Best Minnesota Travel Guides

With more than 200,000 visitors annually, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is among the most alluring wilderness areas in the country, unique because it is most often explored by canoe. Exploring the Boundary Waters is the most comprehensive trip planner to the BWCAW, giving travelers an overview of each entry point into the wilderness area as well as detailed descriptions of more than one hundred specific routes - including a ranking of their difficulty level and maps that feature the major waterways, portages, and the designated campsites.

A heart-warming, thoroughly modern, marvelously illustrated guide, Boundary. Waters Canoe Camping is aimed at paddlers in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota and covers places to go, planning a canoe trip, navigating, selecting a canoe and rigging it out, selecting equipment, camping and cookery, traveling with children, and dealing with hazards--all brought to you by one of America's most renowned canoeing experts, Cliff Jacobson. Boundary Waters Canoe Camping is your seasoned guide to a BWCA experience, whether you're canoeing and camping here for the first time or returning for an extended voyage through this paddler's paradise. Learn about obtaining permits, packing the right supplies, and practicing low-impact camping techniques to polishing your paddling skills, traveling with children, and knowing how to deal with hazards (on land or water) when you are deep in the wilderness.

The long-awaited second book in the Minnesota’s Lost Towns series is now available. Rhonda Fochs shares stories and photos of forgotten places with wit and humor that will hold your interest to the very end. After several years of working in the public and private sector, doing everything from assembling Tonka Toy trucks (when they were made in America), working in a LP record distribution warehouse, serving in a variety of public governmental roles, managing a construction office, to becoming a social studies teacher at the age of forty-two, Rhonda is recently retired.

Lonely Planet Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. User-friendly highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices, emergency information, park seasonality, hiking trail junctions, viewpoints, landscapes, elevations, distances, difficulty levels, and durations Focused on the best - hikes, drives, and cycling tours Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, camping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, summer and winter activities, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Contextual insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, geology, wildlife, conservation Over 47 full-color trail and park maps and full-color images throughout Useful features - Travel with Children, Clothing and Equipment, and Day and Overnight Hikes Covers Yellowstone National Park area, Mammoth Country, Roosevelt Country, Canyon Country, Lake Country, Norris, Geyser Country, Bechler Region, Grand Teton National Park area, Jackson and more. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travelers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves. Bradley has lectured on Central Asia to the Royal Geographical Society and recently traveled across Asia in the footsteps of Marco Polo for a five-hour French-German TV documentary.

Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. It is a gripping story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded. Though the ‘stranger’ in the title is Knight, one closes the book with the sense that Knight, like all seers, is the only sane person in a world gone insane—that modern civilization has made us strangers to ourselves." —Jennifer Senior, The New York Times "Michael Finkel has done something magical with this profound book… [His] investigation runs deep, summoning…the human history of our own attempts to find meaning in a noisy world."

With new hikes and updated text and maps, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: St. Louis points hikers to the best outdoor trails and rambles within easy reach of the city. Using clear and entertaining narrative, "60 Hikes within 60 Miles: ""St. Louis" eliminates doubts about where to hike and what to expect when you get to the trailhead. Choose among short and long hikes, hikes for children, hikes for dogs, hikes for wildflowers and for waterfalls, historic and scenic hikes, and many others. Trail Descriptions allow you to assess each trail before you hike it. Detailed Trail Maps provide you with accurate trail information. Trail Profiles help you visualize altitude gain and loss. Directions and GPS coordinates lead you to the trailheads. Whether you live in St. Louis, St. Peters, Washington, or Sullivan, "60 Hikes within 60 Miles: St. Louis" provides you with the information you need to choose the perfect day hike in your area, including trail lengths, hiking times, and trail difficulty.

This guide features 82 hikes within Great Smoky Mountains National Park, America's most visited national park. Kevin Adams is the author of numerous books, including North Carolina Waterfalls, Backroads of North Carolina, and Waterfalls of Virginia and West Virginia .

Michael Schumacher relays in vivid detail the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald, its many productive years on the waters of the Great Lakes, its tragic demise, the search effort and investigation, as well as the speculation and the controversy that followed in the wake of the disaster. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the Great Lakes ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald , an event given lasting fame by singer Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, " Schumacher recreates both the ship's final trip and the controversies that later eddied about the wreck's cause and the ultimate disposition of ship relics. Even as he dissects the rancorous disputes that arose among family members of the dead, historians and others seeking to either memorialize or exploit the shipwreck, Schumacher never fails to bring a sympathetic and knowledgeable view of the story, as well as great respect to the memory of the 29 crew members who died. Schumacher chronicles the Edmund Fitzgerald from its 1958 launching as the largest freighter on the Great Lakes to its 1975 sinking, memorialized by the song.

