Hiking and Exploring the Paria River Paperback – April 1, 2010

Michael Kelsey changed my life. Many of us hike together and we are in our 60s and 70s. We have been hiking before and since MK started publishing. Without his books and his tireless efforts to explain the wilderness in a way that probably will save your life. If you cannot understand his books, it is better if you stay home. If you cannot handle tracking, GPS, map reading, etc. - watch TV or learn how. Not to be mean, but this is not a knitting class. You can die without much effort in the wilderness and you need to master certain skills or go with people who have mastered them. If you cannot read a Kelsey book, then you cannot handle a topo map or a GPS program or 4WDing or reading the weather or finding water. These are skills you need to have. If you don't have the initiative to learn these skills but want access to the beautiful but deadly Desert, don't blame Kelsey. He tells you like it is. He does his best to guide you through spectacular areas with plenty of warning. People ignore the warnings as they have issues with taking advice and facing reality. I have read Kelsey very carefully and at times, when I am a million miles out there, I realized that I did not read it carefully enough and now I cannot do what I wanted. That is not Mike's fault. If you are stuck on a hike, email him and he will help you. That is pretty damn good service I think! The Wilderness is not the shopping mall. If you truly want to learn to survive in it and live to tell about it, join a group like the Sierra Club or REI and learn the skills that we had to learn and enjoy it. There will always be an element of unknown. Nearly every hike, the first time, there will be surprises, there will be GPS errors and all kinds of other circumstances. It is all the language of nature. When you have some back country wisdom, you will expect this and have planned for it. I thank Mike Kelsey from the bottom of my heart for opening a whole world to me. I owe you more than I can say. Don in San Diego.

As an experienced backpacker I have purchased many, many trail books through the years. There are things that I absolutely love about this well-researched book on what most would consider an obscure & remote area. First, the quality of the printing is very high. The pages are glossy and will withstand considerable wear and tear. Mr. Kelsey puts considerable depth into his research. Obviously the author is passionately about the area, the hikes and the history. And mostly I love the photography (or "fotography" as he calls it). This is the first book of its type that I have ever owned where all the original photos are color & glossy. The photos are absolutely outstanding.I only have a couple of gripes but they are big ones. Despite the high-quality of the printing, the book is difficult to read. There are no line breaks between paragraphs and quotes are not indented. I understand that he's trying to save space, but at what cost to the reader? A minor annoyance is his spelling of all forms of the word "photograph" as "fotograph". What's up with that? My biggest complaint is Mr. Kelsey arrogant the use of kilometers vs mileage when referencing distances. It's almost like has little for what the reader wants.I was torn as to how to rate this book. With so many things that I like about it, I would have felt guilty giving it only 3-stars despite how much of a arrogant jackass Mr. Kelsey is for making me convert metric to miles. I also give him extra credit for being accessible. He gives his email address on the first page. I contacted him with a question and he promptly answered back. Heck, that's worth an extra star! If in his next edition, Mr. Kelsey fixes a few of my complaints, I would be more than willing to give him the coveted 5-stars.

I have several of Kelsey's guide books, and as long as you are willing to slog through a lot of information, they are wonderful. I used several different resources in preparation for my Paria Canyon trip, and this was by far the most informative. Be warned that none of his books are formatted very well. Information is crammed together without noticeable titles or headers, and the sequence of information doesn't make much sense at all, but I'm willing to overlook all this for quality of content. You will find great information here, you're just going to have to search for it.

This book is a fine addition to numerous others by this author dealing with the Utah canyon country. He invariably is accurate and correct in his listings for various trips, both by 4WD and on foot, in these areas. True, the font is relatively tiny especially for aging eyes, but it sure allows for a lot of information in a small volume. Also, most users can forgive the occasional rants on the BLM and other organizations - they all have at least a seed of truth in them. And long ago we all got used to the term "foto". If you need a dependable guide to these areas, his books have stood the test of time.

i've been a kelsey fan for years. i will never begin to do thethings he does in terms of technical climbing or evennon technical meandering. but he is the bible for anyoneeven remotely thinking of taking a stroll in the southwest.i have used this book to find some of the most remotehiking areas in the arizona strip and southern utah. hisbooks are filled with information - way more than mostpeople are used to - and you need to follow what he saysvery carefully because, to do otherwise risks getting lostin difficult places. read the routes. read the history.read the biographies of the people in the area. this bookshould be required reading for anyone interested in thehistory of the american west. it is brilliant. bp

Good to have if your spending time in the area.

Das Beste über die Gegend was es gibt, seit langem.Kelsey ist der Meister. Präzise und mit allen wichtigen Details.Einziger Kritikpunkt ist der Zeilenabstand, der das Lesen etwas mühsam macht.