Canyon Country Parklands: Treasures of the Great Plateau

This collection is put together like a National Geographic magazine, with the stories all focusing on the 130,000-square-mile wilderness dubbed "the Great Unknown" by Major John Wesley Powell in 1869. Now shared by Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, this area includes dazzling mesas and buttes, soaring stone pinnacles and arches, and daunting deep canyons and cliffs. Presented in the magazine's personalized reporting style with National Geographic's infamous color photos, this is a book worth having if you're headed to these parks--or have good memories of a visit there. A 16-page special section covers the diversity of plants and animals in the area.