New Mexico's Wilderness Areas: The Complete Guide

Rating:
Summary: Excellent summary of Wilderness Areas
Review: Despite reviews by people from out of state, this book is an excellent source of information on the Wilderness areas of New Mexico. I only hope they update it soon with any new information. This is obviously not meant to be a hiking guide and is not the reason i purchased it. Finding a good source of all of the wilderness areas of the state on the internet was troublesome, even for me, who surfs a lot. While i could get a good list of the wilderness areas out of the gazeteer, i couldn't get a list of wilderness study areas. The book also gives some trail suggestions which are very helpful, but in the end, i went to other sources. Maybe my honoroble friend from Colorado should stay up there and leave the wilderness areas of New Mexico to us.

Rating:
Summary: Looking for a climbing/hiking guide? This isn't it!
Review: I honestly don't see why anyone found this book useful. I was totally fooled into buying it by the positive reviews here! The first thing that happened was that I looked at the front page map of the entire state to find out what areas were near the town I will be in for an upcoming trip. The map had lots of highways marked with NO TOWNS OR CITIES. Now maybe New Mexicans all memorized the highway map of their state, but for a visitor the lack of any towns or cities made this key map pretty much useless. The book has lots of nice photos on glossy pages, and gives tons of information on history and ecology of the various wilderness areas. It mentions some hikes and climbs and gives sketchy verbal directions, but if you are looking for a climbing or hiking guide to New Mexico this book is pretty much useless. The "maps" it has for the different areas are not topo maps, but just line maps of some surrounding roads and trails. I bought this book to help me plan some hikes and maybe easy peak climbs while I was in northern New Mexico. If I could return it I would, it will not be useful at all. If you are looking for a climbing guide, or even a guide to serious hiking in New Mexico don't get this book or you will be just as disappointed as I was!

Rating:
Summary: Great - Almost too great
Review: This is a guide that the hikers, desert rats, and general wilderness afficionados of New Mexico have long been in need of. It is the first truly comprehensive guide to both the known and "desperately need to be known about and protected" areas in the land of enchantment. Not only does it offer good general info about the areas but their historical significance, why they qualify as wilderness, and how people can access the areas. The more major areas all have some additional text, which is clear and intriguing. Also nice are the authors "favorite hikes" for some areas - they are an excellent starting point for the hiker with a limited schedule. The photos which accompany some areas are also spectacular. I have but a few gripes with the book and they are as follows: Some areas could use a little more description - especially about why they are so ecologically important. It would also be nice if the maps were a little better, but they are quite adequate. However my most major complaint lies not with the book itself, It is such a good guide that my "secret" areas will scarce remain secrets...