High Sierra Hiking Guide: Devil's Postpile

PACIFIC + SOUTHWEST. 
Hiking Guide, National Park Travel. 

“High Sierra Hiking Guides are based on first-hand observation. There is absolutely no substitute for walking the trails, so we walked all the trails.” Here is immediate proof that this series of guides to John Muir’s “Range of Light” meant business, arming serious backcountry campers and day-trippers alike with all the right steps, plus sights and flora and fauna to see, plus background on the area, plus, plus, plus, etc. etc. etc. These pocket-sized guides were packed full of info and ready to hit the trail … The Devil’s Postpile is hard to describe. Imagine stone having been heated up to malleable and then having been grated into long strips, the bottoms of which had broken into cubes as they cooled. Set aside as a national monument in 1911, here is a more expert description provided by the National Park Service: “The formation is a rare sight in the geologic world and ranks as one of the world's finest examples of columnar basalt. Its' columns tower up to 60 feet and display a striking symmetry.” This guide, #6 in the series, covers a “quadrangle” (approx. 14 x 17 miles of space) just southeast of Yosemite, including Devil’s Postpile and parts of the Ansel Adam and John Muir Wilderness Areas. A fold-out map included with the guide illustrates an array of trails (finely documented in the guide itself) that crisscross this remote area, most all trails west of the Postpile falling within the Sierra National Forest and meant only for the serious hiker/backpack-camper. Averaging 7-8000 feet in altitude, that is no joke: those who mean business only please! … Along with a large cache of similar guides, we picked up this trail-ready handbook at the estate sale of a couple who had actually met while hiking, fell for each other, married, and hiked together all over the U.S., including many trips west from their Smyrna, Georgia home. [Condition: The hard linen cardboard has served this guide well since its publication (a second edition) in 1976, just a few dings and what looks like a slight crunch to the top of the spine from a long ago drop to the floor. Sadly, the cover has come away from the original glued binding (we suspect decades of pressure from storing the map inside the back cover being the culprit). Nonetheless, the interior pages are near perfect, only slight discoloration on the end papers and neat red marker highlighting a paragraph on page 82. The map is also in great shape, only a highlighter mark tracing the route mentioned above.] 

Condition: Used Good. 
Nature / Outdoors. 
Ron Felzer. 
Wilderness Press / Berkeley, CA, 1976 (originally © 1971). 
Softcover Pocket-Sized, 87 pgs, 4.25 x 6" / 3 oz