Hiking Las Vegas: The All-in-One Guide to Exploring Red Rock Canyon, Mt. Charleston, and Lake Mead

Best book for Red Rock Canyon, no doubt. The 2nd edition is NOT in color, however, which proves to be a bit more challenging in terms of locating specific landmarks and so on in the canyon! Still a great purchase. The GPS waypoints are sweet!

This is the definitive book for hiking Las Vegas. I have used it many times after replacing it with the older one that was published in the 1990's.The only comment I have is some of the hikes once I've done them seem somewhat harder in person than they were listed as in the book. However I don't think that's the author's fault. I'm an intermediate hiker not advanced. If you 're like me a hike that says easy may actually seem moderate, and a moderate hike may actually seem a bit difficult at times, so just keep that in mind and bring a little extra water or just do 3/4 of a hike instead of the whole thing, you'll still experience the absolute beauty of the amazing Las Vegas area hikes featured in this book. I also think it'd make a great gift.

I am formerly a hiker from NH and the White Mountains where the Appalachian Mountain Club writes a White Mountain Guide and updates it every four years...I could follow any trail in the White Mountains with it, I could count on it's difficulty ratings and everything related. Unfortunately, this book does not do quite the same job the AMC guide does, but this region lacks guides and this is known as one of the better ones. We hiked one of the hikes that gave a difficulty rating of a 2, when we really feel it was a 4 on a scale of 1-5. Had we brought anyone less experienced than us, this would have been a tremendous error. luckily we are very experienced and handled it well. Branch does know the hiking out here very well, so he is a great resource and so are the books, but I highly recommend joining the group he runs and hiking with them. I found some of the layout confusing, there should be more specific directions to trailheads as many people out here are just visiting and don't know the roads, I've had trouble finding some of them and live here. Nevertheless, it's probably one of the better books for the area.

This is a very comprehensive book. The rating system for trail difficulty / experience required is helpful as are the photos that show important landmarks on the trails. The GPS coordinates are essential for finding the trail head locations by car. I have spent a lot of time in the Vegas area hiking Red Rock and Mt Charleston and this is a great reference book. Branch Whitney clearly knows the area and has documented a lot of great hikes in this book!

Coming from Michigan (elevation 900 ft) I found the hikes were harder than described. Great descriptions of hikes. Evaluation ratings helpful once you get calibrated. Irritation is the total lack of maps to locate hikes or to guide you (a Google Earth snapshot with the route outlined would be very helpful).

As an avid long time Vegas-and-around hiker, I have all the versions of this book and will buy the next one too! Absolutely THE ultimate guide to hiking around these parts. Short hikes for tourists, long treks for us nature buffs, something for everyone with CLEAR photos of what the trail looks like as you go. GPS, directions, points of interest, experienced and thoughtful descriptions.

The overall trail descriptions are pretty good and the info about the different areas is good. However, there are no maps at all and the descriptions of the hikes are based on landmarks and GPS coordinates. I am an experienced hiker and the directions in this book make me feel like I will surely get lost. There are some hikes in the book I would love to try but with only this book as a reference, I will have to pass. I purchased The Falcon Guide as well and prefer it myself. Also the pictures in the book are all black and white and when I am supposed to rely on a picture of a rock in a ravine to guide myself, it's hard to see in black and white. Although the author is experienced and knowledgeable, the book is just poorly done with bad directions in my opinion.

Great reference book for serious and not so serious hikers in the southwest. If you plan on hiking more than once within the Las Vegas area, this book is a great investment.

If you want to get lost while hiking around Las Vegas, just buy this "Guide" book. Some sections worse than useless, as directions actually take you away from where you are supposed to be going. Nice pictures though.