GRANITE PEAK PUBLICATIONS: Accompanying travelers to the national park since 2002

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Holiday sale ends Friday

Categories: News
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holiday candle Time is running out to get Yellowstone Treasures at a 20% discount off the list price. That means you pay just $19.96 for an award-winning, 400-page guidebook packed with maps, historical information, a field guide to the animals and plants, and more! And we updated many things even in the 2015 second printing. This price beats Amazon.com. To get the discount, just enter “HolidaySale” in the Voucher box in the shopping cart when you tap or click this button:

Buy now!

But hurry, the sale ends this Friday, January 8, 2016, at midnight.

Editor and Publisher, Beth Chapple

Recommended walks in Yellowstone Park

Categories: Trip planning, Winter
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Until the park reopens fully next April, we won’t be able to follow any of its wonderful trails except for those open to skiing and snowshoeing. But I have happy memories—as well as anticipation for my own future use—of walking wonderful Yellowstone trails in the summer season.

Yellowstone Treasures’ first edition (2002) listed 59 trails that I recommend, having walked all of them myself, most of them several times. But now in the fourth edition we’re down to 56, and here’s my chance to explain what happened to those three lost trails!

First, in the Canyon area, the trail from Artists’ Point east along the canyon’s south rim, where I’ve written (on page 182 in the new edition) that you can see “some of the most awe-inspiring sunset colors you will see anywhere, with the sky and canyon rivaling each other on a beautiful evening.” This trail is not maintained for casual walkers. The National Park Service warns hikers of uneven footing and steep drop-offs; it’s also narrow and sometimes slippery.

Next, the trail to the base of Tower Fall has proven so difficult to maintain over the years that it disappeared from my table of walks (pages 366 to 368) as early as the second edition of Yellowstone Treasures, which came out in 2005. The picture below shows Tower Fall from the easily accessible viewing platform.
Tower Fall

Most recently, I’ve had to remove a quiet, little-used, level road with many wildflowers and lovely mountain views that was formerly open to biking and walking, This was a two mile (in and out) route leaving the main road south of Swan Lake in the northwestern part of the park. It has been closed for public use for a year or two now and is only a service road.

For your information: The park will not reopen until December 15; from then on until early March there will be relatively limited access. Only snow coaches and snowmobiles may use the groomed roads. The one road that is plowed for cars and trucks goes from the North Entrance at Gardiner to the Northeast Entrance and on to Cooke City. Of course, winter is the best time to see wolves along that road, especially in the Lamar Valley.

Yellowstone Treasures, Updated Fourth Edition

Categories: News
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I just got in trouble with TripAdvisor for mentioning something on their website [July 2013]. Sorry about that, but someone wanted to know how much difference there would be between the third and fourth editions of this guidebook, and I offered to send the person an autographed copy of the fourth edition from those copies I already have and told him or her another option would be to buy it from our website. My message must have lasted less than half an hour on there!

Here is what we have put out describing how the 2013 edition differs from the previous one: Covering everything there is to know about the world’s first and most diverse national park, the fourth edition of this bestselling guide to Yellowstone boasts more facts, anecdotes, history, and travel tips than ever before. Mile-by-mile road logs document every approach to the park and every interior road. Through easy-to-understand explanations and diagrams, readers will learn of Yellowstone’s campgrounds and facilities, geyser basins and the frequency of the geysers, out-of-the-way hikes, and flora and fauna.

Updates to this edition include tinted tabs to indicate the six different regions of the park and their approach roads, in addition to the tabs in previous editions for the geological, historical, and natural history sections; up-to-date scientific information to reflect recent research, including two new geological diagrams; highlighted historic items in the road logs; a dozen new pictures; and fully revised maps to show recent road changes and other details. A four-page glossary and a twenty-page index round out this indispensable addition to any travel library.

My offer stands to my blog post readers. For as long as my supply lasts, as author and publisher I can send you an autographed copy of Yellowstone Treasures for your use this summer, but I can only accept personal checks and money orders. You can reach me for details at: janet@yellowstonetreasures.com.