Book Reviews

"RiverMaps™ Guide to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon Lees Ferry to South Cove" by Tom Martin and Duwain Whitis, 2004
Duwain Whitis of RiverMaps™ and Tom Martin (River Runners for Wilderness) have teamed up to produce a visionary new guidebook to the Colorado River that is an eye grabbing "instant classic." If you appreciate the detail shown on usgs topographic maps, you'll want this book.
The course of the river from the Lees Ferry Boat Ramp to Pearce Ferry is shown on 50 pages of full-scale 7.5' quadrangles; a 51st map at half scale details Lake Mead the rest of the way to the South Cove takeout. Downstream is at the top of the page, the opposite of the convention found in the familiar Belknap and Stevens guidebooks. This makes sense: river left is on the left of the page, a bend to right in front of you bends to the right on the page. North arrows at the top of each page show geographic direction, which can also be recognized from the orientation of the text on the quadrangle maps.
Superimposed on the topographic background are river mileage points, the names of side canyons and other attraction points, rapids and their ratings (1-10), popular campsites, and information about restricted areas.
Each map page faces a descriptive page with information about these features, and one or two b/w photographs. Topographic details of the canyon are shown, on the average, a mile and a half or so away from the river on both sides: everything you need for most of the off-river hiking on a typical trip. The longer Tapeats - Thunder River - Surprise Valley - Deer Creek hike is illustrated on the front cover.
Interpretative information about regulations, plants, archaeology, and geology appears in brief detail in the first couple pages, along with several suggestions for additional references. The authors don't attempt to make this a comprehensive guide to everything in the canyon, recognizing that river runners will carry additional references to address their own particular interests and needs. But they do strive to provide the very best and most comprehensive maps possible, in a convenient and attractive format. In this they succeed in a spectacular fashion, and boaters who already have a stack of other guidebooks will recognize the value of adding this one to their collection as well.
The guide book is visionary in that all the illustrations show oar-powered non-commercial boats and boaters. Commercial and motorized boating are barely mentioned, and all but invisible, the sole exception being a photograph of the Diamond Creek takeout with a couple unrigged Hualapai snout tubes. There's a subtle message here, but it does not detract from the attractiveness or utility of this otherwise excellent addition to the literature of Grand Canyon river running.
Vishnu Temple Press, p.o. Box 30821, Flagstaff, az 86003-0821, www.vishnutemplepress.com, isbn 0-9674595-2-4, about 9" by 14" (fits in 20 mil box, but not in a 50 cal personal ammo box), spiral bound, 108 “waterproof plastic” pages, $24.95.
Drifter Smith

“Peaceful Canyon Golden Rier” A photograpic journey through fabled Glen Canyon, compiled by David and Gudy Gaskill, 2002
This colorful collage of photographs and journal entries provides an amazing visual juourney downriver through Glen Canyon before it was buried beneath Lake Powell in the early 1960s. The trip starts at the end of Cataract Canyon and ends at Wawheap Canyon, just upstream of the dam site. There are 228 photgraphs in the book, compiled from 36 photographers. Most of the photographers were amateurs who were shooting scenes of their river trip with typical equipment of the day. This, I think is one of the most engaging elements of the book. Snapshots of explorers of all ages flloating, hiking, camping, and swimming, rafts overflowing with tanned bodies in big sun hats and tennis shoes, not a single lifejacket to be seen—if these images don’t evoke “the good ol ’days” on this big lazy stretch of river through paradise I don’t know what could.
The photographs are interspersed with quotes from legendary early explorers and writers, and journal entries from personal river trips. Included with the book is a cd containing over 800 photographs of Glen Canyon and its tributaries including hundreds never before published, and two songs performed by Katie Lee. Unfortunately this cd requires Windows, so if you’re a Mac user (as we are) you’ll have to check it out on a different computer. I did, and it is definitely worth a look at all these additional photgraphs, most of which were taken by David and Gudy Gaskill on their numerous trips down Glen Canyon from 1949–1962. It’s an amazing look at a collection of river trip photos through an incredible place that no longer exists.
Colorado Mountain Club Press, 710 10th Street #200, Golden, co 80401, www.cmc.org, isbn 0-967-1466-5-8, 96 pages, $14.95
.
Mary Williams

“Whitewater Classics—Fifty North American Rivers Picked by the Continent’s Leading Paddlers”, by Tyler Williams, 2004.
Unlike the sport of climbing, whitewater paddling has always lacked a definitive voice, until now. Whitewater Classics is an entertaining overview of the continents’s wildest rivers and its most renowned paddlers.
To select the fifty classic rivers profiled in this book, author Tyler Williams contacted the most influential paddlers of out time, and asked them to do the choosing.
This full color book includes photographs and descriptions of each river, along with profiles of the paddlers themselves. The stories behind the paddlers are inspiring, entertaining, interesting and a big addition to the book. Even if you’re not a hard core whitewater addict this is a great read.
Featured kayakers and canoeists include both whitewater pioneers from the ‘50s and ‘60s, and waterfall-hucking stars of today. In researching the book, Williams ran 31 of the 50 classic rivers in the book, on a two year paddling blitz from southern Mexico to Alaska, and the Sierras to the East Coast.
Included in this book are the Colorado in Grand Canyon (chosen by Olympic K-1 slalom champion Dana Chladek) and Grand Canyon guide Josh Lowry (who chose the Middle Fork of the Salmon).
Funhog Press, PO Box 1334, Flagstaff, az 86002, www.funhogpress.com, isbn 0-9664919-3-9, 240 pages, $26.95.