[.ca] National Audubon Society Regional Guide to the Rocky ... (ISBN 0679446818)

From Amazon.com:
If you're going to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, or Colorado (or live there already), chances are you have an affinity for nature, in which case the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Rocky Mountain States is a book you'll want to keep close at all times. A durable book meant to be consulted in the field and on the mountain, it starts off with a map of the region, and then launches into an overview of the topography and geology, the habitats and ecology, the weather patterns and cloud formations common to the Rocky Mountain region. Part Two is the field guide proper, with brilliant photographs and pithily informative descriptions of over 1,000 of the flora and fauna to be found there, covering lichens and conifers, wildflowers and ferns, spiders and insects, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. There are vivid pictures of feral horses and mule deer, an elk cow nuzzling her calf and a male elk strutting with his antlers, and there are photos and write-ups for wolverines and mountain lions, moose, caribou, and bison. There are also wonderful pages full of whirligig beetles and margined burying beetles, hairy rove beetles and spotted tiger beetles, not to mention the jagged ambush bug and meadow spittlebug. The flora section is appealing, as well, with delicate western bog laurel and orange honeysuckle close-ups, cliff fendlerbush flowers and Pacific red elderberry, water smartweed and purple western monkshood. There's also an appendix of parks and preserves, and pages full of the constellations you can see at night with no city lights to mar the view. With a century of nature preservation under its belt, Audubon does justice to the field-guide genre. --Stephanie Gold

Very pretty, but kinda useless:
First, the positive: this is a very complete and very pretty-looking guidebook. It does cover just about everything from the night sky to lichens and rocks. I can imagine an eastern tourist leafing through, anticipating all the wonderful things they'll see on their trip through Rocky Mountain National or Glacier park. However, in the field, the guide is next to useless, as there are no keys, no list of the details and differences that make, for example, one tree a Ponderosa and another a Lodgepole pine. The only way to disern what exactly you are look through the book randomly until you happen upon a photo (generally too small to supply necessary detail) that looks kinda similar to whatever it is you are trying to identify. This book is best at capturing the endless possibilities of our Rocky Mountains, a compendium of all the wonderful things you may run across. It won't however help you actually find them.

Audubon's Rocky Mt. States Field Guide: A great buy:
As with all of the National Audubon Society's field guides, the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Rocky Mountain States" is a most worthwhile purchase, perfect as a gift or for your own collection. The guide is durable and very portable, which makes it well suited for use in the outdoors. More importantly, it has excellent content. Despite its small size, the field guide contains a wealth of information. In addition to the usual focus on flora and fauna species, there is information on constellations, parks, ecosystems, and more. While the depth and detail of the information in the various sections is not vast, the breadth of subject matter more than makes up for this; the information presented is ideal for a general field guide. Moreover, the book is beautiful, filled with gorgeous color photographs. Residents of the Rocky Mountain states and non-residents will both love it.