Your Guide to the National Parks: The Complete Guide to all 59 National Parks (Second edition)

I ordered this book based by the reviews that I had seen. I have read about a dozen of the US National Parks in these first few days and have found this book to be the best! So much information! There may not be much for the big glamorous pictures, but the written info is outstanding for each Park. Each Park's history is included with details on what is in each Park. That info includes all the hiking trails or special features and how to find. Those details give me more eagerness to go to the Park and see for myself! It is now one of my favorite travel books and I will carry it every time I go out on adventure!

YES! IT IS ALL THAT GOOD!!!!!!WOW! AWESOME! AMAZING! "THE DEFINITIVE BOOK" on National Parks. The only one you really need to buy! It will make the most anal, compulsive reader HAP- HAP-HAPPY!If you're like me, you're planning a trip to a few National Parks and you're buying a bunch of books to extract all the valuable info you need for your road trip. Well, look no further. I'm planning a trip to the Grand Circle in Utah. We are visiting Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon. So, obviously, my first purchase was the book that focused on these particular parks... "A Complete Guide to the Grand Circle National Parks." It's fine. It focused on these parks. My next choice was a Nat Geo book.... "The National Geographic Guide 8th edition." Goodness gracious, it's Nat Geo, it has to be good, eh? Hmmm, not really. I wasn't impressed. Well, I'm compulsive. I have to gather all the information I can and I glean as many books as possible to amass my data! I saw this book and thought, all 59 parks? I don't really need all that info. It has info on 53 parks that I don't need right now but... it had great reviews, so, I bought it! Am I ever so happy I did! It is awesome!This book blows away all the others! The author, Michael Oswald has each park laid out in a very concise orderly fashion. Regardless if you're planning a couple of hours or a couple of days at each park, he gives you all the info you need! It is very orderly!Here is an example...he provides the general information about each park and this has a white background like you would find in any book but he is the King of sidebars...each sidebar has a colored background distinguishing it from the regular text. It contains all the logistical info you need about the park... the address (for GPS), phone #, website, date of establishment, hours, park fees, etc. Stuff you might highlight in another book but presented right here in a sidebar! He basically did all the highlighting for you. In fact, each park has multiple sidebars. Next, he has charts! One chart lists all the hikes... the name of the hike, the location, the length and the difficulty rating w notes. Another chart has camping information. Each park has a weather graph w average high and low temperatures for 12 months and average precipitation. AND, the photographs! IMHO the photos are better than Nat Geo's guide. I find them relevant so you know what to expect from each park. Then there are the maps! The maps are larger and more detailed making them more legible for you, the reader! He pinpoints trailheads, 'don't miss' spots and the usual paved and non paved roads, parking areas, campgrounds, ranger stations, etc.Overall, the format he uses, remains consistent throughout the book for each park. There are 708 pages and the size of the book is larger that the aforementioned books. It is 9" x 7 ½ " whereas Nat Geo was 8 ½" x 5 ¼" and the Grand Circle was 9" x 6" . The slightly added size really makes it vastly superior! The maps are easier to read and the photos more stunning. Even tho it is bigger and heavier than the other two this is the book I will take on my vacation!If you buy only one book, this is the book! If you buy bunches of books like I did and (will always do) this will... hands down, be your favorite! YES, it is all that good!!!!!KUDOS and THANK YOU to the author, Michael Joseph Oswald!

Book was written in 2017 so some what outdated info but still very good info to plan our trips!

This was possibly one of the most anticipated purchases I've made in 2017.I recently made a promise to myself to explore as many of our National and State Parks as I could. I've already set up trips visiting three of the 59 National Parks for 2018. And as an excessive planner, I've been researching countless sites to help put together my itineraries. Information overload is an understatement. Bookmarking numerous sites can be cumbersome, and I often find myself forgetting to go back to read some of the sites that I've gleamed to be helpful. I would frequently rabbit-hole into an unnecessary, unrelated topic by the end, too. Thanks, Reddit and Wikipedia.I needed something to help be my roadmap.This book is off to a SOLID start. It's got blurbs about the history and stats about each park, list of restaurants, and recommended trails. It lists pricing on campgrounds and nearby hotels. Everything I wanted to know in one tangible resource for highlighting, annotating, and bookmarking. One bad thing about print books is that it's permanent, so information about pricing could be outdated, depending on when you're reading the book.My biggest criticisms are two folds (and in reality, pretty minor if you think about the usefulness of the book overall): first, the maps are difficult to read and utilize because one location can be split into multiple pages. This isn't really the author's fault as I understand having a fold-out map may not be as easy. Even still, I find myself trying to piece together the overall picture. Good new is, the book includes helpful sites so you have some online resources for further research. Second criticism is the organization of the book. Good information, but not laid out in the best way. It can be a bit difficult to find certain information on a park using the book. Also, I don't like how the book is formatted like a textbook. Then again, I'm highlighting and marking it up like it were my textbooks back in college.What I like about this book:All 59 National Parks are right there in one place. Yes, you'll need to do some additional research to make sure you're current on pricing, road/trail conditions, etc. But I love how all the explorable trails are listed with the name, location, length, and difficulty ratings. HUGE timesaver if you don't know where to begin exploring. Also, love the pictures.This book is a solid contributor in mapping out your adventures. If you're not wholly impressed with the depth of information provided in this book, this can at least be a catalyst in where to start your online research. This will give you a good bird's eye view of each park. Use this as a starting point to figure out what you'd like to research in more depth, and go from there.I have already started using this book as a launchpad for my upcoming trips. I'm sure I'll circle back to it as I'm finalizing my trip details.

I dont know that I have anything to add to the many positive reviews but this book is pretty perfect. Each park is discussed in well organized detail with all the info I would be scouring the internet for. In these days of the internet I have to admit I often go the free and simple route of planning trips online. This book makes itself a must have in its attention to detail and hand delivery of all the stuff I would want to know. I am sure I will save many hours and enjoy more things thanks to this book. Thank you for the work you did. I have only one addition I would put in - each park lists the best times to go - at the beginning Id add in a breakdown of all the parks best times. Easy to find it in the book but if I was looking to do a January trip it would be cool to see the best spots in January. But - it is still a total masterpiece. And the author signed it which was a sweet touch. Thank you!

Donated to library.

Good book about all the national parks much better than the lonely planet and national geographic ones.

This book is very comprehensive. Clear maps, and lots of information about each park. I love it!

Unser ständiger Begleiter durch die Nationalparks im Westen der USA! Es sind wirklich tolle Erlebnisse, die uns dieses Buch verschafft hat. Wir haben es hauptächlich für Wanderungen genutzt und um die besten Spots zum Zelten zu finden.

This book is comprehensive and filled to the brim with all the right stuff, great maps, background of the parks, tips on trails, not to miss spots etc. Must have when you are planning to visit parks.One small point of improvement; I know it's been left out on purpose, but I would have liked a register in the back to help find things quicker, also the order seems strange to me so I keep flipping through to find the park I wanna read up on. Still not enough drama to take a star off though.

Si vous visitez les USA et allez dans quelques parc nationaux, il vous faut ce livre, sinon vous serez juste un touriste passant dans ce parc sans voir les secrets les mieux cachés.