Roadside Geology of Arizona by Halka Chronic

Roadside Geology of Utah by Halka Chronic

No person in their his or her right mind visits Arizona or Utah in the middle of the summer. The best season, Spring, is already past, and the next best season, Autumn, comes around in mid-October. Plenty of people who do not check temperature charts will go there heedlessly. May their air conditioners not fail them as they drive from visitor center to visitor center!

Given that a healthy hike or a four wheel drive trip amid the scenic wonders of the region is probably out of the question for the sane, the next best thing is to stay in the car, stick to the main highways, and place one of the Roadside Geology Series handbooks on the dashboard. These guides cover all the main-travelled roads of the states that they describe.

I've used the two guides reviewed here and my experience with them gives me confidence enough to recommend the whole series to you. Segments of the major highways are described in detail down to the last butte. Appendices in the back describe special places off the main roads like national parks or Utah's Goblin Valley. You can either enlist a car-sick resistant reader to call off the entries as you hit the signposts or you can stop at the junctions named in the book and read ahead, noting for your own amusement the sights to come. Each book begins with a chapter about geology basics that you can review preparatory to your encounter with the massive land forms of the desert southwest. Each concludes with a lucid glossary of geological terms.

In between, you will find richly illustrated text, featuring maps, tables, cross-sections, and photographs designed to help you visualize where you are both spatially and temporally. This book will doubtless not make those who subscribe to the Old Farmer's Almanac estimate of the age of the earth very happy, but anyone who wants a true perspective on the gargantuan forces that made the land what it is today will love this book. The Arizona book does a better job of linking geologic features to the signposts along the highway. The Utah book misses some good major roads and has not caught up with the development of the Escalante/Grand Staircase National Monument. Nonetheless, this is the guide to have for those long hours between places, when the land roars and coughs in technicolor without the helpful interpretative signs you find in the national and state parks.

Having one of these along for the trip is like packing your very own ranger in the glove compartment. Mountain Press Publishing Company has issued more books for other states such as Alaska, Pennsylvania, Texas, northern California, and New York, to name a few. See the earth as you have never understood it before. Make one of these handbooks your personal expert for scenes along the highway.

Other Roadside Geology Series Books