The High Sierra of California

Book Description

Combining the dramatic and meticulous work of printmaker Tom Killion--accented by quotes from John Muir--and the journal writings of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder, The High Sierra of California is a tribute to the bold, jagged peaks that have inspired generations of naturalists, artists, and writers.

For over thirty years, Tom Killion has been backpacking the High Sierra, making sketches of the region stretching from Yosemite south to Whitney and Kaweah Crest, which he calls "California's backbone." Using traditional Japanese and European woodcut techniques, Killion has created stunning visual images of the Sierra that focus on the backcountry above nine thousand feet, accessible only on foot.

Accompanying these riveting images are the journals of Gary Snyder, chronicling more than forty years of foot travels through the High Sierra backcountry. "Athens and Rome, good-bye!" writes Snyder, as he takes us deep into the mountains on his daily journeys around Yosemite and beyond.

Originally printed in a limited, handmade, letterpress edition, The High Sierra of California is now available in an affordable, full-color trade edition.

Customer Reviews:

stunning.......2007-02-07

This book is stunning the woodblock prints are so beautiful they almost make you cry. We spend a lot of time in the sierras and this book shows the beauty of these mountains better than any photographs. Get the book
look at the pictures then do your family a favor and go spend time in these incredible mountains.

howl at the moon.......2002-06-17

hop up and down in your Teva sandals. Wade the great streams as they roar over round stones down from ancient peaks... dance the silver dance of the wild rainbow... but find a place in your ultralight backpack for this book. It deserves a place next to that bag of peanuts, your titanium cup; worth its weight in gold dust from the river, split pea soup from the pouch. Ancient shaman tales and woodcut journeys... yamabushi of the mind, and lots of white space for taking your own cryptic outerspace trailnotes...

Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra

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Nature Noir
Good book for the plane
Mother Nature & Politics--Man is Always the Bad Guy
Slow, Ponderous
Poor writing with some good stories

Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra
Jordan Fisher Smith
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0618224165

Book Description

Nature Noir is the intensely original story -- part Edward Abbey, part James Ellroy -- of Jordan Fisher Smith's fourteen years as a park ranger on forty-eight miles of Sierra Nevada river canyons. The gorgeous government-owned land along the American River that Fisher Smith and his band of fellow rangers have pledged to protect is (think Catch-22) condemned to be inundated by a huge dam. As Smith learns from his first day on patrol, the provisional quality of life here attracts the marginal and the pure crazy. Ranger work, in this place where wildness tends toward the human kind, includes encounters with armed miners who scour canyons for gold, drug-addled squatters, and extreme recreators who enjoy combining motorcycles, parachutes, and high bridges. Nature Noir reveals some startling truths about park rangering on America's public lands. In one heart-stopping scene, Smith comes across the corpse of a woman runner, killed and partly eaten by a mountain lion -- the first Californian to die in that way since the nineteenth century. Elsewhere, the predator on the loose may be human, and Smith goes looking for the bones of a long-missing woman in the surreal landscape around a half-constructed dam slowly reverting to wild.

Customer Reviews:

Nature Noir.......2007-10-18

A park ranger talk about law enforcement, dams, miners, and death in California's Auburn State Recreation Area.

Good book for the plane.......2007-06-20

I don't really have much to say about Nature Noir. I read it on the plane out to Denver. It was recommended to me by a non-fiction writer and I heard part of an interview with the author on the radio. I confess that I have not read a great deal of non-fiction aside from personal essays. "Nature Noir" read much like a long personal essay, interspersed with the customary commentary on landscape necessary in all nature writing. Smith's narrative seeks to dispel the idyllic image of wilderness and the life of the Forest Ranger. And I imagine for many people, particularly people who do not spend much time in the Western backcountry, Smith's reports of meth-labs, poachers, suicides, and predator attacks contrast their image of wilderness. But it's something most people who spend time in the backcournty have know about for some time. Ultimately I found his tales and observations somewhat pedestrian. The reviewer on the inside cover compared the work to Edward Abbey, Gary Snyder, and Aldo Leopold. Such comparisons are far too generous for this particular work.

Mother Nature & Politics--Man is Always the Bad Guy.......2007-03-26

Alas.......A good friend recommended this book for me. He really enjoyed the heck out of it, but I guess I didn't get the same thrill out of reading it. In fact, it was like a big sleeping pill for me to try and finish this book. Sorry 'bout that Steve......but like any book I've ever read, there are always some tidbits of information that makes a person smarter, so I'm not unhappy that I read it. If a person is really into environmental issues, then this just might be the kind of book some other reader is looking for.

