Pam MacKay's 'Mojave Desert Wildflowers' is a wonderfully informative & beautifully photographed guide to the wildflowers of the Mojave. This sturdy plastic-coated field guide contains over 300 gorgeous photos, finely detailed plant descriptions, and is virtually an introductory textbook on Mojave Desert ecology. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves---or is even mildly intereseted in---the Mojave Desert. The author lives & teaches in the Mojave and her love, attention to detail, and dedication to the desert are revealed on every page.

Jim Otterstrom

This guide is so easy to use and the pictures are beautiful. I highly recommend this guide for first time wildflower enthusiasts!

This book is a great guide to the non-paved alternatives in beautiful Monterey. I like the aquarium and all, but...! The guide covers 17 routes which range in difficulty from warm up to real "sweaters". It would also help condition those not too familiar with trail running. The greatest part is that many of the runs are connectable, which gives you a great deal of variety (even though the author frequently uses them for laps). It's the only one of its kind - I highly recommend it and getting out there!

Monterey Trail Runner's Guide is an excellent and superbly presented "where to" book for anyone with interest in outdoor exercise and the picturesque Monterey Peninsula. Veteran runner Jeffrey Van Middlebook aptly describes seventeen gorgeous trail runs, all the better to encourage fellow runners to escape the noisy, smog-laden cities and experience nature while staying fit. Four Monterey Peninsula parks are highlighted: Point Lobos State Reserve, Jacks Peak County Park, Mission Trail Park, and the Garland Ranch Regional Preserve. With its locator map and general terrain descriptions for each park or reserve, and augmented with tips on weather and trail conditions, parking information, mileage, difficulty ratings, and directions to the trail head, the Monterrey Trail Runner's Guide is very highly recommended for outdoor running and jogging enthusiasts with endurance!

This book really helped while my husband and I went to L.A. for a vacation. The book has highlighted the most interesting areas of the city and made the ciy managable. Each highlighted area has its own fold out map with places to see and things to do. This is a great feature for driving around the city because you don't have a huge map to deal with (so chances are you won't wreck the rental car). Each highlighted area has infomation and a bit of history provided. The book also has pages in the back with detailed descriptions of interesting sites, resturants, hotels, etc. This book helps the tourist explore one area at a time. I highly recommend this book, and the metro moon series for the traveler.

L.A. is not a walking city. I loved these maps that helped me navigate the different areas of L.A.. Everything is clear: freeway exits, shopping and clubs districts. Really good guide for hanging out in L.A.

The beautiful photos of lichens and mosses are the best feature of this book. Even many of the harder to identify crustose lichens are included and equally well photographed in this handsome guide. It is difficult to get a handle on lichen identification without some formal training, but this book will enable you to at least make identifications for some of the easier foliose and fruticose ones, such as parmelia or usnea, for example, and perhaps the more difficult ones too as you become more knowlegeable and experienced. The crustose lichen, rhizocarpon geographicum, for example, isn't that hard to identify from the tile-like pattern it makes on rocks and the lime-green color and black apothecia on the plant thallus.

Along with the photos, there are good descriptions and range maps showing plant distributions.

I had the opportunity to take supposedly the only full-semester lichenology class being taught that year in the entire U.S. by the late, great Harry Thiers, back in the mid-80's at San Francisco State University, a graduate botany course in which I'm proud to say I got an A. So I have some formal training in the area, and feel I can judge a good book on the subject when I see it, and this beautifully illustrated field guide is definitely worth the relatively modest price.

Focused on the moist parts of western North America, this guide uses photos, range maps, and keys to identify and describe the primitive plants that are everywhere around us, but poorly understood. Great for plant exploration in the cool parts of the year. If you've ever wondered about those beautiful green carpeted forest floors, the delicate life growing on trees and rocks, or the lacey ferns in the fields and woods, this book is for you.

I wish all guide books were as well researched as this one. Each hand drawn map has GPS waypoints on it plus all the major features and a reference to the USGS/Green Trails Map. Locations of nearby campgrounds and supplies. Plus a very nice rating system so you don't get in over your head. There are 2 maybe 3 overlapping trails with the "Kissing the Trail" book but that's ok. Wish I had thought of having a career of riding my bike and writing a book about it. Way to go John.

