Tushar Mountains:
Jessie McMullin works for the Fishlake National Forest and is based out of the Beaver Ranger District in Beaver, Utah. Jessie helps maintain Forest Service trails and writes articles to "invite folks out to discover somewhere new." His collection of articles can be found at Into the Tushars and he doesn't mind a phone call at (801) 243-0095 with questions, comments or concerns (we should know as we have talked with him several times). The Tushars are one of our favorite mountain ranges - don't miss taking full advantage of Jessie's webpage and first hand knowledge of the area!
Paria River (Paria River drainage and surrounding areas)
Michael R. Kelsey provides many unique insights and detailed maps to obscure and oft-times lightly visited wonders of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in his book Hiking and Exploring the Paria River.
Zion National Park (and the surrounding areas):
Joe's Guide to Zion National Park provides excellent information on Zion's many trails and showcases Joe Braun's photographic work of this beautiful piece of real estate that we are fortunate to live near and spend our free time exploring.
We especially like Road Trip Ryan's webpage because of the easy to print PDF documents, which he makes available for free, that give detailed directions to many of the places we like to visit. This website is always a good place to start when you know you want to hike, but need some ideas for places to go.
Great Basin National Park (Nevada and extreme western Utah):
Gretchen Baker lives on a local ranch and works as an ecologist at Great Basin National Park. You can follow her, along with her family, on their many hikes, and back road explorations at Desert Survivor. She has also published Great Basin National Park - A guide to the Park and surrounding areas. This, without a doubt, is our "go to" reference when exploring the Great Basin area of eastern Nevada. Not only does it provide ideas for interesting places to visit, but gives an in depth history of the area as told through interviews with local residents.
Colorado (Weminuche & South San Juan Wilderness Area):
We came across Donna Ikenberry's book, Hiking Colorado's Weminuche & South San Juan Areas several years ago when we stopped in to check out a Forest Service bookstore in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Whenever we hike the South San Juan's we carry her book with us. It has excellent directions, maps, and detailed trail descriptions with mile-by-mile directional cues. "Hiking Colorado's Weminuche and South San Juan Wilderness Areas features fifty-seven of southwestern Colorado's finest trails--from short day trips to extended backpacking treks."
Peak Bagging:
We really enjoy Eric Willhite's website for descriptions on bagging peaks in Utah and Nevada. He has climbed over 400 peaks in Utah alone and he provides great descriptions, interesting pictures and detailed directions.
We also rely on Summit Post for information on nearly every named peak in the United States. Their home page is a little cumbersome to navigate, however, if you type the peak name into your search browser and look for the summit posit domain address it will take you immediately to the peak of interest.
