This is a canyon hiking guide to the Colorado Plateau, which covers the southeastern half of Utah, the northern half of Arizona, the western 1/5 of Colordo, and a small part of NW New Mexico. This new 4th Edition has been undated significantly beyond the 3rd. The author went back to almost all canyons, or at least to the trailheads, to check out the mile post markers, etc. Also, about half a dozen less-interesting canyons or hikes from the 3rd Edition were eliminated; while about a dozen new & more challenging hikes have been added, plus another 32 pages. This 4th edition contains 320 pages and 191 fotographs, about 90 of which are new.
The new canyons are from scattered locations in southern Utah, primarily in Zion National Park, and the Escalante River, San Rafael Swell & Robbers Roost country, along with major updates on slot canyons on the Navajo Nation. Other big changes to this edition are the addition of about a dozen new technical slot canyons; that is, canyons where you need ropes and rappelling gear to get through. This adds another dimension to excitement and challenge, and opens many new hiking areas previously closed to many of us. All these technical canyons are now either bolted-up, or have slings or webbing around boulders, making them ready for rappelling.
The general direction for this book, is toward slot canyons, which everybody likes; but it retains easy & fun hikes to canyons with Anasazi ruins, another favorite. So if you're looking for petroglyphs or pictographs, and cliff dwellings or ruins, which some people try their best to hide, then this is your book. In the back of this book is a section listing the Best Hikes, including for the most part Slot Canyons, then best hikes to see Indian ruins, and Native American rock arts sites. Below is the Table of Contents.