These are good books about the area the SW Adventure Caravan will be traveling.  Some books that will be carried with the leaders on the caravan are indicated by an asterisk (*).  1.  Roadside Guide to Indian Ruins and Rock Art of the Southwest, Gordon and Cathie Sullivan, Westcliffe Publishers, 2005, $29.00.  A comprehensive and informational guide to indigenous art and historical sites in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.  With most of the featured sites accessible by vehicle, this guide leads you to the best places to view petroglyphs and pictographs, explore ruins, and trace the elusive history of the Southwest’s earliest inhabitants.  2.  The Ice-Age History of Southwestern National Parks, Scott A. Elias, Smithsonian Institutional Press,1997, $17.95. .  With its warm, dry climate and abundance of caves and rockshelters, the Southwest is a repository of fossils that provide unparalleled opportunities to study the ancient past.  During the last ice age — more than 10,000 years ago–the desert regions of the American Southwest flourished, with conifer woodlands blanketing a landscape where camels, mammoths, dire wolves, short-faced bears, and ground sloths thrived.  This guide-book examines a pivotal period in the ecological history of five southwestern national parks–Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Big Bend–recounting as well, the coming of humans to the region.  3. * Shrub and Trees of the Southwest Uplands, Francis H. Elmore, Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, 1976, $12.95..  Most of us, when we travel, often wonder about the shrubs and trees we see along the roadsides.  This book will help you find out more about these Southwest “residents”.  4. * Turquoise Unearthed, an illustrated guide , Joe Dan Lowery, Rio Nuevo Publisers, 2002, $12.95.  This book showcases exquisite examples of rough and polished natural turquoise from more tha twenty famous “classic” mines.  Appealing to rock hounds and serious collectors alike, Turquoise Unearthed is a definintive, contemporary visual guide. We will visit the Turquoise Museum owned by the author.    5. * Photographing the Southwest, Vols 1, 2, & 3. -Vol 1.  A guide to the natural landmarks of Southern Utah, Laurent Martres, PhototripUSA, 2006, $16.80 (Amazon).  The Photographing the Southwest guidebook series is the culmination of over twenty years experience exploring and photographing the natural landmarks of the Southwest.  this book is an incredible guide to taking photographs, where to go and what to view!  Volume 1 will take you to the heart of southern Utah, home to some of the Colorado Plateau’s most outstanding highlights.  Beyond the National Parks of the famed “Grand Circle”, you’ll discover many hidden locations of Red Rock Country as well as Indian rock art and cliff dwellings.  Volume 2 covers Arizona and Volume 3 is about New Mexico and Colorado.  Both are available from Amazon for $16-$17 each.   6. *Scenic Driving Utah 2nd Edition, Joe Bensen and updated by Christy Karras, Morris Book Publishing, 2005, approx. $15.00 (Amazon).  Pack up the Airstream and enjoy 28 drives through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Beehive State, a land described as a photographer’s paradise, a rockhound’s nirvana, and a geologist’s ultimate dream world.  This indispensable highway companion maps out short trips from exploring scenic byways and back roads, from the lush alpine terrain in the northeast to the fantastic rock formations and brilliant colors of Zion, Canyonlands, Arches, and Bryce Canyon national Parks in the south; to the remote and desolate spaces of the Great Basin in the west.  We will follow some of these routes on the caravan.  7.  Moon Handbooks-Zion & Bryce, including Arches, Canyonlands, Capital Reef, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Moab, McRae & Jewell, $16.95.  A good guidebook to these national parks.  8. Land of the Canyons, A Photographer’s Guide to Utah and Arizona, 2nd edition, Laurent Matres, Phototrip USA, 1999, $15.95.  An earlier edition of his three volume guidebook series.  Photos are black and white versus color in the newer ones.  The newer ones are available on Amazon at about $16.00 each.  This book is a good one if you can’t find the others.   9. Architecture of the Ancient Ones,.  This book has some great photographs of places where the ancient ones lived.  We will will visit many of the sites on the caravan.  10.  *Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey, published by Ballantine Books, available on Google Books and available for about $8.00 from Amazon.  The classic among numerous books by Abbey, the rebel ranger, at once liberal and redneck.  It’s the perfect accompaniment for a trip to Arches and Canyonlands.  11.* The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey, published by Harper Perennial Classics, $14.95.  I bought this book while on the 2010 caravan and thoroughly enjoyed it as the location is the exact area we travel.  The author starts the book with this statement “This book, though fictional in form, is based strictly on historical fact.  Everything in it is real or actually happened.    12. House of Rain, Craig Childs, published by Back Bay Books, $15.00.  I also bought this book while on the 2010 caravan and read it while on the caravan.  The author has a theory of what happened to the “vanished civilizations” in the area we cover on the caravan.  Easy to read and very informative.  The following list of books have been recommended by other people.We have not yet read these.  1. Mormon Country, Wallace Stegner, published by the University of Nebraska Press.  A fundamental work on the colonization of Utah by the Mormons: impartial, remarkably documented and an easy read.  It would be a shame to cross Utah without knowing or understanding the remarkable saga of the Mormon pioneers.  I’ve read other books by Stegner and they are very good) 2. The Dark Wind, Tony Hillerman, published by Harper (I’ve now read this one and it is good).  We would like everyone to look for books by Tony Hillerman and we will put them in the library for all to read while on the caravan.  These books are an excellent introduction to Navajo culture in the guise of lively stories. This book is on Google Books.    3. The Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons, John Wesley Powell, published by Penguin Classics.  Powell’s extraordinary journals of his expedition.