Books, Maps, and Guides

Mike's Hikes Books, Maps, and Guides

Please note that I'm not an expert on the trails and hikes in this area. I rely on various guides and books to help me find my way around and better appreciate what I'm doing. While Mike's Hikes has a lot of my own opinions and other raw information on trails and hikes, I strongly recommend that you buy books written by experts.

Books

Rocky Mountain National Park: The Complete Hiking Guide (2005) Lisa Foster
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park (9e) by Kent and Donna Dannen
Rocky Mountain National Park Dayhiker's Guide, by Jerome Malitz. "A scenic guide to 33 favorite hikes including Longs Peak." Has color photos and Trails Illustrated topo map excerpts.
Frommer's Rocky Mountain National Park (4e, 2005) by Barbara and Don Laine
Longs Peak: Its Story and a Climbing Guide by Paul Nesbit, revised and updated by Stan Adamson. (11th edition available July 2005)
Longs Peak: A Rocky Mountain Chronicle. (1984; out of print; if you run across one, snap it up!)
Rocky Mountain National Park Trail Guide and Journal by Laurie Mendon
Bear Lake Nature Trail Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado (1975), Rocky Mountain Nature Association
A Climbing Guide to Colorado's Fourteeners (2e) by Walter Borneman & Lyndon Lampert
Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills (7e), edited by Don Graydon, The Mountaineers

Be Expert With Map & Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook (1994) by Björn Hjellström.

Walking Softly in the Wilderness: The Sierra Club Guide to Backpacking (2005) by John Hart.
Best Easy Day Hikes Rocky Mountain National Park (2002) by Kent and Donna Dannen
Rocky Mountain National Parks Walks and Easy Hikes - An Altitude Superguide Rocky Mountain National Park (2002) by Patric Soran
Hiking Circuits in Rocky Mountain National Park: Loop Trails, with Special Sections for Combining Circuits and Using the Shuttle Bus to Complete a Circuit (2003) Jack P. Hailman, Elizabeth Hailman

Maps

Trails Illustrated: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado (plastic topo map)

Trails Illustrated: Longs & McHenrys Peak (quads, plastic topo map)

History

Longs Peak: The Story Of Colorado's Favorite Fourteener (2004) by Dougald MacDonald - Very interesting with great pictures.

America's Switzerland: Estes Park And Rocky Mountain National Park, the Growth Years (2005) by James H. Pickering. provides extensive information, much of it new to historical literature, on how Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park—the most visited national park west of the Mississippi—developed to welcome ever-growing crowds.

Other

Wildflower Productions' TOPO! Interactive Maps on CD-ROM, Colorado Front Range Cities & Recreational Areas

Magnificent Rocky: A CD-ROM Guide to Rocky Mountain National Park (ver 2.0; Mac/PC CD-ROM from Rocky Mountain Digital Peeks)

Alan Silverstein's outstanding list of Locations in Rocky Mountain National Park, including lat/long coordinates.

Online map of Rocky Mountain National Park (Warning: this is a 1M JPG file!). This is the same one they hand out when you go into the Park. From the The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection.

You might want to visit the Rocky Mountain Nature Association bookstore, too.