Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 917
EAN: 9780792273677
ISBN: 0792273672
Label: National Geographic
Manufacturer: National Geographic
Number Of Pages: 160
Publication Date: March 01, 1998
Publisher: National Geographic
Release Date: March 01, 1998
Studio: National Geographic
Sales Rank: 777601
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Editorial Review:
From Amazon.com: If you've ever had a Kerouac-inspired desire to take to the open road but need a little formal direction, National Geographic's Driving Guides to America: Pacific Northwest will motivate you to pack the car and strike out on your journey. For each of 22 long drives in 3 states--Washington, Oregon, and Alaska--National Geographic provides the itinerary, general driving directions, and highlights of sights to visit along the way. Cruise the Denali Highway through Alaska's wild interior, get your feet wet in Washington's Hoh Rain Forest ("140 inches of annual rainfall"), or gaze at the jaw-dropping awesomeness of Oregon's Hells Canyon, "the deepest gorge in the United States." The suggested routes, which include mileage, estimated trip length, and the best time of year to travel, are perfect for planning your trek and choosing where you want to stop. Brief descriptions, complete with phone numbers and business hours of the various sites, correspond to highlighted points on the maps.
Sidebars offer background and share interesting details about the sights along the mapped-out itineraries. You'll learn, for example, that the deep blue of Crater Lake "stems from the lake's exceptional clarity and depth. As light passes through clear water, it gets absorbed color by color ... Crater Lake is so deep--1,932 feet, among the deepest in the world--that every hue gets absorbed except for that radiant dark blue, which is scattered back to the surface." Complementing the text are more than 120 full-color photographs, including one of magnificent Crater Lake, which measure up to National Geographic's characteristically high standards. A full index and an appendix with contact information for motel chains and tourist boards round out the reference. Next time you get the urge to visit the rocky beaches and stunning, jagged mountains of Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, grab National Geographic's Driving Guides to America: Pacific Northwest and hit the road. --Heidi Robinson
Average Rating: 
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The National Geographic Driving Guides are guides to Blue Highways, i.e., non-freeways. They are perfect for people who want to get back to the "real" America. Since they are written by different authors, they vary in quality.
Of the ones that I have read, this one is the best. The author, Bob Devine, loves the Northwest, and has done an excellent job of ferreting out a lot of great sights to see and things to do. He also writes clearly.
I was particularly interested in the sections on Alaska, because I was trying to figure out whether it would be interesting to me (I am not an outdoorsman), and if I do visit it, how to structure the trip. After reading this book, I decided that there were a lot of interesting ... Read More:
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This book was disappointing. Although it boasts the, as always, lovely National Geographic photographs, the information and the writing are dated. It needs to be updated, at least.
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This guide is well structured, the chapters on the states are color-coded and make it easy to find trips for the state you're interested in. I liked the classification with stars for locations - the reader knows at a glance which trip offers a lot of "must-sees" and/or interesting places to visit. And because it is a National Geographic guide, it also features lots of beautiful photographs.
The guide is ideal for people who are on a schedule, and would still like to get the most out of a short trip. However, it does NOT offer tips on accomodation or restaurants. Although the appendix lists 800-numbers for hotel & motel chains, this isn't helpful when you plan to stay overnight in, let's say, Ritzville, WA, because ... Read More:
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