Grand Canyon, The Complete Guide: Grand Canyon National Park

by James Kaiser

Filled with beautiful color photographs, this award-winning guidebook reveals the best of America's most famous national park. Grand The Complete Guide equips travelers with detailed maps, travel tips, and extensive listings for lodging, camping, and sightseeing. From river rafting to mule rides, Grand Canyon is filled with adventures. But without careful planning, a trip there can be overwhelming. This guide divides Grand Canyon into sections--the South Rim, North Rim, Colorado River, and Havasu Canyon--and offers invaluable tips on enjoying the park's highlights while avoiding the crowds. The park's most popular hiking trails are covered in detail, and outfitters for backpacking, mule rides, and whitewater rafting are listed. Carefully researched chapters about the park's history, geology, and wildlife take readers behind the scenes, providing fascinating context for one of earth's greatest natural wonders.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Natural History

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

James Kaiser is an award-winning travel writer and photographer. When not trotting the globe on assignment, he writes guidebooks to U.S. national parks. In 2005 his book Grand Canyon: The Complete Guide won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Full-Color Travel Guide and the Independent Publisher Award for Best Travel Guide. In 2006 he was a photographer for Yahoo! Sports at the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

Reviews

[Zardoz]

Used this guide to plan my Grand Canyon trip and it was very accurate and informative.

[Jeff Saltzmann]

I bought this book 15 years ago after my first visit to the Grand Canyon convinced I'd be back soon. I picked it up again in recent weeks and now I'm finishing it in the Mather Campground on the South Rim. Good information about the hikes and architecture. Phenomenal photography. Interesting history. I'm sharing the author's love of this wonderful place.

[Deedee]

We spent a week at the Grand Canyon. We brought 3 guides with us: this one, Fodor's Arizona and the Grand Canyon 2008 and Insight Guides Arizona & the Grand Canyon. The only book we wound up using was this one. It told us everything we needed to know in an easily accessible format. Thanks!

[Kathleen]

This gorgeous book is the ultimate guide to the Grand Canyon. The photographs are incredibly beautiful and capture many viewpoints of the canyon. It covers a huge amount of the history, science, and wildlife of the region. Kaiser also fills his book with practical "how to experience it" information and safety tips. If you are thinking about visiting this area specifically, I can't recommend any book more highly than this one.

[Tomek]

This one is a bit lacking in detailed information for more hardcore backpackers and seems more geared to the new hiker or first-time visitor. I wouldn't recommend it as a standalone guide to the Canyon, but it provides some good tips that complement to the Falcon Grand Canyon Hiking Guide, such as sunrise and sunset locations, insider photography suggestions, and tips for making reservations, and some more information about locations around the park (e.g., Havasu Canyon).

[Kate]

Can’t say enough about how good these guides are. So thorough, with lots of information about hiking trails, recreational options, and where to go for the best photographic opportunities. Packed with photos to inspire you. Probably not the best guide for accommodations, but there’s still lots of helpful information about towns, lodging, food etc.

[Maddy Karpiuk]

This is what you want in a guide book. It has a comprehensive history, not just of the “discovery “ and ancient peoples but also the geology and ecology. It was the perfect book to read out loud on the drive.

[Erin]

The information is great, a comprehensive guide with beautiful pictures.

[J]

Great all around guidebook for the area. Hiking time estimates are on the high end, but no quibbles otherwise.

[Kelly]

This was a great, in-depth guide to the Grand Canyon with many pictures and trail maps. I found it to be very informative and would highly recommend it.

[Nancy Pierson]

I needed a guide, and fast, for our trip to the GC. So I picked this one. Lots of photos, lots of history, but short on specifics or "best places to go if you only have 3 days", etc. Things that one expects from a top notch guide book. And the typos and grammatical errors.... Goodness. Didn't he have anyone proofread the book? Or maybe he did, which is even more worrying. Wish I had gone with the Frommers...

[Sarah]

This is an absolutely fabulous guide to the Grand Canyon. It has all the expected information on lodging, food, and hiking, but what made it stand out was all the extra information. It had sections on history (fascinating!), ecology, the Colorado River, etc. It made me very anxious to start my vacation!

[Jess]

Full of information, some history, & beautiful photos. Will be sure to pack this when we embark. Kaiser makes what may seem like a daunting task of planning a trip to the Canyon an enjoyable & easy to accomplish thing.

[Juliette]

Great practical information. Made planning trip to canyon much easier. Wish I had read it before committing to travel location. Vegas might have been a nicer less crowded option than Arizona.

[RAW]

Read for our GC trip in November. Excellent overview, history, and pictures