring 200 of the Golden State's Most Spectacular Falls

I have a whole collection of books from Foghorn Outdoors - and several by author Ann Maria Brown - this is another great book in the whole series of hiking books that they publish. For someone like me and my wife, who like to hike to someplace and not just walk around - having a waterfall destination is a great thing and makes the walk more enjoyable. Brown delivers a wonderful guide book for those seeking to find waterfalls in California. This book will take you to small ones and huge ones; famous ones and the obscure ones that only the locals would know about. We have been going to new waterfalls every time we take a hike and we still have not run out of places to walk. I cannot see us ever making it to all of the ones listed in this book but it is fun trying. If you are a serious hiker, or like me (just a once in a while weekend hiker) this is the book you should own and keep around. It is also pure fun to read on a cold winter's day by the old fireplace - dreaming about hiking in your mind.

I read about this book in the San Francisco Chronicle a few years ago and bought a copy. Since then I've bought at least a dozen more (just bought one today!) and given them as gifts to my friends who love the outdoors. The waterfall descriptions in this book are really interesting to read, and the driving and hiking directions are accurate. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to hike. I don't know why some of these reviews complain about the photos in the book. They are beautiful images and make it easy to identify what the waterfall will look like. If there is a negative, it's that they are printed in black-and-white, but then again I believe that was the medium that Ansel Adams preferred.

I am an avid buyer of hiking guidebooks, and this one is a top favorite on my bookshelf. It is so dog-eared from trips to so many waterfalls that I finally had to buy a new copy. The author's directions and descriptions are dead-on accurate. If she says it's a 2.3-mile hike, you can be sure it's a 2.3-mile hike. In addition to showing where all the State's best waterfalls are, she also provides lots of interesting background on local history, natural history, and other good stuff. This book is a fun read and a useful resource.

Even the worse of the couch potatoes will want to get up and go hike to these places! No matter where you live or your hiking ability you can find somewhere to go and enjoy the most awesome scenery nature has to offer. The directions are accurate and easy to follow. It seems they were written for even the most directionally challenged. Ms. Brown describes the route clearly and in a fashion that made me want to leap up off the couch and get started! If you only buy one hiking book---this is the one!

Because of this book, we were able to visit six really awesome waterfalls in two days. I'm still trying to decide which one was best. Her descriptions and directions are extremely accurate. For example, at Paradise Meadows (Fall #31, page 74), she said, "when they reach it, hikers tend to stand respectfully at its edge, staring out at the wonder of Paradise, afraid to tread on even one precious blade of grass. It's that pristine-looking." That's precisely the way I felt when I entered Paradise Meadows. I was almost paralized at the entrance, by its beauty! For directions, if she says 10 miles you can reset your tripometer. When it says 10 miles you will see the sign or location she was referring to. This is the best book written on one of California's many natural treasures. Its complete, covers the entire state in-depth. It gives you a reason to travel to places you had no other reason to go to. When you get there, you realize that not only are the falls beautiful, but the entire surrounding areas are gorgeous also. You'll have reason to go back again and again. With this guide to 200 falls, visiting all of them more than once could be a lifetime project. We don't mind! You won't either!