Leaving out the traditional scenic trips to the Mississippi River bluffs and the Amana Colonies, this guide will take the adventurous traveler to the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk, the home of the "Lonely Goat Herder" marionettes from The Sound of Music , and the world's largest Cheeto. — The Daily Nonpareil Jerome Pohlen is the author of the Oddball series and a regular travel commentator for 848 on WBEZ, the Chicago affiliate of National Public Radio.

Featuring 32 amazing road trips, from two-day escapes to two-week adventures, you can cruise historic Route 66 or be captivated by red-hued rock formations, all with your trusted travel companion. Lavish color and gorgeous photography throughout Itineraries and planning advice to pick the right tailored routes for your needs and interests Get around easily - 116 easy-to-read, full-color route maps, detailed directions Insider tips to get around like a local, avoid trouble spots and be safe on the road - local driving rules, parking, toll roads Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Useful features - including Stretch Your Legs, Detours, and Link Your Trip Covers Route 66, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Arizona deserts, Phoenix, Santa Fe, New Mexico's Enchanted Circle, Texas Hill Country, Big Bend, Austin, San Antonio, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, Monument Valley, Moab, Utah, Denver and more. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet, Amy C Balfour, Michael Benanav, Greg Benchwick, Lisa Dunford, Mariella Krause, Carolyn McCarthy and Ryan Ver Berkmoes.

60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Cincinnati covers the best and oftentimes little-known hiking destinations within 60 miles of the greater Cincinnati area. Trails in the guide span Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, offering incredible views, ample wildlife and wildflowers, and a chance to enjoy the simple pleasure of nature. The guide offers key information like: • Hike time and distance. • Difficulty level and hike configuration. • Average trail traffic. • Completely updated maps, GPS coordinates, and park details. • Categories and an at-a-glance rating system for interests such as kid-friendliness, scenery, waterfalls, wildlife, public transit, and more.

From her years as a spirited, secretive child, through her university studies—a period of exquisite freedom that imbued her with a profound appreciation of friendship and a love of travel—to her escape to a new life in California, Mayes exuberantly recreates the intense relationships of her past, recounting the bitter and sweet stories of her complicated family: her beautiful yet fragile mother, Frankye; her unpredictable father, Garbert; Daddy Jack, whose life Garbert saved; grandmother Mother Mayes; and the family maid, Frances’s confidant Willie Bell. Her “southern memoir” is a tale straight out of Faulkner, rife with episodes of dissipation and disillusion, parents who loved and fought with equally wild abandon, and ancestors with names like Big Mama and Daddy Jack. But she and her husband were sufficiently compelled to relocate from Northern California to North Carolina, settling in a university town with a far enough remove to allow her an objective distance from which to analyze the signature episodes of her childhood. With her trademark skill for capturing the essence of place and time, Mayes candidly reveals a youth riddled with psychological abuse and parental neglect that, nevertheless, ignited a fiery passion for adventure and self-discovery. “With perfect-pitch language, Mayes unblinkingly describes her growing-up years… One can almost taste the mushiness of ‘a pot of once-green beans falling apart in salt pork’; one can almost smell the cloying scent of honeysuckle, gardenias and overripe peaches that infuse the always-too-humid air.”– USAToday.com “Just the right balance of humor, irony and tragedy. “ Under Magnolia is a gorgeous, dreamy remembrance of hot Southern afternoons, mothers in red lipstick and Shalimar, Elvis turned up loud to cover up the family troubles that ran deep. In her new southern memoir, Under Magnolia , Frances Mayes describes the birth of her extraordinary sensibility, the deep-pooled clarity of her writing, her giddy love of nature, and her sharp and satirical eye for those who brought her up to honorable womanhood in the tortured South of her girlhood. “No one could have invented a more combustible, joy-starved pair of glam and oblivious parents or a more incandescent child to dive into the blue ruins, explore the sealed-off passages, blacked-out dreams and neglected outlets by the beams of her own incredulous eyes; then break the surface a smart-mouthed, truth-seeing sensualist, fully in attendance to the vibratory moment. The deft framing, the exacting word picks, apposite references, high speed wit, singled out synecdoches of a life; the cadence, phrasing, and pulse of a muted Georgian accent are all signature to the prose and poetry, stove-tops and passport stamps of Frances Mayes. Frances Mayes, a petite, brainy beauty from what we used to call politely 'a troubled home' has written an unnervingly honest and refreshingly open account of how a child can be neglected even amid privilege and a large family...

