Product Description
Boasting a mild climate, incredible diversity, and thousands of miles of hiking trails, Southern California offers a gem for every hiker. Hiking Southern California is your ticket to rewarding adventures in the backcountry of the southern third of the Golden State, including Death Valley National Park, Mojave National Preserve, the San Gabriel Mountains, and Joshua Tree National Park. This handy guidebook features detailed descriptions of more than 50 classic hikes, with accurate and up-to-date trail maps and all the information you need for planning enjoyable outings year-round. This book describes short, leisurely strolls and demanding excursions of several days. The hikes follow routes varying from gentle, well-graded trails to rugged, cross-country scrambles, including old favorites known to many and obscure routes known only to a few. Surveying the most awe-inspiring scenery in the region, Hiking Southern California will satisfy both beginning and veteran hikers.
Hiking Southern California: A Guide to Southern California’s Greatest Hiking Adventures
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Ron Adkinson has written numerous hiking guides for Falcon Press. One suspects his massive list of publications is really meant to subsidize his true passion: hiking. Not a bad way to live. This particular guide covers much of Southern California and hidden within its pages are some true gems.
Adkin’s book is divided into four parts: Death Valley, the Mojave National Preserve, Southern California Mountains, and Joshua Tree National Park. In each area he includes a number of hikes that are classics: beautiful hikes mentioned in many guides and on which you are certain to encounter many people. But the book also contains numerous out of the way gems that you won’t find elsewhere. In the mountains section, for example, he includes Pacific Crest Trail rambles along Sierra Pelona ridge and the Scodie Mountains, scenic areas you won’t find described elsewhere. Indeed, people hoping to “get away from it all” will find ample opportunity to do so among the pages of this book.
Adkinson has a strong bias towards climbing peaks. You won’t find a lot of nature walks in this guide, although he does include a sprinkling of short family hikes (the Cholla Cactus Gardens in Joshua Tree is my favorite). But if you like good views, this is the guide to get. The only reason this book receives 4 stars instead of 5 is for what it does not cover. It is simply unthinkable that a guide to Southern California hiking should exclude the whole of San Diego and Orange Counties. These areas have some beautiful country that deserves coverage in a volume of this scope. Unfortunately the recent (2003) fires destroyed many fine hiking areas (including most of Rancho Cuyamaca State Park) so it is all the more important that modern guides update what is available in this area.
Despite the lack of comprehensive coverage implied by the title this is an excellent book. Get it and enjoy.
Rating: 4 / 5
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