Hiking California's Golden Trout Wilderness: A Guide to Backpacking and Day Hiking in the Golden Trout and South Sierra Wilderness Areas

This book does what it says it will do. It covers the basics including geology, history, a focus on zero impact trips, and other similar subjects. There are over 40 trips covered in the book. Each trip write up includes:- Start location,- Total distance in miles,- Total climbing in feet,- Estimated trail traffic,- Best months to visit,- Maps needed,- Permits,- Trailhead facilities,- How to find the trail head,- A one to two page write up description of the hike,- A scaled map,- A graphical presentation of the elevation gain and loss, and- Key points and correlating mile markers for each trip.The photos are in black and white (I would have preferred color). Of course, I did not buy a picture book. I guess that I will have to go see it in full color.

The hikes are well described and the information needed before the hike is very helpful including the directions, wilderness permits, and local ranger station contact information. The maps give sufficient details and the graphics of the elevations are helpful. There is one thing that would have made this book more helpful. Having never hiked in this section of the Sierras I would have liked seeing a map of the complete area including trails. It took some head scratching and additional resources to completely plan several hikes I intend to make.Hiking California's Golden Trout Wilderness: A Guide to Backpacking and Day Hiking in the Golden Trout and South Sierra Wildernesses

I've used this book to plan a trip in Sierra and I've found useful description of trails