Non-Technical Canyon Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau

We've been using Michael Kelsey's guidebooks for about 15 years, and have at least 7 different titles, including three different editions of this particular guidebook. He packs an AMAZING amount of information into each book. Lots of different canyons, and lots of detail about each canyon. The maps are a bit rough/coarse, but if you combine the guidebook with a good phone GPS mapping app like Maps3D, Avenza/Trails Illustrated, or Hiking Project, you'll be all set. We've used his guidebooks on 8-10 trips to Utah and Arizona, for canyoneering, hiking, backpacking, and kayaking. This is the title we've used the most.

Kelsey's guide cannot be compared to any other book in print. It is an extremely detailed compendium of essential information about many hikes and their variations in the Colorado Plateau. It's best coverage is for hikes in Utah. The 7th Edition is a genuine and worthwhile update. Kelsey's accuracy is unbelievable. Prior to the 7th Edition, relying on his time estimates was risky. Many seem to be improved in the 7th Edition, but watch out: weather, your navigational skills, and the experience of those you are hiking with can make Kelsey's hike completion times unreliable. Essential for non-technical hiking trip planning.

The Non-Technical Canyon Guide is by far the best book I have purchased for route planning and choosing wilderness canyons for our next canyon hiking adventure. I have bought several editions over the past 19 years. I use them like text books, highlighting and writing in them for planning for the Canyon Ratings, locations, time needed and what map and equipment may be needed, and if any of nature's risks or difficulties may be present. My kids, now nearly full grown, treasure our annual adventuring into southern Utah and area red rock canyon country. After years of Non-Technical canyon hiking, we also use the Technical Slot Canyon Guide when planning our rappelling in dramatic canyons of the Escalante, Zion and other areas. The Non-Technical Canyon Hiking Guide opened up new worlds of wilderness adventuring for us to acquire photos and memories of a lifetime.

I am in my 50s and have bad eyes and I don't think the text is too small. I think info is arranged just fine. I think people want Tweet sized content and sometimes that is just not possible. A wealth of knowledge in this thing.

There is a lot of information packed in this book, but it is unnecessarily difficult to use. No distances or clear measures of difficulty are provided, instead times are provided only at the end of group of hikes. Hikes are grouped by map page with no easy way to tell anything about which may meet your criteria without reading the whole thing. Opinions are presented without any explanation, for example one area is "better" than another. "Better" how???? There are some immature outbreaks, like calling NPS rangers "control freaks" without considering their mandate to both encourage public access and protect Native American historical sites.The author's use of the third person to refer to himself is distracting.The maps could be more user friendly, but they are usable, and this may be the best the author can do with the resources at his disposal.Still, this could be worth purchasing if you are patient and determined to explore this area thoroughly

Very good book if interested in exploring the well known and little known areas of the four corner area of the southwestern area of the United States.

You could spend many years trying to complete all the hikes in this book. The color photos in this new edition are helpful and motivating. As I was flipping through this book to write this review, I was reminded why I always look forward so much to my next trip to canyon country.

The information in the book, along with the photographs and diagrams, are great! We're keeping the set of three. HOWEVER, all the reviewers who dinged the book because of its legibility were correct. The typography is an abomination. There is absolutely no kerning or adequate line spacing. Ascenders and descenders nearly touch. Plus, to make matters worse, it is fully justified. And, I think we are looking at 7pt type. It is a chore to read. But, again, the information is really good.

There probably is a lot of useful information in the book but using the book is extremely painful. The book was clearly self-published. The information is not organized in a cohesive manner. The maps are also very difficult to follow and each map has a different North orientation. The fonts used make it very difficult to discern titles and subtitles from text. This may seem nit picky but the font they used is San-serif and it is proven that retention levels and ease of reading with a san-serif font is not good. The problems with this book are so extensive that I gave up trying to use it to decide which places I wanted to visit. If I already knew where I wanted to go I would probably look it up in the book since I already own it but otherwise it is way too difficult to use.