Laurence ParentCritiques

I've read several FaceBook posts highly recommending that potential visitors to Big Bend National Park read this book prior to visiting. Author Laurence Parent details seventeen events that have occurred within the park requiring rescue and/or recovery from tragic events. The stories are eye-opening and sobering and all contain words of wisdom for staying safe during a visit to the park.

So much more than just a hiking book with great maps, almost every 2 page spread has an outstanding photograph.

Parent emphasizes that the vast majority of park visitors have a great time and a smooth visit and are certainly never injured or killed. And yet, there are apparently a lot of ways to die in Big Bend. By combining incident reports and investigations with after-the-fact interviews with survivors and their families, Parent almost always strikes just the right balance in bringing us these stories of mistakes, accidents, malice, and bad luck. Reading this book didn't make me any less eager to go back to Big Bend, but it did give me a sense of the risks and responsibilities any hiker or camper has when they take themselves out into the wilderness.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2012/04/death-in-big-bend-by-laurence-parent.html ]

As a frequent visitor and backpacker in the Big Bend, I read the book with great interest. Over the years, I have visited most of the places discussed in the book. I have also occasionally placed myself in situations that could have ended unfavorably. I was familiar with the risks that many of these visitors assumed. Had this book been available in the 1970's, I would have been less casual about undertaking some of the activities that I was only too ready to experience. To mitigate personal risk, I recommend reading Parent's book to anyone who is new to the outdoor experience or is considering an activity based visit to the park. Never dismiss rules such as obtaining a back country permit prior to hiking, or packing at least one gallon of water per day. Compliance may well save your life, as well as the life of the rangers who must rescue you.

This is a gossipy collection of interesting stories about people who have died in Big Bend National Park. Some stories are predictable, the foolish and unprepared, the suicides, desperate immigrants. A couple are horrifying crimes you wouldn't expect. Some are about people who are just very unlucky, some take on too much risk, a few stories turn out well and give a little relief to the reader.
I've visited this park many times over the years and enjoyed this behind the scenes look into the place.

Great photography, gives you an idea of the scope of the park. One of the wildest parts of the USA. Not an easy place to visit. Good book for armchair travelers.

Parent gives a brief introduction to the park and some general hiking tips and then plows ahead with the meat of the book: detailed descriptions of 44 hikes in the park, along with three hikes in the nearby Big Bend Ranch State Park. Although parts of the descriptions are a bit dry (particularly if you haven't actually been there), Parent spices them up with interesting historical anecdotes and information about plant and animal life in the area, as well as some beautiful (although black and white) pictures.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2008/08/hiking-big-bend-national-park-2005.html ]