These two books are the bomb(S). The directions and the descriptions of the rides are spot on and most importantly the selection of the rides (if you like truly remote, tough, and stunningly beautiful adventures) is tremendous. My copies of these books are dog eared with love and mud. Trust me you cannot go wrong with these books - and I've biked all over the country - or biking in the Pacific Northwest July - Sept - Amazing! Too good! Be prepared for some long drives from Seattle (2hrs each way) but the memories will last much longer. Enjoy! I hope Zilly goes on to write books for the rest of the country...

This book and it's companion Mountain Directory East are valuable publications to have handy as you travel by RV throughout the USA. They provide the elevation, the % of inclines, the length of the inclline, hidden curves, speed and so much more. Referring to these guides before a mountain pass helps prepare you for the amount of brake usage that will be necessary to reach the bottom safely. Richard has done a great job of researching the varied terrain, referring to the pass information can provide a significant peace of mind to all RV Getaways.

Mountain Directory West was invaluable to me when plotting a course through 17 states from Georgia to Washington State and back again. Another silver haired grandmother and I traveled in my new 31 ft motorhome through mountains of S. Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, the Oregon and California coasts, Arizona and New Mexico. By knowing what was ahead on our route, we were able to cool our engine and brakes before ascending or descending a particular stretch of highway, and never experienced a moment's trouble.

I highly recommend Mountain Directory West for any RV/Motorhome driver who is planning a trip over any US mountain range west of the Mississippi. The companion Mountain Directory East serves the same purpose for those traveling east of the Mississippi.

Some say this is Muir's finest work. As the only other Muir book I've read (at this writing) is Travels in Alaska, I cannot comment on this, other than to say that I enjoyed this book a great deal.
From almost any vantage point in California, whether near or on a distant horizon, there are mountains. A fact not lost on Muir, whose sense of wonder and love of life endear him to his readers.
"God's glacial-mills grind slowly, but they have been kept in motion long enough in California to grind sufficient soil for a glorious abundance of life ... In so wild and so beautiful a region [was spent my day], every sight and sound inspiring, leading one far out of himself, yet feeding and building up his individuality."
Muir was the consummate man in nature. Anyone who is indifferent to Muir's writing may simply be indifferent to wonderment itself. I have no doubt that if Muir were placed in a room with the great kings and generals and tycoons and empire builders of history, he would appear singularly as a man among men. Unimpressed with their pomp and bluster over rotting empire, he might soon command more attention than they, and many would be happily listening to Muir in spite of their self importance. Why? He would have the most interesting insights, offered poetically and in a most humble and charming way. ... (in fact Muir was sought out by the great politicians and philosophers of his day).
If you like mountains, if you like California, if you like trees and glacier-fed streams, you will like this book.

muir describes the sierras with detail and love. he is one of the few authors who is content just to be in and describe a landscape. and what a description!. he describes the evolution of glaciaral lakes to the hights of mount ritter and the migrations of deer and native peoples. a great book i recoment it to anyone who loves the outdoors.

You need 3 books to enjoy LA:
1) this book, the museum companion to LA (what to do in LA)
2) Jonathan Gold's Counter Intelligence (where to eat in LA)
3) the LA/Orange County Thomas guide (how to get around in LA)

You also need to listen to the traffic report, every 10 minutes at the 01, 11, 21, etc minutes on the clock, to AM 980 to avoid our traffic.

LA is a huge melting pot - you can see it in the variety of food and museum collections. There is the netsuke collection at LACMA, Blue Boy and extensive gardens at the Huntington, the porcelain collection at the Pacific Asia Museum, the bookstore (it is ther best in town for art and architecture related books) at the Armand Hammer, the La Brea Tar Pits, California Museum of Science and Industry (free admission) with the BEST science experiments for toddlers. The book also includes lots of beautiful gardens in the area.

This book provides a very useful overview of museums both large & small across the LA Basin. From the Norton Simon to the smallest, you'll get photos of major exhibit items, overviews of what's there, plus the stats & particulars to assure that your museum choice for a given day in not a wasted day. Buy it!