Moon Yosemite (Moon Handbooks)

I own a lot of books about Yosemite but for an all encompassing guide to the park Ann Marie Brown's 'Moon Handbooks: Yosemite' is by far the best. Many guides list campgrounds in and around Yosemite. How many give you the best sites within each campground? How many note the free campgrounds at the nearby Nelder Grove of Sequoias and Fresno Dome? Many guides offer itineraries for a day, or two, or a week. But no other book offers itineraries for hardcore hikers, waterfall lovers, families with young children, and of course committed slackers. This book is truly unique, right down to a sidebar telling you where to find a good cappucino.

'Moon Yosemite' is divided into several sections. The initial chapters describe all the recreational opportunities in every area of the park. From bus tours of the valley floor and star gazing at Glacier Point (a new tour as of 2008), to horseback riding, hiking, fishing, and rock climbing, this guide lists all the available...Read more

I ordered 5 books from Amazon to plan my Yosemite camping/hiking/backpacking trip for the summer of 2010. Moon's Yosemite was by far my favorite for vacation planning. The key (as described by the other reviewer) is that it gives you practical information that the other books do not. I love when a book gives list of best hikes for different vacation types, durations, styles (e.g., hardcore hiker versus those wanting to see waterfalls), etc. Other books provide descriptions of hikes with few opinions as to which is best for different reasons. (I know this is a style thing and all hikes are equally great to some, but still it's nice to have some sense of can't miss hikes). An example of the later (boring) kind of book is A Falcon Guide "Hiking Yosemite National" Park by Suzanne Swedo which gives 58 hike descriptions and that's about it. It's encyclopedic and almost unreadable, although I assume I'll refer to it after deciding on my hiking trips using other books (including Moon)...Read more

I bought 3 books about Yosemite before I went for our first visit. This book came back "USED". For a first time visitor this book was super. It gave us tons of information that we would have never found in a very easy to read format.

It does not have the most beautiful pictures as the one other book had--but we were actually looking at the beauty there--which was INCREDIBLE. We just needed guidance--which this book did very well.

Would highly recommend it to any one who has never been there before. Have Fun!!