With this newly updated, colorful, and lively guide, Glacier National Park visitors can take a self-guided tour of the fascinating geologic events that created the park's majestic scenery. Complete with an easy-to-read foldout map that offers a three-dimensional perspective on the area's geology, Geology Along Going-to-the-Sun Road gives lay readers and geologists alike a unique opportunity to get behind-the-scenery at 21 stops along this famous highway.

Traveling Glacier National Park's Going to the Sun Road is an experience like no other. Laborers toiled for nearly 20 years to complete the 50-mile road that winds an impossible route through the heart of Glacier. One of the most scenic highways in the world, this marvel of engineering set the standard for all national parks. C. W. Guthrie tells the intriguing tale of the history and the construction of the epic Going-to-the-Sun Road. 60 color and black-and-white photographs.

With this colorful and lively guide, visitors can take a self-guided tour of the geological events that created the park's scenery. An easy-to-read map allows both lay readers and geologists to get behind-the-scenery at 21 stops along this famous highway.

Until recently a geologist was visualized by most people as a queer sort of fellow who went around the countryside breaking rocks with a little hammer. Fortunately, the general public today has a much clearer picture of the geologist and his science, but there are still many among us who mistakenly feel that geology is something too remote for practical application.Geology is the science of the Earth. It includes a history of our planet starting with its origin, and a history of the life that has lived upon it. From it, we can determine the reason for every feature of the landscape and every rock structure underneath the surface, and we can further learn what processes gave rise to them.

The dramatic journeys of the 19th century Gold Rush come to life in this geologist’s tour of the American West and the events that shaped the land. In 1848, news of the discovery of gold in California triggered an enormous wave of emigration toward the Pacific. The dramatic terrain these settlers crossed is so familiar to us now that it is hard to imagine how frightening—even godforsaken—its sheer rock faces and barren deserts once seemed to them. Hard Road West brings their perspective vividly to life, weaving together the epic overland journey of the covered wagon trains and the compelling story of the landscape they encountered. Taking readers along the 2,000-mile California Trail, Keith Meldahl uses settler’s diaries and letters—as well as his own experiences on the trail—to reveal how the geology and geography of the West shaped our nation’s westward expansion. He guides us through a landscape of sawtooth mountains, following the meager streams that served as lifelines through an arid land, all the way to California itself, where colliding tectonic plates created breathtaking scenery and planted the gold that lured travelers west in the first place. “Alternates seamlessly between vivid accounts of the 19th-century journey and lucid explanations of the geological events that shaped the landscape traveled.”—Library Journal

Includes 99 day hikes in and around the Flathead Valley, notations regarding dog friendly trails, tips on how to make hiking more rewarding, trail distance in both miles and kilometers, and detailed topographic maps.