Off-Trail Adventures in Baja California: Exploring Landscapes and Geology on Gulf Shores and Islands - Softcover

Johnson, Markes E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816521301 ISBN 13: 9780816521302

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2014

Synopsis

Baja California is one of the Earth’s last great wilderness areas that is easily accessible to travelers. Whether you enter from the United States to the north or from Cabo San Lucas to the south, it doesn’t take long to find yourself passing through a unique desert ecosystem of islands and land bound by the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Gulf of California on the east. But where, you might ask, can you go to best experience the physical majesty of Baja California? This book holds the answer.

Off-Trail Adventures in Baja California describes—and maps and illustrates—nine hikes along outcrops on islands and peninsular shores where geography, geology, and ecology meet in singular ways. Each spot tells a story about the nature of the place—the cumulative effects of millions of years of natural forces at work. During the course of his long teaching career, Markes E. Johnson has hiked much of Baja California, often with students in tow. He brings a lifetime of study to his simple descriptions of the stories that are revealed by looking closely at natural phenomena framed by rocks and fossils.

This hiking guide offers a wealth of stories that seem to encompass everything, and can clearly communicate Johnson’s deep understanding of how our planet’s ecosystems function. Whether you like to hike with your boots on or from the comfort of your favorite chair, this book is a must-have for anyone who has visited or hopes to visit Baja California’s Gulf Coast.
 

About this title

About the Author:

Markes E. Johnson is the Charles L. MacMillan Professor of Natural Science, Emeritus, at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He is the author of Discovering the Geology of Baja California: Six Hikes on the Southern Gulf Coast (Arizona), and co-editor of Atlas of Coastal Ecosystems in the Western Gulf of California: Tracking Limestone Deposits on the Margin of a Young Sea (Arizona).

Review:

“In the vein of John McPhee’s popular geology books.”—Richard C. Brusca, editor of The Gulf of California: Biodiversity and Conservation and author of Common Intertidal Invertebrates of the Gulf of California

“With prose like Joseph Wood Krutch, the technical aspects of Ed Ricketts, the sleuthing of Sherlock Holmes, and the adventure of Indiana Jones, it is my guess that Off-Trail Adventures in Baja California could be a very widely read natural science publication like Norman Roberts’s book on Baja plants, or some of Peterson’s bird books.”—Norman K. Christie

“As informative as any field guide, yet as entertaining as any adventure novel.”—Journal of Coastal Research

“It is a quintessence of passion to the Earth sciences, and, thus, this is an inspired and inspiring book, which stimulates thinking and enjoying the wonders of nature.”—Zentralblatt
 

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0816521301
• ISBN 13: 9780816521302
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272