Valuable information like Distance, Difficulty, Hiking Time, and Elevation is listed above each hike. The book covers the entire state picking out the most popular trails from each area. The trail descriptions are accurate and very usefull.

An excellent hiker's resource. Provides hikes all across the state and for all seasons. An overview map lets you select candidates by area. Each hike is well described. Each specifies distance, difficulty, altitude range, recommended season(s), topo quad and controlling authority (BLM office, Natl Forrest, park service, county, state, etc.) Each comes with a small map of the trail and road to trailhead, making trails easy to find and follow. For most hikes, this makes the topo unnecessary.

Arizona certainly qualifies as one of the most romantic states in the USA with so many places to explore, and unfortunately for many of us, so little time.

Pam Swartz, author of Arizona Getaways For The Incurably Romantic, has written an extremely informative guide providing the reader with a very good exposure of forty-five of the most uniquely romantic lodgings located in various areas of the state.

Through the eyes and ears of the author, readers have the opportunity to discover secret hideaways and romantic ideas that were accumulated over a number of years.
Swartz's familiarity with Arizona, where she moved to in 1978 from Buffalo, personalizes and adds a great deal of depth to her clear and concise text.

The author informed me that it had taken her two and one half years to research and write the guide- book. After reading the 254 pages crammed with extremely useful information, you can well understand why it had taken this length of time.

A good guide- book can go a long way in making a vacation trip much more pleasurable, particularly if the book is well organized and reader friendly.
Herein lies the strength of Arizona Getaways For The Incurably Romantic.

Divided into eleven chapters and an appendix, the reader receives a well-rounded picture of how to evaluate romantic lodgings and locations.
Essential ingredients such as: surroundings, ambience/atmosphere, level of privacy, uniqueness, distance from home, overall quality of service, are dealt with at length.

In addition, there is a detailed description of each of the forty- five properties that the author had visited.
Moreover, sprinkled throughout the guide-book are sidebars providing various tips about which rooms to reserve in the inn or resort to reserve, what to expect in the way of extras such as, wine and appetizers that may be served on certain evenings, which cottages have Jacuzzis, etc.

Swartz also provides suggestions as to how to plan the romantic getaway, setting the stage, whetting the appetite, making the trip magical, where to travel, and ideas as to how to spend your days and nights.
Comprehensive charts listing amenities and features for each selection and comparison of accommodations are included at the back of the book.
All of this information gives the book a substance well beyond the usual mundane guide- books.

I do hope this author continues her travels and tells us more about the various pearls and gems that can be discovered in Arizona.

This review together with an interview with the author first appeared on the reviewer's own site: Bookpleasures.com

Arizona Getaways For The Incurably Romantic: 45 Sensational Destinations For Lovers is packed by travel author Pamela Swartz with locations, ideas, suggestions, and features to add color to any romantically involved vacation. Filled with listings of top-class hotels and breathtaking natural splendors, Arizona Getaways For The Incurably Romantic makes for a wondrous vacation-planning reference for honeymoon bound newlyweds -- and anyone else seeking a romantic adventure for a weekend or a week!

A fascinating book about the inner workings of Arizona politics
and how newspaper reporters from many papers evaluated it after the Bolles murder. An update at this point in time would be
a most interesting supplement. Has anything changed as a result of their expose? Inquiring minds want to know!!!

This book should be required reading for anyone in Arizona, and anyone interested in investigative reporting. The Don Bolles murder, and its connection to the Arizona Republic, the Phoenix Forty, and crimelord Kemper Marley is one of the most significant events in the state's history.

Roger and Ethel Freeman put out the first edition of this book in 1988. Anybody that lives in the "Valley of the Sun" knows a lot has changed since the eighties. A big thanks goes out for this Second edition in 2000.

This book covers trails of the valley better than any other source available. I should forewarn most of these trails are hard-core hot desert; do not hike here in the summer. Information such as geology, history and maps are included. The geology sections are informative. Each entry on history was exciting to read. The maps are well done but placement in the appendix makes flipping back and forth necessary. Trails in negotiation and proposed trail information is scattered throughout the book.

The highlight of this guidebook is without a doubt the "Detailed Trail Descriptions". Its unbelievable and maybe overdone if you're not a real detailed hiking enthusiast. Each trail is broken down to the hundredth of a mile. Well at least when a turn, fence, post, object or sight is encountered that is. Maybe someday they will include a GPS coordinate for each step!

Well to wrap it up. In general the map setup is not to my liking. Every imaginable trail in the valley is listed. The book really is loaded with information. It appears lots of work went into putting this book together. - valley hikers rejoice

As authors of this book, we should respond to Joe's criticism about the map placement: we'd love to do as he suggests, namely have the maps in the appropriate section, rather than at the end, but since they are in color, that would greatly increase the price: the color photos (that he doesn't mention) are in one section ("signature"), as are the maps, so that those 2 sections are put on a color press, the rest of the book on a much less expensive black & white press. A final comment: we thought about putting in GPS locations for major or tricky points, but until the "selective access" (random errors introduced by the Defense Department to protect against terrorist attacks) was cancelled recently, it didn't seem worth it. Now that the accuracy of hand-held GPS units will be much better, we may add that feature in the future. The exhaustive detail was included for a reason: signage is often vandalized and trails of use are continually changing, so the detail is an effort to improve recognition of features and thereby safety.

