Great Basin National Park: A Guide To The Park And Surrounding Area Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Great Basin National Park is in large part a high-alpine park, but it sits in one of America’s driest, least populated, and most isolated deserts. That contrast is one facet of the diversity that characterizes this region. Within and outside the park are phenomenal landscape features, biotic wonders, unique environments, varied historic sites, and the local colors of isolated towns and ranches. Vast Snake and Spring Valleys, bracketing the national park, are also subjects of one of the West's most divisive environment contests, over what on the surface seems most absent but underground is abundant enough for sprawling Las Vegas to covet it—water.
Paperback: 332 pages
Publisher: Utah State University Press; 1 edition (April 14, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0874218403
ISBN-13: 978-0874218404
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,183,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #61 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Ecosystems > Deserts #995 in Books > Travel > Food, Lodging & Transportation > Parks & Campgrounds #1725 in Books > Travel > United States > West > Mountain
If you are a visitor looking for a practical guide to Great Basin National Park, this book is probably not for you. The free handouts at the ranger station in Baker are all you need, and if you must have a book, Grubbs's is probably better. I read Gretchen Baker's book and give it 5 stars without reservation. But less than half the book deals with Great Basin National Park! The author makes her plan clear with the map on pages 4 and 5: GBNP is entirely in Nevada, but the map is about two-thirds Utah and the text is probably the best history of the Snake Valley ever written. The writing is sometimes a little dense, and the parenthetical citations made me wonder at times if the book is an adaptation of a graduate thesis, maybe work done at Utah State University (USU Press is the publisher). Anyway, the geology, geography, and biology are outstanding. Yet others might have done that part. The uniqueness of the book lies in the many stories Baker recorded from probably the last people who can tell them. I live in rural NE Nevada and I know how hard it is to get people to really open up to outsiders. Gretchen Baker must be a great interviewer, and people who want to know what it was like in this corner of the wild west--not the Hollywood version or painfully dull academic writing--will want to read this book.
I lived in the area forty years ago and was impressed with the inclusive and factual history the writer put together to complete the book. I have done many of the things she mentions in the book - hunted trilobites, swam under the water into the caves at Gandy Warm Springs and went to school on the desert in Snake Valley so the book provided many memories but also a lot of things I did not know. At times I wondered if she would include tidbits of rare information and she indeed covered past history with excellent coverage. The book covers Great Basin National Park but definitely covers the surrounding area - past and present. Great job.
I bought this book several years ago to read because I love this area, having worked there back in the 90s. I just revisited the area and used this book extensively to assist in my exploration. The natural history, geology and biology parts were well written and informative. The historical details and interviews with locals were so fun to read and really lent a neat "voice" and context to what I was seeing. The maps and descriptions of *how* to get to certain areas were well worth the price of the book - in particular I used a Nevada and a Utah Gazateer combined with this book to explore the Wheeler Peak, GBNP, Gandy Warm Springs area, Northern Snake Range (also used the topos I had from years back), and the Blue Mass Scenic area. I've come to rely on availability of my phone GPS to help navigate and it was easy to use the book details plus the maps to get around without trouble (little to no consistent cell phone coverage - so refreshing!). Also, the descriptions of road conditions were quite accurate. Great book, thank you!
It's good. I'm actually going there next week and will be taking it with me. Hopefully, it will be as useful as it looks to be.
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