Basically the author tells of his 20+ years as a park forest ranger on the north-western coast of California, Sierra Nevada of California, Wyoming's Grand Tetons, and a couple of other locations. His primary focus was the government-owned land of the American River that is condemned to be covered by a dam some day. In his mind it is doomed land that will eventually be flooded over and never to be enjoyed by human kind again. It will be a home that will be taken from the existing animals that now preside there. The flora and fauna will eventually be covered by water too. Of course, whatever good might come from the dam such as a new water supply for the ever-expanding human population, new wildlife in the form of fish, water fowl, underwater plant life, etc. aren't considered as a positive tradeoff. Instead, a new dam is just more human exploitation of mother nature.

Smith spends some time talking about the human element of being a park ranger and the kinds of people that spend time in the public park system, but mostly his focus was on the negative side of the human experience (the armed miners, wild druggies, alcohol-crazed losers, squatters, motorcyclists, gangs, bridge jumpers, etc.). Not much was mentioned about the vast majority of the public (families, campers, and nature lovers) who visit the national forests and treat it with respect.

Smith gives his reader lots of history and geography lessons throughout the book. What it was like to be a park ranger really took the back seat to the author pressing his environmental and political agendas. Instead, we are given a big dose of environmental politics and conservationist history which I found to be mostly dry and uninteresting. In my mind, Smith made 'Man' the bad guy. I also felt that he was a rather bitter person as he looked back on his years as a ranger.

Sooooooo........the bottom line is that this book didn't quite do it for me.

Slow, Ponderous.......2007-01-19

The book started with a bang and ended with a whimper. It was tedious reading by and large, as the Park System is viewed by kind of the Willie Loman of Rangers. He also, as is common in this day, blames all the world's ills on America's and particularly George Bush's failure to get with the program and turn America into a socialist paradise.
He also spent twenty years with his co-workers, but has about as much insight, overt compassion, and intimacy with them as I have with the people with whom I wait for the bus. I'd really have to suggest skipping this depressing and needlessly politicized book; the ramblings of an embittered man. It reminded me of a poor-man's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

Poor writing with some good stories.......2007-01-05

Jordan Fisher Smith's writing is extremely poor. However, some of the stories he writes on are interesting despite his lack of proper grammer. I am pretty sure he uses the word "I" 20 times in one page multiple times in this book. But if you can get through the poor writing the book is fairly interesting.

John Muir: The Eight Wilderness Discovery Books

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Want a detailed description of a snow-banner? the nut-pine?

John Muir: The Eight Wilderness Discovery Books
John Muir
Manufacturer: Diadem Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 089886335X

Customer Reviews:

Want a detailed description of a snow-banner? the nut-pine?.......1997-08-01

Or numerous other natural phenomena? Come browse Muir's collection of books. Yes, browse the 1,030 pages which comprise his writings. This book is excellent for the student of nature because his descriptive writing takes you to the high Sierra, the redwood forests, the 1,000 mile trek through Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. You are there and you want to be THERE! While much of the description was written over 100 years ago, the magnificence of a Sequoia, the humidity of a Florida swamp and the curiosity of a Douglas squirrel is still REAL today. A true travelogue for nature lovers and mountainmen wannabes alike

My First Summer in the Sierra (Dover Books on Americana)

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A reluctant write
Nature is the only gardener able to do work so fine
If this is classic nature lit, then maybe its just me...
This Is John Muir's Finest Book
Discovering the Range of Light

My First Summer in the Sierra (Dover Books on Americana)
John Muir
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486437353

Amazon.com

John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, had not yet become the famed conservationist whom he liked to call "John o' the Mountains" when he first trekked into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada not long after the end of the Civil War. Having caught a glimpse of such magical places as Tuolumne Meadows and El Capitan, Muir ached to return, and in the summer of 1869 he signed on with a crew of shepherds and drove a flock of 2,500 woolly critters toward the headwaters of the Merced River.

