Day Hikes on Kauai, 3rd

This is a no nonsense hiking guide book. It lists tons of hikes and gives you ideas of options and other connections available. The maps are very basic, but easy to navigate - especially when looking at a topo and then back to the guide book. While I was reading this it almost makes the hikes sound simplistic - this is either good or bad depending on how you are going to use this book - for the experienced hiker this is a great book as it gives enough information needed and no more.

Robert Stone bar none writes some of the best hiking books. They aren't fancy -- but highly informative. We own three of his books -- all of them with great hikes (some off the beaten path -- so you don't run into a bunch of tourists). We can't wait for our trip to Jackson Hole so we can use this book. Stay tuned...

This book lists 72 day hikes in Grand Teton National Park. This is probably a bit excessive -- are you really going to take 72 day hikes unless you live there? In addition, some of them are really just variants of one another that you could figure out yourself with a map. (The Bradley and Taggart Lakes loops, for example, as do the Willow Flats hikes between Jackson Lake Lodge and Colter Bay Village.) The hikes are well organized by region. The book includes a separate map for each hike showing trails, cutoffs, local roads and other landmarks. Unlike the Falcon guides, there is no information about elevations on the maps. The information is good but not abundant. Most trails get only a single page of text, and the hiking directions are only a paragraph or so. Obviously this is necessary to cover the number of hikes in the book. Armchair planners will be frustrated, however, as there is not enough trailside information to help you decide which hikes you would find most interesting. I'd recommend Schneider's book instead (see all my reviews).