Rating: 
Summary: Invaluable Info for Locals and Travellers
Review: Great to take along any drive through the area. Have your passenger read as you go, stop along the way for a closer look. Easy to read, not too "intellectual". This was my favorite guide to the area when I moved here (and still is)!
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable Info for Locals and Travellers
Review: Great to take along any drive through the area. Have your passenger read as you go, stop along the way for a closer look. Easy to read, not too "intellectual". This was my favorite guide to the area when I moved here (and still is)!
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable Info for Locals and Travellers
Review: Great to take along any drive through the area. Have your passenger read as you go, stop along the way for a closer look. Easy to read, not too "intellectual". This was my favorite guide to the area when I moved here (and still is)!
Rating:
Summary: FASCINATING!
Review: I visited Death Valley and Owens Valley recently and found the area to be the most beautiful and mysterious landscape I've ever seen. I became interested in learning more about the geologic processes which created this incredible region and purchased this book. Sharp & Glazner present a fascinating geologic tale which is geared toward the non-scientific reader with clear explanations and diagrams. There are many great photographs and I really enjoyed the occasional injection of humor. This book has so piqued my interest in the area that I have planned another trip to DV/OV and I will use this wonderful guide to learn even more about this dynamic, glorious part of our country.
Rating:
Summary: FASCINATING!
Review: I visited Death Valley and Owens Valley recently and found the area to be the most beautiful and mysterious landscape I've ever seen. I became interested in learning more about the geologic processes which created this incredible region and purchased this book. Sharp & Glazner present a fascinating geologic tale which is geared toward the non-scientific reader with clear explanations and diagrams. There are many great photographs and I really enjoyed the occasional injection of humor. This book has so piqued my interest in the area that I have planned another trip to DV/OV and I will use this wonderful guide to learn even more about this dynamic, glorious part of our country.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating read
Review: I've always had an interest in geology, but have had only a little formal education in the subject. I've also been to Death Valley and Owens Valley a few dozen times. The accuracy and attention to detail in this book along with the vivid descriptions often made me feel like I was back there as I read. On more than one occasion, I could replay what I had seen when I was out there as I read (in some cases picturing things that I had hardly taken notice of when physically there). The many photographs and diagrams also helped immensely. The occasional touchs of humor made reading fun, and it being a series of vignettes, it's easy to cover a chapter in a short time and not worry about setting it down until later. I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in geology and how the area got to be what it is today, and you don't have to be an expert to enjoy the book.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating read
Review: I've always had an interest in geology, but have had only a little formal education in the subject. I've also been to Death Valley and Owens Valley a few dozen times. The accuracy and attention to detail in this book along with the vivid descriptions often made me feel like I was back there as I read. On more than one occasion, I could replay what I had seen when I was out there as I read (in some cases picturing things that I had hardly taken notice of when physically there). The many photographs and diagrams also helped immensely. The occasional touchs of humor made reading fun, and it being a series of vignettes, it's easy to cover a chapter in a short time and not worry about setting it down until later. I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in geology and how the area got to be what it is today, and you don't have to be an expert to enjoy the book.
Rating: 
Summary: an eye for detail
Review: If you have visited these regions before and wondered how the land came to be shaped as it is, then this book gives you many of the answers. Written for the informed amateur the book's clear text, informative black and white photos, and route information combine to give the reader more insight into the form of the land and how it came to be that way over geological time. My own experience of the desert is that slow erosion takes place continually but is punctuated by minor and major catastrophes; once passable roads become washed out, rivers change course, and gravel beds change by feet of depth in the space of a single storm. The account of wind/ice/mud-moved rocks at Racetrack in Death Valley National Park is the best essay in this collection but all of the chapters have fascinating content. Your appreciation of landscape will change for the better if you take this book with you on your next desert adventure.
Rating:
Summary: an eye for detail
Review: If you have visited these regions before and wondered how the land came to be shaped as it is, then this book gives you many of the answers. Written for the informed amateur the book's clear text, informative black and white photos, and route information combine to give the reader more insight into the form of the land and how it came to be that way over geological time. My own experience of the desert is that slow erosion takes place continually but is punctuated by minor and major catastrophes; once passable roads become washed out, rivers change course, and gravel beds change by feet of depth in the space of a single storm. The account of wind/ice/mud-moved rocks at Racetrack in Death Valley National Park is the best essay in this collection but all of the chapters have fascinating content. Your appreciation of landscape will change for the better if you take this book with you on your next desert adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Ticket to Adventure
Review: Most years we vacation in Mammoth. This book describes a number of convenient and interesting side trips to take with the family. We wander around, sometimes visiting the same features, sometimes visiting a new site. Always appreciating more & more of the world around us. My children have a much better feel for geological processes and their impact on the landscape than do their peers.The book starts with a five page description of Eastern California's geological history, then jumps into 30 sites of interest, nearly evenly distributed between Death Valley & vicinity and the Eastern Sierra & vicinity. A glossary, "Sources of Supplementary Information," and an index round out the book. Each site receives its own chapter, replete with photographs, maps, geological diagrams, and even driving directions, as needed. I'm not a serious geologist, but landscape features fascinate me. The explanations that the authors give work well for me: I can understand them well enough to explain them to children. If you're interested in how the land has been shaped, if you're willing to turn off the tube & make contact with the natural world, then this book is for you. One of the best "field guides" to geology I own. One of my favorites, too. (The companion volume, GEOLOGY UNDERFOOT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, is also an excellent book).
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