The diary he kept while tending sheep forms the heart of My First Summer in the Sierra; published in 1911, it enticed thousands of Americans to visit the Yosemite country. The book is full of the concerns Muir would later voice as America's foremost preservationist and wildlands advocate, which would bear fruit in the creation of several national parks and monuments. And it resounds with Muir's nearly pantheistic regard for the natural world: with celebrations of the Sierra's lizards that "dart about on the hot rocks, swift as dragonflies," its mountain lions and tall trees and fierce thunderstorms and bears; with Muir's overarching awe for places that civilization had yet to tame. Though perhaps a little purple by modern standards, Muir's book continues to inspire readers to seek out such places for themselves and make them their own--and as such it stands among the enduring classics of environmental literature. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Picturesque descriptions and sketches by one of America's most important and influential naturalists describes the author's 1869 stay in California's Yosemite River Valley and the Sierra Mountains. Muir's engaging journal describes majestic vistas, flora and fauna, as well as the region's other breathtaking natural wonders. 21 black-and-white illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

A reluctant write.......2007-05-09

This is an excellent, honest write. Muir reluctantly dictated this book while walking around a northern California estate. The wealthy owner of the estate loaned his secretary while Muir walked and talked and the secretary took dictation. Muir had the benefit of good editors. It is a great read because Muir is walking through forests while he recounts his first summer in the Sierra Nevada. We feel it through his eyes.

Muir's later writing efforts came hard, with much editing and rewrites. He worked in his "scribble den" in Martinez with "lateral, terminal and medial moraines of paper arranged about the room ready to cascade forth and bury him."

The original manuscripts show much of the book was written in pencil, with at least five editings (Muir made corrections and alterations). Graham cracker crumbs are embedded in the paper (Muir ate while he worked. Eating graham crackers is a carry over from his student days at the University of Wisconsin).

This is the genuine John Muir, fresh, crisp, articulate (okay, his descriptions can be a bit wordy at times) and alive with a child-like fascintation for learning and inspiration.

I own an original first edition copy with the dust cover and gold leaf on the hard bound cover. I reread the book from time to time. What a great story.

Nature is the only gardener able to do work so fine.......2007-04-17

Gretel Ehrlich provides the introduction. It is noted that John Muir walked first, wrote later. In 1868 he was thirty years old and had walked a thousand miles. He was a seeker in self-exile such as D.H. Lawrence, Rockwell Kent, and Basho. Muir chronicles a rite of passage. The summer described began in June, 1869. Forty-one years later the account was pieced together.

Muir worked for Mr. Delaney as a sheepherder. He had a St. Bernard dog as a companion. Mr. Delaney encouraged Muir to sketch and pursue his naturalist studies. He was to learn that sheep cannot be governed when hungry. Bushes are stripped. The sheep resemble locusts in their destructive potential.

Two kinds of squirrels are evident, the Douglas and the California Gray. The wood rat is more like a squirrel than a rat. He bulds large striking looking houses. Sheep camp bread is baked in Dutch ovens. Descriptions of silver firs, Sierra juniper, yellow and sugar pines, Douglas spruce, sequoia, hemlock, and dwarf pines appear in the account of the summer. Nature is extravagant. The group follows the Yosemite trail.

Mules flee from bears, and dogs want to. Bears are very shy. Indian patience is required to see them. Making sheep cross a stream is a challenge. Once one goes in, the others push in pell-mell. Lake Tenaya was named for one of the chiefs of the Yosemite tribe. Sierra mosquitoes are nearly an inch long. Sierra chipmunks are arboreal and squirrel-like. Grouse and woodpeckers are abundant in the vicinity of Mount Hoffman.

On August third Muir found Professor Butler, his teacher at the University of Wisconsin, because, sensing his presence, John Muir made inquiries at the only hotel in the area and was directed to go to the Vernal Falls. Professor Butler and his party were astonished that John Muir found them.

In times of hunger the dogs, men, and sheep are confronted with lions, leopards, wolves, hyenas, and panthers. The names of places are exciting and descriptive--Moraine Lake, Mono Desert, Soda Springs, Unicorn Peak, Cathedral Range, Tuolumne, Hetch-Hetchy Valley. Muir's self-directed studies in botany clearly account for some of the strengths of this nature narrative. In the end Mr. Delaney tells Muir he will be famous some day.The author describes himself as an incredible wilderness lover. September twenty second ended Muir's first excursion.

The book is a marvel. Sketches and photographs are included and enhance the work.

