Tuesday September 25, 2001

Grade: A

Many tourists visit Arizona to explore the state's diverse range of outdoor climates. Within our political borders, we have representations of biomes from hot, low deserts to snowy, pine-covered peaks. Unlike most states, we have designated vast amounts of our land for recreational purposes.

Many authors have taken advantage of Arizona's diversity and have written outdoor recreation guidebooks, ranging in topics from rock climbing to gemstone hunting. There must be 50 guidebooks devoted solely to Arizona's spectacular hiking trails, but until now, none have filled the niche Christine Maxa has in her beautifully illustrated "Arizona's Best Autumn Colors: 50 Great Hikes."

Autumn colors? Arizona? Indeed. Arizona is home to at least 21 varieties of deciduous plants with color-changing leaves, from the glorious russet-crowned Gambel Oak to the non-native orange-gold tamarisk.

This book leads hikers to the trails offering the most accessible viewing points of multihued flora and also doubles as a plant identification field guide with historical explanations and descriptive photos of each species. During autumn, these paths promise to leave trekkers breathless from the display of colorful backcountry splendor.

Maxa, an Arizona native and freelance writer, accentuates her clear text with her own lovely, lucid photographs and comprehensible trail maps.

The most note-worthy aspect of the guidebook is the Arizona Highways-quality photography. Clearly Maxa is equally proficient with a lens as she is with a pen. Even a novice hiker could follow the author's maps and directions, which adds function to the book's overall aesthetic quality.

The book is conveniently color-coded by region, none of which are excluded or given too much space. Four of the 50 hikes Maxa describes begin within the Tucson city limits, and none of them are the ever-popular, ever-crowded and ever-paved Sabino Canyon trails found in nearly every other Arizona guidebook. Instead, most of the hikes are quite unheard of - truly hidden day hikes.

The author knows her surroundings likes the back of her hand and includes both historical anecdotes of places and narrative tales of famous and interesting Arizonans in the guidebook. This makes the book a pleasure to read on the drive to the trailhead.

Maxa also gracefully includes day hikes of all difficulty levels, from the half-mile, "I-could-sing-while-I-do-this" hike to the six-mile all-uphill, "I-think-I'm-going-to-die" venture. Each hike is labeled with an exertion rating, forewarning autumnal explorers.

Of course, the book also includes the usual water warnings - always bring lots - and the leave-no-trace philosophy of hiking ethics, advice responsible outdoor recreationalists stringently follow.

"Arizona's Best Autumn Color: 50 Great Hikes" hits bookstore shelves this week. The selling price is $19.95, and the book is worth every cent.