What could this grizzly be thinking?

For these trips I had the first two very useful books:--

Montana, Wyoming & Idaho camping: the complete guide to more than 1200 campgrounds by Judy Kinnaman (Avalon Travel, 2001) in the Foghorn outdoor series, I found to be comprehensive and accurate. For campgrounds that charge, prices will have changed by now, of course.

Hot Springs & Hot Pools of the Northwest by Marjorie Gersh-Young (Aqua Thermal Access, 1999), subtitled Jason Loam's Original Guide, also looked complete and accurate, although I think its maps could be better. (A new edition appeared in 2008.)

I would now consider Evie Litton's Hiking Hot Springs in the Pacific Northwest, 4th Edition (Falcon, 2005) to be essential, even if not completely accurate. Don't be misled by the title -- most of the hikes she describes are near hot springs, not to them.

For completeness sake, you might also look at Touring Washington and Oregon Hot Springs by Jeff Birkby (Falcon Publishing, 2002).

There are plenty of other guide books to the areas I traveled. For trips by road, I suggest more from the Falcon Guide series, notably Scenic Driving Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks by Susan Springer Butler (Falcon Publishing, then 1999, now 2006). For hiking guides, I'm partial to The Mountaineers' 100 Hikes series, now that they're expanding outside their home range of the Cascades. Again, however, the Falcon Guide series of hiking guides covers just about everywhere, is available just about everywhere, and has some nice features.

For current hiway conditions in the various states, go to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

The National Park Service sites for Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park are obvious. You might also look at the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) site on the Yellowstone caldera with its great links list, and the site from the ecologically concerned folks at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. More info about Yellowstone, largely more tourist-oriented, is available from the Wyoming State Travel website.

For more on the channeled scablands of eastern Washington, read a very thorough description from the USGS.

For information about the Beartooth Range, both Summitpost.org and Wilderness.net provide introductions to the area. The U.S. National Scenic Byways Online does the same for US212. If you're thinking of going there, start with the Gallatin National Forest, although the Custer and Shoshone National Forests also manage parts.

And for the few Web sites having to do with NW hot springs take a look at my hot springs listing.

Of the many worthwhile books about wolves, two still stand out in my mind. The first is Farley Mowat's ever-popular Never Cry Wolf, available in a number of editions since the movie. And the second is Adolph Murie's seminal 1944 study The Wolves of Mount McKinley (which actually covers much more than just wolves). It's still available a couple of ways at least -- in libraries as the original U.S. Government Printing Office book (Fauna of the national parks of the U.S.: Fauna Series no.5, 1944); and as a University of Washington Press reprint (1985). It's supposed to be available as part of the National Park Service's online Fauna Series, but as of November 2009 their link seems to be broken. However, if you browse there, you can still find L. David Mech's 1966 The Wolves of Isle Royale.

I suggest almost anything from the pre-eminent wolf researcher L. David Mech. For starters, try his very readable The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species (in paperback from the University of Minnesota Press, 1981). The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone by Thomas McNamee (Henry Holt, 1997) vividly details many of the problems, both social and legal, associated with the re-introduction project. And Barry Lopez's Of Wolves and Men (Scribner reprint, 1979) is as eloquent now as when it was first published.

The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons in Love, Death, and Happiness (Pegasus, 2009) is Mark Rowlands' idiosyncratic, very readable, and yes, sometimes philosophical, memoir. Although it may not easily fit this list, it struck me enough when I read it in 2009 to want to include it here.

The quote heading "A road trip to Wyoming" is from Restoring the Pacific Northwest: The Art and Science of Ecological Restoration in Cascadia, edited by Dean Apostol and Marcia Sinclair (Island Press, 2006). Although a fifty-seven author technical tome, it is very readable throughout, written with passion for its practical goals. If you have any interest in this subject at all, I recommend the book to you.

A number of Web sites deal with wolves in North America's Rocky Mountains, but none is completely satisfying. In addition to the couple noted just above, here's what I've found so far:--

For link sites, you might try exploring Wolf Sites or Yellowstone Wolf Tracker.

For maps, info on packs, sightings, news, and more, go to:--

For good wolf karma, try the Lady in Black.

For somewhat more technical discussions, look around the U.S. Geological Survey's Biological Resources Division. Or, a search in the USGS Web site on "wolf AND Yellowstone" will yield a number of research papers, including, just as an example, "Wolf-Bison Interactions in Yellowstone."

You might also look at the website from, again, L. David Mech.

No book or website can substitute for maps -- USGS topos, state road maps, Park Service, and especially Forest Service. But no map can substitute for a willingness to go nosing a ways up an unknown road.