If this is classic nature lit, then maybe its just me..........2007-01-09

I am going to resign from critiquing this book on a literary scale, and just say that I didn't enjoy this book for the same reason a couple others mentioned - its boring and repetitive. Maybe its because I'm not used to aimless - albeit eloquent -landscape descriptions, or maybe it's the fact that NOTHING happens for 264 pages, but reading this book felt more like a chore than an enjoyable reading experience. Case in point: Casual readers beware!

This Is John Muir's Finest Book.......2006-09-07

John Muir might be the finest author of the "naturalist" genre there ever was. This book is based on his field notes he wrote while he spent his first summer in the Sierra Nevada as a shepherd. He always seems to find the perfect words to describe all that he sees. He was the consumate observer of the natural world and this book is all that. It is a must read for anyone who ever wondered what his life was like, how the Sierra Nevada appeared in the late 1800s, and how he became America's savior of public lands.

Discovering the Range of Light.......2006-07-18

John Muir was born in 1838 and at a young age emigrated from Scotland with his family to a Wisconsin farm. He escaped the hard labor of the farm and his father's backward Biblical obsessions by displaying great powers of visualization. From principles learned from books, he whittled and fashioned barometers, thermometers, clocks and other marvels from the barest of materials. But he repudiated his inventive genius, which could have made him rich, after an industrial accident left him temporarily blinded; and he took off for the wilderness to discover plants and the natural world.

This book is a journal account of Muir's finding a place for himself in Yosemite after some dangerous wandering through the hazards of reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. It's a book of discovery. Although flocks of sheep like Muir's employer's were allowed to overrun backcountry meadows, and gold miners had ripped apart the lower river beds, the Sierras then were still a place that had many aspects that had not yet been explored or understood. The backcountry was much more vulnerable to exploitation (though in many ways less endangered) than today, but there was freer and unfettered access for one who sought out it's mysteries and wanted to learn. This book shows Muir's powers of visualization in his beginning to formulate the role that glaciers play in the formation of the landscape. No one at that time had come to a solid understanding of what had made Yosemite Valley. And, although it might seem quite clear in retrospect, it took a strong mind of one who up until that time had been adrift in the world, a wanderer who studied plants, to visualize his theories and make them known to the world.

Anyone who has not experienced the Sierra first hand cannot really appreciate this book. There are lengthy and numerous descriptions of plants and animals, loving descriptions in Muir's fashion, that can only be understood by one who has reveled in the same places and likewise wants to examine all the details. It's not a purely intellectual appreciation. It's something felt with the whole body, with all the senses alive. Muir always writes of being drawn into Nature, of never turning back, as in the case of his foolhardy venture to the brink of Yosemite Falls, "I therefore concluded not to venture farther, but did nevertheless". There's also this kind of breathless anticipation of tomorrow- if only I will be given a chance to explore its fountains...

Range of Light: The Sierra Nevada (National Geographic Destinations)

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Range of Light: The Sierra Nevada (National Geographic Destinations)
Noel Grove , and Phil Schermeister
Manufacturer: National Geographic Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792278402

Book Description

Four-hundred-mile-long range of alluring beauty, the Sierra Nevada displays spectacular landscapes carved by nature and enhanced by the stunning interplay of light and shadow. Although facing environmental pressure, the region's three national parks and nine national forests attract visitors from around the world -- people who come to marvel at the crashing waterfalls in Yosemite, the breathtaking summit of Mt. Whitney, and the glassy waters of Lake Tahoe. Outdoor recreationists fly-fish in cascading rivers, ski at Squaw Valley, and kayak the Kern River's white water. Herds of mule deer congregate in the winter to graze tender shoots of grass. In Owen Valley, natural hot springs bubble among the wild-flowers. The Sierra Nevada harbors a gallery of masterpieces, splendidly colored by nature's elusive palette of light.

Average customer rating:

Comprehensive but lacking in organization

Indispensable

Best Tahoe area hiking guide

The Tahoe Sierra: A Natural History Guide to 112 Hikes in the Northern Sierra
Jeffrey P. Schaffer
Manufacturer: Wilderness Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Best Easy Day Hikes Lake Tahoe

Top Trails Lake Tahoe (Top Trails)

Afoot & Afield Reno-Tahoe: A Comprehensive Hiking Guide

The Tahoe Rim Trail: A Complete Guide for Hikers, Mountain Bikers, and Equestrians