The latest printing of the guidebook has a 2-page insert listing errors and changes.

We have now set up a Web site to provide corrections and additions, as well as links to related sites and some photos of new trails. from there you can also reach us.

Roger & Ethel Freeman

This is the most thorough traditional field guide to the Canyon, complete with pictures of flora and fauna for identification in the field. It's perfect for day hikes along the rim or packed on raft trips, but if you're going on a long canyon trek on foot you may find it a bit heavy to pack. The great number of pages devoted to an overview of history, basic geology, trails, etc. are not really necessary on the trail and I have even considered cutting all that extraneous material out, as the field guide portions are excellent, but I shrink from slicing up a good book! Steve, how about a two-volume set next time, one for the armchair and one for the trail? Though there is information about Canyon hiking routes, this is not a trail guide; you'll want to get Scott Thybony's or Sharon Spangler's book for that, or one of several others that are available. But it is valuable reading for anyone planning to spend time in one of our most magnificent parks, and certainly worth tossing into your suitcase, if not into your backpack.

I agree with everything the previous reviewer said, except that I really like the overviews of Canyon geology and so on, and don't feel that those make to book too heavy to be useful as a field guide. This is probably the best and most informative guide for a hiker or visitor to the Grand Canyon to take along.

With a Foreword by Hugh Downs who moved to Arizona & came across this loquacious pioneer, with his authentic & amusing memories.

In 1914 Hube Yates was all of eleven years old when his minister father uprooted his family from the 160-acre claim he had homesteaded when the Cherokee Strip was run, & with his wife & six children, & two wagons pulled by mules, they headed out from Guthrie, Oklahoma to faraway Phoenix, Arizona.

Stories of another time in another place, told with a quiet, under-stated turn of phrase that demands you consider the twinkle in his eyes.

While reading From Thunder To Breakfast I felt as though I had stumbled across someone's long lost journal. There's always that feeling of both mystery and enchantment when discovering such a treasure.

Hube Yates recounts his many journeys and experiences in a factual and humorous manner. The writing mirrors his speech.

This book is well written and enjoyable. It presents the case from those that wish to drain Lake Powell but is does so quite fairly and does give decent coverage to the pros of Lake Powell and and the access and beauty created by the massive Glen Canyon Dam.

Perhaps Mr Farmer angered more than he pleased but that usually shows that he is not completely one one side or the other.

A worthwhile read.

Biases first: I'm a rabid "drain the lake"er.

Still, one's arguments can only benefit from an effective challenge, and Farmer provides this in spades. An impassioned environmentalist, Farmer nonetheless points out that artificial environments are pretty much what we live in, and that if we look only to "untrammeled wilderness" as the source of our connection with nature, we're likely to run out of that wilderness in short order.

This book is an effective history of Glen Canyon, but it's also a critical analysis of wilderness tourism in the whole of Southern Utah, and a cogent deconstruction of our attitudes toward built versus natural landscapes. And unlike many such tomes (Stephen Pyne's valuable if turgid How the Canyon Became Grand comes to mind) Farmer writes his critique in a personable, approachable voice. It's rare to see a capable writer approach such a multifaceted subject without fear of using the first person singular pronoun. Eminently readable.

I found this book to be a very interesting story told on a very personal level. It was written in a style that felt like a conversation over tea at an outside cafe. The stories weave through time periods reflecting great moments, relationships and changes within the world surrounding the author.

This book details the life of a woman who took risks -- in an age when her behavior was unheard of! The love stories are fun to read. She is a true inspiration to all women.

The book is well-written and the detail about WWII and life in a war zone is interesting.

I've used this book EXTENSIVELY in studying about the Carriso Gorge (Carrizo Gorge). I highly recommend it. It's also well narrated if you're just looking for railroad reading... VERY good book! Only wish it had more "current" information, but then, how could it? Is there a second book coming? Who knows? (Mr. Hanft?...) Recent news reads like this RR "MAY" one day live again!

If you are looking for a historical review of the famous last transcontinental railroad, this is it! Good writing, good pictures - the author did his home work here. The railroad is fun to fan, and, the book is fun to read. I use it all the time to research a historical fact on this railroad.

Dusty Richards knows his history. Servant of the law is definitely his best book yet. It's a fast read filled with adventure and historical details that make the setting seem real. Fans of the hard-hitting western are sure to like this one! I finished it in just over two days.

Young Bobby Budd guns down the man who beat his mother and himself. Now he is on the run. Two years later at age seventeen, Bobby rides up to the New Mexico ranch of big John Chisum looking for work as an avenger and is hired to dispose of rustlers. After killing a rustler and wrapping his body in the hide of stolen beef from Chisum, Bobby, now known as the Coyote Kid, and his partnen Leo Jackson head for Arnold's store to resupply. Before even dismounting, Bobby kills a Mexican sitting on the porch of the store. The six year old boy of Arnold's wife Dolly is accidently killed by Bobby as well. Marshall John Wesley Michaels joins up with major Gerald Bowen to help the govenor of Arizona rid the territory of murders running loose. Michaels is assigned to bring in the Kid but he is not alone as Dolly insists on joining him in hopes of killing the man who murdered her son. Justice is finally served but not the way John Wesley Michaels wanted it done. SERVANT OF THE LAW with it's fast pace and action will keep you turning pages.