Bighorn Canyon Book

I read up on the geography, history, and ecology of Big Bend National Park before visiting the place, which gave me a good sense of the flora and fauna and what I might get out of different sections of the park, but I quickly realized when I got there that I was not at all prepared for what to expect in terms planning the hiking trails—the most practical knowledge! I spent hours reviewing different websites and blogs about the best hiking trails and how long they should take, but kept finding contradictory information.

We had no regrets when we picked this book up at the gift shop and everything became perfectly clear.
This book proved more reliable than any other source, online or offline, in determining how to find the trailheads to certain hiking trails, what we should expect to see in the trails, the challenges they present, and a how long they should take. This last bit is key, as even the park staff seemed confused as to how long the trails should take. This book seemed to be pretty spot on for us in time estimates.

The book opens with a useful map of all the trailheads in the park, and each trail starts with the exact coordinates of the trailheads. I should add that a special satellite GPS unit would help (the book recommends it for some of the more difficult trails to locate), since the wifi at the lodge and visitor centers are spotty at best, and most cellphone services don't reach much of the park. At the same time, the directions to the trailheads in the book are very easy to follow and orient you from the main roads or key locations in the park. True, the faculty at the visitor centers also could provide information on how to find the trailheads, but their office hours are such that you would have a late start to the day or have to get back early from a hike, and you would often have to wait in a long line to receive the information which is already provided succinctly in this nifty book.

To help one decide on a trail the author lists at the beginning of the book the best easy/moderate/strenuous day hikes, best trails to backpack, best hikes for children and best hikes for views. The author also includes best times of year to hike certain trails, how busy they might be, what kind of trail surface, and other special considerations specific to the trail.

The only additional information I think the author could have provided to make this book more comprehensive is maybe some descriptions of the parks on the Mexican side of the border (hiking trails on the Sierra del Carmen, Sierra Ponce, Boquillas, etc.), a brief section on handicap accessible trails, and perhaps a few more details about specific features such as nicknames for overlooks at certain points in the trail. But it's also nice to be surprised, and not know every detail on the trail before experiencing it firsthand. And boy, was Big Bend full of surprises!