Lonely Planet Hiking in the Sierra Nevada

ASIN: 0899972209

Book Description

Describes over 100 hikes around the Lake Tahoe Basin and in the Sierra Nevada from Carson Pass area north to the Sierra Buttes. Virtually all the trails are covered, visiting such diverse areas as Desolation Wilderness, Malakoff Diggins, Bucks Lake and Lakes Basin. Hikes range from easy dayhikes to strenuous multi-day backpacks. Contains all the topographic maps you'll need for each hike, plus mileage, elevations, difficulty rating, and campsites.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive but lacking in organization.......2006-01-10

Wilderness Press hit a high mark with their Sierra North and Sierra South books. This comprehenisve guide to the Lake Tahoe Sierra is to be commended for being very comprehensive, containing 112 hikes that touch on all corners of the Tahoe area. The descriptions sparkle much more than than the typical dry text in these sort of guides as well.

Unfortunately the book could stand to improve its layout and maps, especially the all-important master map pages that clue you in to where hikes are located. Also, the individual trail maps are often nowhere near the text for the trip. Hopefully a future edition will improve upon the book's layout.

Indispensable.......2003-11-01

This book was one of the first that my wife and I bought upon coming to California in 1980. It has since fallen into at least ten pieces from overuse. This new version is also excellent.

There is a level of detail throughout that we appreciate, providing an interesting, experienced viewpoint and guide. We also like the way the different regions are highlighted. Sometimes we just head off to one of the regions and find a trail that looks interesting.

Enjoy!

Best Tahoe area hiking guide.......1999-01-21

The fourth edition of this book is a vast improvement on the initial release (3 editions ago). If you are looking for a complete trail guide to the Tahoe Basin, this is the one you want.

Geology of the Sierra Nevada (California Natural History Guides)

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Teachers reference
Entertaining but lacking in 'geology'
They're not just rocks, they're history

Geology of the Sierra Nevada (California Natural History Guides)
Mary Hill
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0520236955

Book Description

Writing with verve and clarity, Mary Hill tells the story of the magnificent Sierra Nevada--the longest, highest, and most spectacular mountain range in the contiguous United States. Hill takes us from the time before the land which would be California even existed, through the days of roaring volcanoes, violent earthquakes, and chilling ice sheets, to the more recent history of the Sierra's early explorers and the generations of adventuresome souls who followed.
The author introduces the rocks of the Sierra Nevada, which tell the mountains' tale, and explains how nature's forces, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, faulting, erosion, and glaciation formed the range's world-renowned scenery and mineral wealth, including gold.
For thirty years, the first edition of Geology of the Sierra Nevada has been the definitive guide to the Sierra Nevada's geological history for nature lovers, travelers, hikers, campers, and armchair explorers. This new edition offers new chapters and sidebars and incorporates the concept of plate tectonics throughout the text.

Written in easy-to-understand language for a wide audience.
Gives detailed information on where to view outstanding Sierra Nevada geology in some of the world's most beloved natural treasures and national parks, including Yosemite.
Provides specific information on places to see glaciers and glacial deposits, caves, and exhibits of gold mines and mining equipment, many from Gold Rush times.
Superbly illustrated with 117 new color illustrations, 16 halftones, 39 line illustrations, and 12 maps, and also features an easy-to-use, interactive key for identifying rocks and a glossary of geological terms.

Customer Reviews:

Teachers reference.......2007-10-18

This is a nice reference source for general geologic information on Sierra Nevada. A definite improvement over the last edition, worth the replacement cost. Too bulky for a field guide unless you like spending your outing buried in a book, but is a great size for student use in class. The breadth of topics is excellent, and material is up to date (not all books available are). For anyone who needs exposure to Sierra Nevada geology, this is a good supplement to the Harden Book

Entertaining but lacking in 'geology'.......2007-06-27

However titillating this book never quite addressed what I'd hoped to find. I was disappointed that there wasn't much 'geology' in the book other than nice descriptions of how gold wound up where it did and how Half Dome, El Cap, etc. were shaped. On the other hand, it's great for the history of geological exploration and mining in the area (including political intrique between John Muir and 'official' geologists.) Other virtues include lists of noteworthy geological feature and great maps and photos.

They're not just rocks, they're history.......2006-06-22

Three decades ago geologist Mary Hill wrote a handbook to the Sierra Nevada's geologic history and it became the standard guide. The aptly named author has now extensively revised her book. It's an armchair traveler's delight and remains an authoritative guide that will well serve a new generation of hikers, campers, and explorers.

