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For less than ten dollars, one would be hard pressed to call this a waste of money, as it does provide a great deal of information on 28 different hikes throughout the park. That said, it doesn't provide much more information than the one can pick up at any of the ranger stations, [.]. Its main advantage is organization, as you're not futzing around with a bunch of double sided pieces of paper and several newsletters, trying to figure out which hike to go on and how to get there.
We found this book to be a great resource for trying to cover all areas of the park in only 5 days. We were able to do some hiking in all the main areas of the park and really get to take in some of the great beauty of the park that you just can't see from the road.
Used this a lot to plan day hikes and did many of the listed hikes while at Glacier in July 2008. Relatively small size made it easy to take along or fit in pants pocket. Distances, times seemed reasonably accurate and comments a good synopsis for the trail. Doesn't rate hikes, "easy", "difficult", etc; but most in Glacier are in the easy-intermediate range anyway. Trails in Glacier are well used/marked so you don't really need it during hiking, but I liked it for planning my hikes or referencing when having to change plans during the day. Maybe only thing to add are a few pictures, which can help decide if you want to take a certain trail or not.
Time is at a premium on vacation. I feel that we will see some great views in Glacier using this book and stay within our vacation time period. Thanks for writing this with all the details given. Very helpful.
There are 28 hikes listed and they are broken down into 5 geographic areas of the two parks. Best Easy Day Hikes for Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks is a bit misleading as a title. For example, one hike is nine miles long with a 1200-foot climb while another is over 14 miles long. It was not a major problem as I always worked it out in the end but it is an area that could use a bit of improvement. Overall, this was a great purchase at an extremely reasonable price. Fortunately, the distances and elevation changes are clearly marked in the description so it is easy to select those you are willing and able to tackle while leaving the others for the more adventurous.
The book is small enough to easily fit in a hip pocket and held up very well during a full week of heavy usage. While there are easy hikes, some are far from it. My wife and I did 2-3 hikes from each area and found the descriptions to be both helpful and largely accurate. There are also maps for each hike but it sometimes took me a while to use them. The actual trail wasn't always well defined within the larger area portrayed on the map and I often found the trailheads especially difficult to spot. Color photos would have been a nice addition but that would have made the book both larger and heavier which is not ideal for a pocket guide.
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