California Waterfalls

Reviewed by Dean Goss

Ann Marie Brown details approximately 200 of California's waterfalls. An ambitious undertaking, but she manages a reasonably thorough freshman effort. This is a fat paperback, the contents of which would serve to keep someone busy for a very long time.

The book is printed on recycled newsprint. On the one hand, I salute conservation efforts, but newsprint is a less than desirable medium particularly for printed photographs. The book doesn't waste much time on introductory material, merely a brief forward, a section on "how to use this book", and it's on to the waterfalls.

The waterfalls...California has 'em. Lots of them. While a dedicated study of USGS topographical maps in California should yield far, far more than 200 waterfalls, this is still a pretty thorough point of entry into the waterfall field. Each waterfall covered in the book is described in terms of Access & Difficulty, Elevation & Elevation Gain, and Best Season for visiting. There is a lot of descriptive narrative and in many cases, a small black and white photograph. At the close of each entry are Trip Notes and Directions. Each waterfall is rated from 6 to 10, but this clouds the issue in my opinion. Did Ms. Brown omit waterfalls that merited a rating of 1 to 5? On the whole, by viewing her editorial choices for this book, there seem to be some legitimate 1 star waterfalls. The system doesn't quite make sense.

The Bottom Line: While it is a very informative and thorough book, later editions are better editions.