Easy, moderate and difficult routes are color coded, while symbols quickly show kinds of vehicles allowed on each trail. A separate mileage log ties numbered locations along the route to a custom map featuring a detailed relief background.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Digging deeply, he takes an inherently compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity , and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding--and not an ounce of sentimentality. Noted outdoor writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer tackles that question in his reporting on Chris McCandless, whose emaciated body was found in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992. After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to live in the wilderness.

On May 31, 1935, a storm system surged along the Republican River, bursting its banks in a matter of minutes with a roar that could be heard miles away. She has spent many years compiling the history of the flood, meeting with survivors and traveling along the river to document this exciting chapter in the Republican River's history.

The majority of the photographs have been donated by individuals to ensure that history does not lose these significant personalities, past or present, who left an imprint on their community. Carole L. Herrick writes for publications in the Washington, DC, area and has authored seven books, including Images of America: McLean.

It was a time before Terlingua Ranch and chili cook-offs, and you could drive a hundred miles without seeing another vehicle or another person. He also writes about the lower Big Bend as it is found now, and what one can still rediscover just over the next rise. An eighth-generation Texan, BEN H. ENGLISH was raised mostly in the Lajitas-Terlingua area.

Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her. Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2012: At age 26, following the death of her mother, divorce, and a run of reckless behavior, Cheryl Strayed found herself alone near the foot of the Pacific Crest Trail--inexperienced, over-equipped, and desperate to reclaim her life. While readers looking for adventure or a naturalist's perspective may be distracted by the emotional odyssey at the core of the story, Wild vividly describes the grueling life of the long-distance hiker, the ubiquitous perils of the PCT, and its peculiar community of wanderers. But Strayed doesn't want sympathy, and her confident prose stands on its own, deftly pulling both threads into a story that inhabits a unique riparian zone between wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir. Two months before Wild was published I stood on a Mexican beach at sunset with my family assisting dozens of baby turtles on their stumbling journey across the sand, then watching as they disappeared into the sea. Echoing the ever-popular search for wilderness salvation by Chris McCandless (Back to the Wild, 2011) and every other modern-day disciple of Thoreau, Strayed tells the story of her emotional devastation after the death of her mother and the weeks she spent hiking the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail. As her family, marriage, and sanity go to pieces, Strayed drifts into spontaneous encounters with other men, to the consternation of her confused husband, and eventually hits rock bottom while shooting up heroin with a new boyfriend. Woefully unprepared (she fails to read about the trail, buy boots that fit, or pack practically), she relies on the kindness and assistance of those she meets along the way, much as McCandless did.

Three months on the New York Times bestseller list, PrairyErth is now in paperback. "Bill McKibben has called this book "the deepest map anyone ever made of an American place" -- a majestic survey of land and time and people in a single county of the Kansas plains.

shows, it’s both of these and, more important, it’s a Petri dish, producing trends that end up influencing the rest of the country. Without Florida there would be no NASCAR, no Bettie Page pinups, no Glenn Beck radio rants, no USA Today , no “Stand Your Ground,” . It’s a state where the voters went for Barack Obama twice, yet elected a Tea Party candidate as governor. It attracts 90 million visitors a year, some drawn by its impressive natural beauty, others bewitched by its manmade fantasies. "This entertaining book will amuse and astonish Floridians and anybody interested in the absurdity of the Sunshine State or human nature in general."

From its 1922 roots with the Slavic-Macedonian immigrant brothers Kiradjieff in a burlesque theater, Cincinnati chili has become a million-dollar industry supporting 250 chili parlors. Cincinnatian Dann Woellert is a member of the Campbell County Historical Society, Norwood Ohio Historical Society and Taft Museum of Art.

Along its banks and watershed 600,000 acres of public lands--wildlife management areas, national forest, wilderness areas, national wildlife refuges, Nature Conservancy preserves--ensure the creation of a tremendous natural river system. They ran rapids and explored swamps, dodged logjams and investigated possible pollution sources. The book gives the armchair explorer a vivid feeling of what it would be like to float this wonderful river and provides a wealth of information about what makes it special and the problems that threaten it. By kayak and canoe, this narrative of adventure along America’s last unaltered river system. * Provides a unique and appreciative travel narrative about the Pascagoula river system, one of the rare wild places left in North America.

