Sir Richard Burton--master explorer, linguist, and scholar. He is known as the man who brought the Arabian Nights to the English speaking world, and is credited with being partially responsible for the discovery of the source of the Nile. He infiltrated the sacred cities of Medina and Mecca, disguised as an Arab.
So what prompted him to go to Salt Lake City? Burton was at a very difficult stage of his life, and needed a sort of vacation. Plus, according to him, he wanted to "see the Mormons." Some say he was interested in seeing their system of polygamy firsthand, some that he loved to visit sacred cities (having been to Mecca, Medina, Harar, and Damascus). Whatever the reason, he fortunately documented his trip, and we are left with this wonderful look, from an outsider, at "The City of the Saints."
One of the things that makes Burton so great is his absolute objectivity. His account of his visit among the Mormons is no exception. He went, he saw the facts, and he formed his opinions, just as everyone else. What set him apart, though, was that he managed to recount his adventure without the taint of his own bias.
Another great quality of Burton's was his incomparable eye for detail. He noticed everything, and took great pains to discover the history of everything he encountered. The result is a wonderfully rich account full of history and culture that Burton gives us as no other man could.
This is considered to be one of Burton's best books, though it is little known. It is by far the best non-Mormon account of early Salt Lake City that I've ever encountered. Its only flaw is that it is a little drawn out in places, but for the most part, this is a wonderfully detailed account and well worth the read.

Smoke Jensen takes 3,500 head of cattle up into Montana to sell to the neighbor of Clint Black, a man who would try anything to desuade or prevent anyone from doing something black does not want to happen. But trying to stop Jensen is like trying to stop an 18 ft. hole in Hoover Dam with a cotton swab.

This book only describes a small number of edible plants in the Rocky Mountains, but does so very thoroughly for each plant. It provides good guidelines for testing the edibility of plants and careful descriptions to make sure you get the right plant.

Harrington is a great authority on Rocky Mountain flora.

Long's party left Pittsburg and steamed down the Ohio and up the Missouri before heading overland westward. As a travel documentary and expedition, the account is vivid with the joy of the men after the dreary weeks on the Great Plains when they catch their first glimpse of the Rockies. When food sources run low, the drama intensifies. Altogether the expedition shares many of the fates of the Lewis and Clark expedition, with desertion, hungry, half and then quarter rations, and the loss of equipment and documentation, the account is too specific and at length on a too broad range of subjects. While I had hoped to read more about the men's impression of new places and scenes, the journal leans more toward the classification of plants, flowers and small animals. After all this was a scientific expedition like Lewis and Clark's, but the digressions on plant and animal life make the "expedition's" journal somewhat suffer.

A useful and compact guide, focused on Rocky Mountain National Park and the nearby towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake. Practical tips. The chapters on day hikes included something for everyone -- trails ranging from 1/2 mile very easy trails to very difficult trails. The maps were a little difficult to read. A useful addition would be a fold-out color map.

I found this to be a nice and not overly deep view of life on the Colorado plains. An area that is generally overlooked or forgotten today, the prairie played an important part in the settlemnet of the west and not much is left for us to learn from, and this book presented some obscure facts and tidbits of information that I found fascinating. As a history buff, I find it very interesting to see where man has been and may end up in the future.

Ever since the Canadian Rockies were 'opened up' for tourism in the late 1800's, artists have been drawn by the spectacular scenery; indeed, the Canadian Pacific Railway paid artists to paint this area in order to promte tourism and thus fill their hotels.

In this book Ms. Christensen presents many of the best paintings of the Canadian Rockies along with detailed instructions on how to hike to the site that the artist painted from. In addition, she includes biographical notes, exerpts from diaries, and photographs.

For the history enthusiast, this is a valuable insight into an often overlooked aspect of our past; for the artist who is also a hiker, it offers an opportunity to enter the mind of the artist as he/she was forced to generalize and simplify in order to create a piece of art; and for the art lover, it offers an introduction to some of the more famous paintings done in the southern Rockies.

Some of the artists presented are Carl Rungius, John Singer Sargent, A Y Jackson, the incredible Lawren Harris, Illingworth Kerr, A C Leighton, and Catherine Robb Whyte and Peter Whyte. The art works are oils, watercolours and woodcuts.

I really enjoy this multi-award-winning book! It is obviously written by someone who is enthusiastic about history, art and hiking, and it has become a treasured part of my own library, one that I find myself perusing again and again.

the book provides entertaining stories of hunting trips by the author and his hunting buddies. while not overly emphasizing hunting strategies, the stories do touch on a few strategies required for successful hunting. overall a good, well written book.

I am lucky enough to have happened upon this book as an impressionable youngster. I guard my now-out-of-print copy carefully. In describing his own story, the author seeks to fulfill his dream to live the lifestyle of an old-time mountain man in the North American Rocky Mountains in the 1970s -- not in the great far northern reaches of Alaska, but down in the lower 48 states where men like Jim Bridger once roamed. He followed through with his dream and found himself unable to find what he sought. Instead, he wandered the most elusive and forgotten mountains only to make a disturbing discovery: he was in midst of the transformation of the US wilderness into small tracts of wild land surrounded by encroaching development from power companies, logging interests, private homes and ski resorts...and a country that seemed unmoved by the changes. Lyrically entwined in his story are tidbits of mountain man lore and history. Despite his sickening disappointment of the death of the once vast American wilderness, Thompson makes a personal journey that is wondrous and magical. The book leaves the reader longing for the same quiet discovery that could bring peace into a soul longing for adventure despite the loss of wild lands and creatures that cannot be regained. He made me so green with envy about his adventures that as an adult I have pursued wilderness conservation and the lost wilderness in my own travels, hiking cross country and appreciating the wonders of Nature I discover along the way. This book was pivotal in my life.

Insight's City Guides combine stunning photography with literate text and a smattering of basic travel information. The Insight Venice guide is worth adding to your bookshelf, but its practical advice is getting a bit long in the tooth and its heft makes it less than ideal as a take-along guide. - Durant Imboden, Venice for Visitors, http://govenice.miningco.co