"Geology of the Sierra Nevada: Revised Edition" ($19.95 in full-color paperback from University of California Press) contains almost 200 illustrations, including photographs of rock forms and maps showing where to find them. Hill thanks Bill Guyton, professor emeritus of geosciences at Chico State University, "for his careful reading" of the new manuscript and draws on the research he published in "Glaciers of California" (1998). Guyton distinguished between glaciers and smaller "glacierets" and counted 99 glaciers in the Sierra Nevada and 398 glacierets. Hill notes that "the Sierra Nevada has a lot of glaciers, all of them small. If you are looking for the giants of the Great Ice Age, you will have to be content with their spoor."

The book is divided into two sections. The first offers a "do-it-yourself rock identification key." A series of maps divides the Sierra Nevada into regions and shows where to find prominent rock formations in each area. The first map, mostly of eastern Butte County, locates "conglomerate" ("rock ... made up of grains 2 mm or more in diameter, together with coarser fragments") along Big Chico Creek. You can see shale in the Dry Creek area and lava flow and basalt on Table Mountain.

The second part is the narrative, which takes new research into account. In the last few years, she writes, "the Sierra has been put through the plate tectonics intellectual filter, which has told us how the mountains might have been created, and why they are where they are."

The book also expands its coverage of "human exploration of the Sierra Nevada, not just by geologists" but by others as well.

Here you'll find the story of "the first overland party of settlers to attempt to cross the Sierra. ... The group came to be known as the Bartleson-Bidwell party, as it included two men of leadership mold, John Bartleson and John Bidwell, destined to become eminent in what was to be the 31st U.S. state." Here also is the story of "Snowshoe" Thompson, a Norwegian who for two decades, "beginning in 1856, ... carried the mail across the Sierra Nevada from Placerville, California, to Genoa, Nevada (then called Mormon Station), using long skis (then called 'snowshoes') of his own making."

But Hill's great love is the land itself, the "nervous" Sierra, and her account of the devastating Owens Valley earthquake in 1872 tells not only of human destruction but notes that "the Sierra Nevada itself was severely wracked." She quotes John Muir's eyewitness account: "Shortly after sunrise a low, blunt, muffled rumbling, like a distant thunder, was followed by another series of shocks, which ... made the cliffs and domes tremble like jelly, and the big pines and oaks thrill and swish and wave their branches with startling effect."

At the end of the book, a "coda" reflects on geologic time and human time. "Time is all we have," she writes, "and it behooves us to spend it wisely. Some say that the time spent in the mountains is not subtracted from our allotted three-score-and-ten. So cherish the Sierra, and it will generously reward you."

Copyright 2006 Chico Enterprise-Record. Used by permission.

Sierra Nevada: The Naturalist's Companion, Revised edition

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Sierra Nevada: The Naturalist's Companion, Revised edition
Verna R. Johnston
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520224884

Book Description

All lovers of the mountains will welcome Verna Johnston's new and completely updated edition of her classic, Sierra Nevada, originally published in 1970. A professional biologist, veteran ornithologist, and well-known wildlife photographer, Johnston is the perfect guide for a natural-history trip into the Sierra. Regardless of how one explores the magnificent 400-mile-long mountain range, on foot or by car, in an armchair or a classroom, this is the book to have.
Beginning with the western foothills, Johnston evokes a vivid picture of the varied plant and animal life encountered as the elevation increases, tops the crest, and drops to the more precipitous, arid eastern Sierra slope. The reader is taken through chaparral and mountain meadows, pine and fir forests, granite expanses and snowy peaks. Johnston writes of the Native Americans' uses and stewardship of the land, the role of fire in forest ecology, the eras of sheep herders and loggers, the work of John Muir and other preservationists, and the battles to save Mono Lake and Lake Tahoe. Her lifetime of field experience and discovery offers intimate observations of rarely recorded events: the courtship of the Sierra Nevada salamander, a wolverine attacking two bears, a fight to the death between a skink and a scorpion.
Many changes have occurred in the Sierra since the first edition of this book was published, including acid snow, tensions involving human and cougar habitats, and an ominous drop in amphibian populations. Johnston documents these events and updates the ecological research in the rich, evocative writing style that makes her book a naturalist's treasure. This is a guide to the Sierra Nevada for the next millennium.