Check out Fodor's travel guides to Boston and Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. “Fodor’s is pitched a few notches higher….aimed at a fairly discerning traveler with an appetite for background and the occasional surprise.” – New York Times “The Fodor’s guides are notable for their ratings of sights, restaurants, shops, accommodations and attractions.” – Chicago Tribune.

Completely revised and updated with brand-new restaurants, Eat Dat New Orleans is the ultimate guide to America's best food city. Michael Murphy, a book publishing professional, has been a vice president at Random House, publisher of William Morrow, and founder of the literary agency Max & Co. By day two of his first visit to New Orleans in 1983, he knew he was home.

Featuring 32 amazing road trips, from two-day escapes to two-week adventures, you can cruise historic Route 66 or be captivated by red-hued rock formations, all with your trusted travel companion. Lavish color and gorgeous photography throughout Itineraries and planning advice to pick the right tailored routes for your needs and interests Get around easily - 116 easy-to-read, full-color route maps, detailed directions Insider tips to get around like a local, avoid trouble spots and be safe on the road - local driving rules, parking, toll roads Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Useful features - including Stretch Your Legs, Detours, and Link Your Trip Covers Route 66, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Arizona deserts, Phoenix, Santa Fe, New Mexico's Enchanted Circle, Texas Hill Country, Big Bend, Austin, San Antonio, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, Monument Valley, Moab, Utah, Denver and more. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet, Amy C Balfour, Michael Benanav, Greg Benchwick, Lisa Dunford, Mariella Krause, Carolyn McCarthy and Ryan Ver Berkmoes.

Walking Baltimore includes Charm City's well-known neighborhoods -- Downtown, the Inner Harbor, Mount Vernon, and Fells Point. With his wife and two daughters, he lives north of downtown Baltimore, in Towson, Maryland--Baltimore County's county seat.

The product of two of Oklahoma’s foremost authorities on the history of the 46th state, Oklahoma: A History is the first comprehensive narrative to bring the story of the Sooner State to the threshold of its centennial. "Lively prose, vivid biographical vignettes, and artful synthesis make this book the best brief overview of Oklahoma ever written".

Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. It is a gripping story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded. Though the ‘stranger’ in the title is Knight, one closes the book with the sense that Knight, like all seers, is the only sane person in a world gone insane—that modern civilization has made us strangers to ourselves." —Jennifer Senior, The New York Times "Michael Finkel has done something magical with this profound book… [His] investigation runs deep, summoning…the human history of our own attempts to find meaning in a noisy world."

"Exploring the Black Hills and Badlands" features. trips for hikers, skiers, mountain bike riders and equestrians. Hiram Rogers, a geologist and hydrologist, is an avid outdoorsman who has written for several recreational publications.

Check out Fodor's travel guides to Boston and Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. “Fodor’s is pitched a few notches higher….aimed at a fairly discerning traveler with an appetite for background and the occasional surprise.” – New York Times “The Fodor’s guides are notable for their ratings of sights, restaurants, shops, accommodations and attractions.” – Chicago Tribune.

There are meditations on downtown Mobile, where Hoffman's grandparents arrived as immigrants a century ago; the waterfront where longshoremen labor and shrimpers work their nets; the back roads leading to obscure but intriguing destinations. As he writes, "When buildings are leveled, when land is developed, when money is spent, when our loved ones pass on, when we take our places a little farther back every year on the historical time-line, what we have still are stories." After 21 years in New York City, Roy Hoffman (Almost Family) returned with his wife and daughter to his hometown of Mobile, Ala. Back Home: Journeys Through Mobile is a collection of his writings feature stories, memoirs, essays about the town, many of which were previously published in the Mobile Register. Hoffman interviews many of Mobile's distinctive characters, like Joseph Langan, a longtime Mobile mayor now in his 80s, who was once vilified as a Communist by whites who thought he was too sympathetic to blacks, and a racist by blacks who didn't agree.

Answering an insistent demand for this guidebook from loyal readers of the Frommer's series, the Chicago residents among our writers have labored hard to capture the unique spirit of this dynamic city that every American must visit at some point of their lives. Before moving to Chicago, she lived in Las Vegas, where she co-authored Pauline Frommer's Guide to Las Vegas and Frommer's Las Vegas Day by Day.