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Saturday, June 09, 2007

See new Yellowstone & Grand Teton updates on Amazon Connect

Dear friends and Greater Yellowstone afficinadoes. Please note that I'll be posting all future Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks hiking guidebook updates and general news on my blog at Amazon.com. See you there, or out on the trail.

Tally ho ~ Andrew

Link




Saturday, January 21, 2006

Yellowstone NP Open For Winter

Yellowstone National Park is open in the winter!

For more information, view The Park In Winter” or call 307-344-2116 and ask for the free brochure "Yell 165."

For current road information, call 307-344-2117.

Monday, October 31, 2005

2005 National Outdoor Book Award Winners Announced





The National Outdoor Book Awards, "the outdoor world's largest and most prestigious book award program," just announced their 2005 winners in 10 categories, including Best Outdoor Adventure Guidebook: my Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks guide, published in June 2005 by Wilderness Press.

Here's NOBA's review of my book:

If this year's winner of the Guidebook Category is any indication, Top Trails are top notched guidebooks. Top Trails Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks is a guidebook with a lot of moxie. It's exceedingly well organized. The maps are uncluttered and easy to use. And introductory charts help you identify suitable trails. In addition to the book's smart design, Nystrom has done a splendid job of researching and writing about the trails.


Here's an excerpt from NOBA's press release:


Pocatello, Idaho / Buffalo, New York – Winners of National Outdoor Book Award (NOBA) represent some of the finest outdoor writing and artwork being published today. The nonprofit program is sponsored by the NOBA Foundation, Idaho State University and the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education. The program honors books across ten individual categories.

The announcement of the award winners was made recently at a special evening ceremony at the International Conference on Outdoor Recreation and Education. This year's conference was held at New York State University at Buffalo.


And a complete list of the winners....


History/Biography Category. Winner. Journey of a Hope Merchant: From Apartheid to the Elite World of Solo Yacht Racing. By Neal Petersen with William P. Baldwin and Patty Fulcher. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC.

History/Biography Category. Honorable Mention. Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life. By Arlene Blum. Scribner, New York.

Outdoor Literature. Winner. Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women who climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain. By Jennifer Jordan. William Morrow, New York.

Outdoor Literature. Honorable Mention. At the Mercy of the River: An Exploration of the Last African Wilderness. By Peter Stark. Ballatine Books, New York.

Natural History Literature. Winner. Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion. By Alan Burdick. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.

Nature and the Environment. Winner. Sea Turtles: A Complete Guide to their Biology, Behavior and Conservation. By James R. Spotila. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

Design and Artistic Merit Category. Winner. Mountain Ranges of Colorado. Photographed and Written by John Fielder. Designed by Mark Mulvany. Westcliffe Publishers, Englewood, CO.

Children's Books. Winner. The Little Green Island With a Little Red House: A Book of Colors and Critters. By Sharon Lovejoy. Down East Books, Rockport, ME.

Children's Books. Honorable Mention. The Leaf Man. By Lois Ehlert. Harcourt, New York.

Instructional Category. Winner. Basic Kayaking: All the Skills and Gear You Need to Get Started. By Wayne Dickett and Jon Rounds. Photographs by Skip Brown. Illustrations by Roberto Sabas. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA.

Instruction Category. Winner. Glacier Mountaineering: An Illustrated Guide to Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue. By Andy Tyson. Illustrated by Mike Clelland. Edited by Michael Kennedy. Climbing Magazine, Carbondale, CO.

Outdoor Adventure Guidebook Category. Honorable Mention. Idaho's Salmon River: A River Runner's Guide to the River of No Return. By Eric J. Newell and Allison J. Newell. Black Canyon Guides, Logan, UT.

Outdoor Adventure Guidebook Category. Honorable Mention. Red Rock Canyon: A Climbing Guide. By Roxanna Brook and Jared McMillen. The Mountaineers Books, Seattle.

Nature Guidebook Category. Winner. Snakes of the Southeast. By Whit Gibbons and Mike Dorcas. The University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.