Sierra Nevada Natural History (California Natural History Guides)

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A useful guide
A True Classic

Sierra Nevada Natural History (California Natural History Guides)
Tracy I. Storer , Robert L. Usinger , and David Lukas
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Turtleback

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ASIN: 0520240960

Book Description

The magnificent and much-loved Sierra Nevada, called the "Range of Light" by John Muir, is the dominant feature on the California landscape. First published forty years ago, this handbook has become an enduring natural history classic, used by thousands to learn more about virtually every aspect of this spectacular mountain range--from its superb flora and fauna to its rugged topography. Comprehensive yet concise and portable, the book describes hundreds of species: trees and shrubs, flowering plants and ferns, fungi and lichens, insects and fish, amphibians and reptiles, and birds and mammals. Now completely updated and revised, it will continue to be the essential guide to the Sierra Nevada for a new generation of hikers, campers, tourists, naturalists, students, and teachers--everyone who wants to know more about this unique and beautiful mountain range.
* Describes more than 750 of the species most likely to be encountered with more than 500 new color photographs and 218 detailed black-and-white drawings
* Includes engaging and accessible introductory sections on Sierra Nevada topography, climate, geological history, and human history
* The compact, updated species accounts make identification easy, provide informative remarks on ecology and life history, and note which species are threatened or endangered

Customer Reviews:

A useful guide.......2006-11-10

Bought this book for some friends, and they've gotten quite a bit of use out of it for identifying trees and wildlife in the numerous parks in the Sierra Nevada near where they live. Sounds like a winner to me.

A True Classic.......2000-05-24

This is the book that took me through too many nights, and early morning units of biology and on into my Masters Studies. A quick reference book that has most of your common everythings on it -- it gets you into a ballpark and usually that is close enough for almost everyone. Plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, insects --- it is all here in one place and the big bonus is that it weighs about 300 pounds less than a set of professional reference books. If I could take only one book with me camping or hiking in the Sierra, this would be the one. And don't forget your 5x and 10x Loupes.

The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada (California Academy of Sciences)

Average customer rating:

Best field guide I have ever used!
This has it ALL
A marvelous hiking companion
Amazing New Field Guide!
A book that is both beautiful and useful

The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada (California Academy of Sciences)
John Muir Laws
Manufacturer: Heyday Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 159714052X

Customer Reviews:

Best field guide I have ever used!.......2007-10-18

This is an outstanding field guide! Great color drawings, and great presentation. It makes it very easy for anyone to identify almost anything in the Sierra Nevada.

This has it ALL.......2007-10-08

John Muir Laws imparts a stunning resonance to all he paints. His work is thoughtful, complete, and inspired. Your fun with this book will be absolutely never ending. My granddaughters, my eighty year old father, my best friend, all LOVE this book. Imagine a guide that includes everything from constellations to the nest forms of miniature wasps to the most showy birds and fish! Just leafing through the book makes me feel blessed to live in the Sierras. Elisa Stancil

A marvelous hiking companion.......2007-10-04

Imagine hiking with a wise old professor of natural history, a young companion still bubbling with enthusiasm at the joys of nature, and a talented artist with a gift for capturing it all in paint. That is what hiking with the Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada is like. Virtually everything visible that lives in the Sierra Nevada and even far beyond can be found here, and when it is too dark or stormy to see living things, there are star charts and explanations of the weather. The guide is conveniently arranged into groups of organisms, from fungi through plants and animals, including mammal scats and tracks. Species that are likely to be confused are shown near each other with distinguishing features pointed out. The author, John Muir Laws, also provides frequent short lessons in natural history. What makes the book special, of course, are the 2700 paintings by Laws, many so detailed that one has to look closely to see they are not photographs. And all of this is in a 366-page book that fits easily into a day pack and is so well constructed that it will survive the many years of steady use that it will surely get.

Amazing New Field Guide!.......2007-09-02

Absolutely the best field guide I've encountered. Besides being compact and easy to use, the illustrations are absolutely stunning. This book is ideal as a quick reference for either the backyard naturalist or the avid backpacker. After buying this book you'll quickly become addicted to flora and fauna identification!

A book that is both beautiful and useful.......2007-08-10

This is a fantastic book. Organized as a useful field guide, the illustrations are so good looking you will want to keep it on your coffee table for your guests to flip through. But don't! Take it with you on a hike and use it to learn more about what you otherwise might walk right past.

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