Adventuring in Arizona
John Annerino
Many Grand Canyon hikers are familiar with this author. John Annerino has written one of the most comprehensive trail guides ever for the Grand Canyon, Hiking the Grand Canyon. However, this book includes more activities than just hiking. You’ll find car tours, river expeditions, canyoneering, trekking, and climbing covered throughout southern, central, and northern Arizona.
With each description you find information pertaining to that particular endeavor: primary access, elevation, elevation loss and gain, mileage, water sources, cache points, escape routes, seasons, maps needed, nearest supply points, managing agencies, backcountry information, and biotic communities.
This book is helpful for those who want to see more of the state than only Grand Canyon. There are activities for everyone in this guide; so bring the family and do a little exploring!
Exploring Arizona’s Wild Areas: A Guide for Hikers, Backpackers, Climbers, Cross-Country Skiers, and Paddlers
Scott S. Warren
Part of The Mountaineers’ Exploring Wild Areas series, this book will show you areas you may not have known even existed in Arizona. If you’re looking for other places to explore in the Grand Canyon State and don’t know where to start, this book is perfect. Not a step-by-step instruction manual describing where every bend in the trails is, but an excellent primer covering many of Arizona’s wilderness and primitive areas. With basic information on geology, flora and fauna, history, this book provides practical information on what topographical maps you’ll need, which seasons are best suited for hiking the area, what elevations and terrain you’ll experience, and what activities are best suited to the region.
Arizona Atlas & Gazetteer
Delorme
This is a large format book of topographic maps covering the entire state of Arizona. The 1:250,000 scale maps (1″=4 miles) with 200 foot contour line intervals gives a good sense of a complex area from the top of Humphreys Peak at 12,633 ft. to near sea-level on the Colorado River. The central Grand Canyon is represented at a scale of 1:70,000 giving fair detail to both the maintained and the abandoned routes. I wouldn’t recommend it for backpacking trips, but for most backcountry road trips, it’s excellent!
The Back Roads (Arizona Highways: The Back Roads)
Sam Negri
If you are like me and my husband, you always wonder where each and every dirt and backroad goes. We may be a little biased, but we think Arizona has some of the best and most diverse scenery to be had anywhere. This book covers 40 drives on Arizona’s back roads, and being published by Arizona Highways, it’s richly illustrated with gorgeous photographs as well as excellent directions and maps.
The Ultimate Desert Handbook : A Manual for Desert Hikers, Campers and Travelers
Mark Johnson
There is a book I really enjoy and feel is a great resource for hiking or traveling in the desert, which of course the Grand Canyon’s Inner Gorge is! I’m very excited about it because it is a manual for desert adventurers—a topic dismally ignored by most books on the subject of outdoor adventure. There are plenty of books covering oceans, mountains, and prairies, but you’d almost think the desert didn’t exist judging by how few books cover it. And I guarantee that hiking in the mountains and the desert are completely different from one another. This is an invaluable book for those hiking in Canyon Country.