Explore Wildlife, Landscapes, and Geology
Geoscience Canada Review
Skilfully Designed for A Diverse Audience
"Rocks, Ridges, and Rivers is a first-class guidebook that is skilfully designed for a diverse audience, which showcases up-to-date scientific data in an attractive and readable manner. The illustrations alone provide much enjoyment and also clear and useful information that complements the well-written text. This is a first-class effort of which the author and publishers should be proud, and I sincerely hope that Dale and his collaborators might soon apply their skills to other areas of Canada."
Trip Planner
"There is also an excellent ‘trip planner’ chart which gives vital information about the stops within each excursion, which trips are associated with essential or optional hiking excursions, and the distances and other constraints involved. Readers interested in gently stretching their legs with short strolls or acquiring blisters on longer treks will quickly know which of the subsequent sections best meets their needs."
Design
"Two aspects of the Geological Experiences merit special mention. The first is a sensible hierarchy of stop locations – each core excursion is a progression of sites along or very close to the highway corridors, for which access hikes are easy and brief. But alongside this core are optional side trips, labelled ‘nearby and interesting,’ which provide diversions for those
who seek longer hikes, or have a specific interest in a given topic. This arrangement is ideal for planning a mixture of activities, especially in conjunction with the summary table and
maps in the first part of the book. The second feature that I admired was the inclusion of specific sections containing more detailed scientific information on topics of particular interest. "These are built into the more general descriptions of excursions, but they amplify concepts and information introduced in the first part of the book."
Imagery
"Rocks, Ridges, and Rivers truly excels in the area of graphical illustration, and I think it provides a good model for this aspect of guidebooks. The maps and illustrative sections are all coloured, and they are clear in construction and easily legible without excessive detail. Their format is consistent and their captions are informative."
Great Artwork
"Another notable feature of the book is its use of creative artwork in the form of many paintings that showcase the work of Heather Pant. Her colourful and at times slightly other-worldly landscapes augment the traditional photos, and are to be admired in their own right. There are many shared possibilities between geologists and artists, as both produce interpretative works that may not be true in scale or realistic in depiction, but which emphasize important things and leave a lasting impression."