Product Description

Bay Area parks and preserves offer a dramatic variety of landscapes, from rugged redwood-forested canyons to breezy coastal bluffs, grassy rolling hills to sunny chaparral-coated hillsides. Well-known destinations such as Point Reyes National Seashore, Mount Diablo State Park, Mount Tamalpais State Park, and many other more obscure jewels of the Bay Area park system are just a short drive from the heart of San Francisco. 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: San Francisco guides readers to a splendid assortment of trails in the 9 counties surrounding one of the world's most beautiful cities. A gentle Mediterranean climate encourages year round hiking and provides such seasonal splendors as carpets of colorful wildflowers, rushing waterfalls, and creekbeds littered with maple and oak leaves. Whether hikers crave a quick and easy get-out-of-town stroll or a challenging day-long trek through wilderness, this book is the perfect trailblazer, for City natives and first-time visitors alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #386876 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

Review
...a handy outdoor travel guide for San Francisco visitors and residents alike...highly recommended. -- Library Bookwatch (The Midwest Book Review), April, 2004

...melds geology, botany, wildlife, regional history...offers an experience all within sixty miles of home. -- Bay Nature, October-December, 2004

The book has excellent graphics. -- Ridge Lines, Spring, 2004 (Bay Area Ridge Trail Council)

Review

From the Back Cover
It's time to take a hike! No more excuses like "there's nowhere to go around here," "the woods are too far from the city," or "I don't have time to wander the trails." With 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: San Francisco as your guide, you have dozens of places to hike to your heart's content, and most within an hour's drive or less. 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: San Francisco blows the lid off the myth that you can't have a great hike close to home. The Bay area may be ever-expanding, but there are still plenty of super hiking options: short hikes, long hikes, hikes for kids, rural hikes, wildflower hikes, dog-friendly hikes, and many others.
Inside you will find: trail descriptions that allow you to access each trail before you hike it; GPS-based trail maps that provide you with accurate trail information; trail profiles to help you visualize altitude gain and loss; directions to the trailheads.
Whether you live in San Jose, Oakland, Mill Valley, or Berkeley, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: San Francisco provides the information necessary for you to choose the perfect day hike, as well as maps, directions, trail lengths, hiking times, highlights, and a wealth of details about the trail itself. So lace up those boots, sling that daypack, and hit the trail!

Customer Reviews

Good hikes in an average guide
I've tried to like this guide, I really have. The author seems a nice fellow. The hikes are diverse and interesting. The writeups include a nice dollop of history. And it's got 60 hikes -- that's a lot of hikes. But it is not 'above average.' Why? First, it's occasionally unreliable. Take hike #7, on and near Catholic University. The author sends you behind the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center to 'savor the view' from a grassy knoll. A parking lot and air compressors is what you savor. Second, I have a dog. Can I take my dog on these hikes? I can't tell. You won't find the words 'pet', 'dog', 'leash' anywhere. Finally, the directions are just a little sloppy at times. For instance, hike #14 (Black Hill Regional Park) tells you to go "right" at an orange pole that has a number of trails eminating from it. It took me half a mile to realize I was heading too far south for it to be the right trail. The best guides often organize hikes around mileage - they mark notable features always starting with the mileage the hiker has gone from the start and then describe what you should do or what you will find there. "60 Hikes" is written up more as a travel log. The mileage is often there, but its thrown in at different spots. Sometimes the directions have too much detail and other times not enough. In short, it's just harder to follow if you are trying to use it on the trail. Are these big problems? Not really, but that's what separates the good guides from the great guides.

Good book
This is a great book for the beginner hiker to know what's out there. However my main gripe is that in the front of the book he lists which hikes are metro accessible. But when you go to the hike, no where does it actually say which metro to get off at. Also some of the "hikes" in DC are made up. I don't consider walking on city blocks an actual hike. Some color pictures would have been nice, but there are plenty of nice b&w pictures though.

Great book for hikers
I got the book three months ago and have used it a lot since then. It provides pretty accurate information for my hiking trips in the area. I would recommend it to hiking enthusiasts.