A View Junkie’s Guide to Dayhiking Colorado – Front Cover
I’ve published a book – “A View Junkie’s Guide to Dayhiking Colorado
Reading A View Junkie’s Guide to Dayhiking Colorado
Why “view junkie”? Well, I’m rather a view junkie myself. I just can’t get tired of awe-inspiring vistas (mountain views, canyons, rock formations, you name it). My first stop when looking up trails to hike is pictures of what I’ll see along the way…then to see if it’s short enough for me to want to attempt 🙂
Interior View #1
The book is set up pretty logically, with six main sections (Rocky Mountain National Park and vicinity; Flat Tops Wilderness Area, Maroon Bells and vicinity, Independence Pass area, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, and other trails in Colorado. Each trail description contains some quick facts about the trail (elevation, length, view rating, etc.), a description of the view, key GPS coordinates, directions to the trailhead, a detailed trail description, trail trivia, a topo map, several pictures of the views along the trail, and an “even more” section detailing other possible hiking opportunities in the area. The trails are technically for day hikers, although quite a few could be enjoyed as a backpacking trip.
Interior View #2
Perhaps the most unique thing about the guide is that I haven’t attempted to cover geology, history, and so on that are often included in travel guides. That isn’t my point. (I usually skip those sections, anyway.) I wanted a bare-bones hiking guide, so that’s what I did, although there are sections in the back of the book about weather, fees, packing tips, and other information I found crucial (lightening danger, for example).
Interior#3
“A View Junkie’s Guide to Day Hiking Colorado” by Anne Whiting is currently available on Amazon.com
Back Cover
And stay on the lookout for another book to be published soon… currently called, “A View Junkie’s Peak Identification Guide while Dayhiking Colorado
That’s so awesome. From what I can see in the pictures above, the layout looks good. I like the color pictures, maps, and GPS waypoints. I also REALLY LIKE the fact that you describe the hike rather than the extraneous minutia. The one thing I would suggest for future editions is icons for trail head access. That’s very important for someone like me who drives a small sedan.
Just out of curiosity, are you almost always interested in view hikes? Although I do enjoy the views, I’m mainly a hike by a creek under the forest canopy kind of person. I definitely do way better photographing that kind of scene. Overall, I was disappointed with the quality of photographs I took during last year’s North Cascades trip. It certainly would have been nice to be able to better capture how good it looked.
Hi Robert,
I’ll definitely take your suggestion into account for the next edition / any other books I write. If I think a sedan would have trouble getting to the trailhead, I mention it in the “getting to the trailhead” section, but I could see how a specific icon would be helpful.
I guess the reason I’m not real into hike-by-the-creek-in-the-forest is because my property backs up to a county park with many miles of forested trails, so I can get that kind of hike almost any time I want. So for me, the reason to travel is to see something I can’t see at home. But I hear you on trying to capture pictures. I look at my southwestern pictures (Colorado, too) and regret that I couldn’t capture the grandeur that was really there.
Happy hiking,
Anne
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