Trails Across America: Traveler's Guide to Our National Scenic and Historic Trails

Just a cursory reading of Trails has its rewards. You might be on a trip almost anywhere in the US and pick it up to find a spot nearby of scenic or historic interest. But this book is unusual among travel and trail guides in that it is also a pleasure simply to read straight through at home in your comfy chair. The authors supply loads of information and are enthusiastic about their subjects without succumbing to the Everything Is Beautiful disease that travel writers are generally prone to.The historic trail sections are especially strong. They link Mormon, Spanish, American Indian, English colonial, and pioneer history to the actual physical places where it occurred. For example, at the end of the Juan Bautista de Anza trail, the city of San Francisco was founded around the month of July, 1776. Another trail, the California National Historic Trail, is the route(s) of the English speaking pioneers who came in later years to take San Francisco and the rest of California away from the Spaniards and their descendents. On the Nez Perce and Trail of Tears historic trails you can see two of the routes followed by the aboriginal peoples who were driven from their homes by the dueling European powers, and also by poor pioneers who oftentimes had been themselves driven from their homes across the ocean.The maps at the beginning of each chapter are clear and well-detailed. All in all, you could hardly ask for a better travelling companion if you're going on a car trip, particularly if you're going with children who have even the mildest interest in learning things.