Books about Plateau from Amazon.com

The Colorado Plateau is a large physiographis region covering roughly the southeastern half of Utah, the northern half of Arizona, the western fifth of Colorado and a small area in the northwestern corner of New Mexico. It basicalkly includes the middle third of the Colorado River drainage. Almost all the canyons in this book are in Utah but with a few --some of the best, in northern Arizona near the town of Page and on Navajo Nation lands.

This is a technical slot canyon guide the the Colorado Plateau. As defined here, Technical Slot means a very narrow canyon often a meter wide or less, usually requireing ropes & rappelling, and/or high-stemming and difficult up/down climbing to get all the way through..
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This is a canyon hiking guide to the Colorado Plateau, which covers the southeastern half of Utah, the northern half of Arizona, the western 1/5 of Colordo, and a small part of NW New Mexico. This new 4th Edition has been undated significantly beyond the 3rd. The author went back to almost all canyons, or at least to the trailheads, to check out the mile post markers, etc. Also, about half a dozen less-interesting canyons or hikes from the 3rd Edition were eliminated; while about a dozen new & more challenging hikes have been added, plus another 32 pages. This 4th edition contains 320 pages and 191 fotographs, about 90 of which are new.

The new canyons are from scattered locations in southern Utah, primarily in Zion National Park, and the Escalante River, San Rafael Swell & Robbers Roost country, along with major updates on slot canyons on the Navajo Nation. Other big changes to this edition are the addition of about a dozen new technical slot canyons; that is, canyons where you need ropes and rappelling gear to get through. This adds another dimension to excitement and challenge, and opens many new hiking areas previously closed to many of us. All these technical canyons are now either bolted-up, or have slings or webbing around boulders, making them ready for rappelling.

The general direction for this book, is toward slot canyons, which everybody likes; but it retains easy & fun hikes to canyons with Anasazi ruins, another favorite. So if you're looking for petroglyphs or pictographs, and cliff dwellings or ruins, which some people try their best to hide, then this is your book. In the back of this book is a section listing the Best Hikes, including for the most part Slot Canyons, then best hikes to see Indian ruins, and Native American rock arts sites. Below is the Table of Contents..
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Three friends bound by love of the Southwest's canyonlands undertake the first traverse of the Comb Ridge, in search of the lost civilization of the Anasazi • A cultural pilgrimage as well as an athletic one • Story blends personal adventure, middle-aged angst, the beauty of a landscape, history of exploration, and mysteries of the rise and fall of an ancient culture • By a critically acclaimed travel and adventure writer also famous for his exploits in Alaska's mountains • Includes photos by Greg Child of the landscape, Anasazi and Navajo ruins and rock art On September 1, 2004, three middle-aged buddies set out on one of the last geographic challenges never before attempted in North America: to hike the Comb Ridge in one continuous push. The Comb is an upthrust ridge of sandstone—virtually a mini-mountain range—that stretches almost unbroken for a hundred miles from just east of Kayenta, Arizona, to some ten miles west of Blanding, Utah. To hike the Comb is to run a gauntlet of up-and-down severities, with the precipice lurking on one hand, the fiendishly convoluted bedrock slab on the other—always at a sideways, ankle-wrenching pitch. There is not a single mile of established trail in the Comb's hundred-mile reach.

The friends were David Roberts, writer, adventurer, famed mountaineer of decades past, at age 61 the graybeard of the bunch; Greg Child, renowned mountaineer and rock climber, age 47; and Vaughn Hadenfeldt, a wilderness guide intimately acquainted with the canyonlands, age 53. They came to the Comb not only for the physical challenge, but to seek out seldom-visited ruins and rock art of the mysterious Anasazi culture. Each brought his own emotions on the journey; the Comb Ridge would test their friendship in ways they had never before experienced.

Searching for the stray arrowhead half-smothered in the sand or for the faint markings on a far sandstone boulder that betokened a little-known rock art panel, becomes a competitive sport for the three friends. Along the way, they ponder the mystery, bringing the accounts of early and modern explorers and archaeologists to bear: Who were the vanished Indians who built these inaccessible cliff dwellings and pueblos, often hidden from view? Of whom were they afraid and why? What caused them to suddenly abandon their settlements around 1300 AD? What meaning can be ascribed to their phantasmagoric rock art? What was their relationship to the Navajo, who were convinced the Anasazi had magical powers and could fly?

DAVID ROBERTS is the author of On the Ridge Between Life & Death, Escape From Lucania, In Search of the Old Ones, and Escape Routes among other titles. His adventure and travel writing have appeared in Outside, National Geographic Adventure, The New York Times, and other publications..
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Reveals dozens of superb trails that weave through natural areas accessible to hikers throughout the metropolitan Baltimore and Washington, D.C. area.

The Maryland Division of Natural Resources has become quite active in the last few years in upgrading the trail systems under its jurisdiction, and the second edition of 50 Hikes in Maryland has been thoroughly revised to reflect the many changes that have taken place. The new information describes new trails or reroutes, and notes any trails that have closed. Also included is new information about Leave No Trace ethics, and updated contact information complete with Web sites. 50 black & white photos, 51 maps..
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