Book Review: ‘Hiking Southwest Utah and Adjacent Areas: Volume One’ by Tom Garrison

Written by Melinda Charlet

‘Hiking Southwest Utah and Adjacent Areas: Volume One’ by Tom Garrison

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. 139 pages.

This hiking guide, written by local author Tom Garrison, is a great resource for those wishing to explore southwest Utah hiking trails. It provides all of the information you need to safely take on a number of well-known area hikes, along with quite a few you may not have heard of before. It would be a helpful addition to the backpacks of avid hikers as well as of those new to exploring the area.

Drawing on years of exploring the desert areas of southwest Utah, southern Nevada, and northern Arizona, Tom Garrison hopes to inspire others to enjoy the rich landscapes and spectacular scenery that hiking in this region offers. All 25 of the hikes that are documented can be completed by the average person or family in 4 hours or less.

This unique hiking guide includes helpful tips for hiking in desert climates, which require special consideration and planning. Each trail description includes the distance, average hiking time, fees and permits required, elevation, difficulty rating, and vehicle recommendations for access to each hike. Photographs and colored topographic maps with trails marked in red are also included for each trail.

Garrison adds a personal element by describing his and his wife Deb’s adventures going on each of the hikes together. He also includes interesting historical and geological facts pertinent to each hike, enhancing the reading experience.

As a regular hiker, I look forward to using this guide to discover some of the trails that I have not yet explored and eagerly anticipate volume two.

‘Hiking Southwest Utah and Adjacent Areas: Volume One’ is available at Amazon and locally at Desert Rat and the Zion National Park Visitor Center.

Tom welcomes comments from readers and can be contacted through his Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hiking-Southwest-Utah-and-Adjacent-Areas/1489605251309735, or by email at [email protected].