Hiking and Exploring Utah's Henry Mountains and Robbers Roost

by Michael R. Kelsey

This book centers on the Henry Mountains of southeastern Utah, which are just south of the small town of Hanksville, and east of Canyonlands National Park and the upper end of Lake Powell. The main emphasis of this book is a climbing guide to the half dozen major peaks in the Henrys; plus canyon hiking in the area just east of the mountains, and along the Dirty Devil River, which runs through the Roost Country. There are 37 mapped areas for hiking and climbing. This book combines a hiking & mountain climbing and a travel guide to the Henry Mountains, as well as the Robbers Roost Country, an area made famous by Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and the Wild Bunch. The Roost Country is east of Hanksville. Other chapters center on the history of the Henry Mountains and its mining and old historic ranches, including the Robbers Roost Ranch. In this section are lots of old miners tales about lost Spanish mines, and of course a discussion on the unique geology of the Henrys. There's also a chapter on some of the archeology ruins and the usual assortment of rock art sites in the area. But that part in the history section that takes up the most space is the Life and Legend of Butch Cassidy. Butch is dead as a doornail, but researchers are still hard at work trying to find out what happened after he returned to the USA from South American; so his final chapter has still not been written.

Genres: Guidebook

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1990

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the tube socks and the tight shorty shorts.
His self publishing, loose proofreading, and his brazen insistence on using the metric system along with his intentional misspelling of the word "foto" make Kelsey worth having along for chuckles on a trip. His constant reference to himself as "the author" makes me think his mom must have typed as he dictated to her in their Provo basement.
Seriously, though, his in-depth recounting of recent human and trail building history makes his books stand out from a sea of "directions only" guidebooks. Kelsey is an odd duck that I've grown to love. These books are entertaining to read even if you're at home not necessarily in need of directions. How many guidebooks can you say that about?