Nature Guidebook Category. Honorable Mention. Nature's Strongholds: The World's Great Wildlife Reserves. By Laura and William Riley. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Classic Category. Life-time Achievement Recognition: Farley Mowat for Sea of Slaughter, Never Cry Wolf and other works.


Sunday, October 30, 2005

Top Trails Yellowstone Book Signing at San Francisco Adventures in Travel Expo


I will be signing copies of my new, NOBA-award-winning Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks guide at the Adventures in Travel Expo, at the Moscone Convention Center in downtown San Francisco, on Saturday November 11th, from noon until at least 1pm. So, if you're in the neighborhood, stop by and say 'Howdy.'

Here's a bit more about the show, from the promoters:


"Adventures in Travel Expo ™ (ATE) is the world’s largest series of travel events serving adventure, active travel, eco, nature, cultural and outdoor tourism enthusiasts and professionals. These premier events give attendees the opportunity to see thousands of travel possibilities, from exotic safaris to luxury beach escapes."

Monday, October 24, 2005

Yellowstone End-of-Season Highway Updates - NPS News Release

Here are some updates from the NPS about Yellowstone NP's end-of-the-season road closure schedule.

Guardian Unlimited | Bison hunters set sights on easy pickings in Yellowstone park

The Guardian Unlimited reports on the un-sporting folly of bison hunting outside Yellowstone park boundaries.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Houston Chronicle: Don't Fence Me In

My feature article on the joys of Yellowstone in spring recently appeared in several major US newspaper Travel sections, including the Chicago Tribune and the Houston Chronicle.

Commune with the greatest concentration of free-roaming wildlife in the contiguous U.S.


What if the exotic menagerie of captive creatures at the San Diego Zoo's famous Wild Animal Park were actually wild?

This fantasy struck me recently while stuck in a traffic jam caused by a herd of prehistoric-looking bison. They were moseying across Yellowstone's West Entrance Road with their newborn calves in tow. I was rubbernecking. Early childhood memories of giraffes licking the windshield of our family station wagon at a drive-thru safari flashed into mind.

Here in Wyoming's top-left corner, you can explore the greatest concentration of free-roaming wildlife in the contiguous United States — in your own vehicle, at your own pace (and, sometimes, at theirs). It's no wonder that Yellowstone National Park, home to 61 different mammals and hundreds of bird species, receives around 3 million annual visitors, mostly between Memorial Day and Labor Day. To beat the crowds, there is no better time to visit than May.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Dunraven Pass to Reopen

[Note: Here's a crucial update to the original press release quoted below]


The Dunraven Pass trailhead for Mt. Washburn will remain closed as contractors implement a new trailhead design to include installation of additional vault toilet facilities. Hikers may utilize the trailhead from the Chittenden Road to access the summit of Mt. Washburn.


According to an NPS press release, Dunraven Pass, a crucial link in the Grand Loop Road circuit, will re-open soon after undergoing major construction. Work on the road is tentatively scheduled to resume in 2007:


Yellowstone National Park officials announced today that the road between Canyon Village to the Chittenden Road on Dunraven Pass is scheduled to reopen to the public on Friday, August 19, 2005 at 8:00 a.m. with possible half-hour construction delays. The road from Canyon to Tower will remain open to the public until Monday, October 10, 2005, when it is scheduled to close for the season.

Sunday, July 31, 2005

CNN Presents: Searching for Extreme Lifeforms in Yellowstone

Besides Chile's Atacama Desert and Mars, the television documentary CNN Presents recently visited Yellowstone while filming a story on the search for life in the world's most extreme environments.

Check out the photos and video on the website.


The search for life in space has always been the stuff of science fiction books and movies. But from the harshest deserts of Earth to the far-flown depths of space, scientists are looking for that elusive sign that we are not alone...

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

A New Decade of Wolves in Yellowstone

Yellowstone NP's wolf recovery project director Douglas S. Smith reflects on a decade of restoration efforts in a feature for the Wildlife Conservation Society:

Yellowstone's Heroine Wolves: Meet Five, Nine, and Fourteen.