Featured Authors

Molly Absolon

Molly Absolon has written 10 titles for the Backpacker Magazine Outdoor Skills Series (Falcon). She is also the author of the Basic Illustrated Winter Camping and the forthcoming Basic Illustrated Alpine Ski Touring. Molly spent years working as an outdoor educator for the National Outdoor Leadership School and her experience teaching beginners technical skills translates on the page into easy-to-read and follow instructions. Molly is a packrafter who has found that her 5-pound boat has transformed the way she looks at a map and explores the backcountry. She lives in Victor, Idaho, with her husband and daughter.

Jack Ballard

A writer, photographer and naturalist, Jack Ballard is a frequent contributor to numerous regional and national publications. His photos have been published in numerous books (Smithsonian Press, Heinemann Library, etc.), calendars and magazines. Jack has received multiple awards for his writing and photography from the Outdoor Writers Association of America and other professional organizations. He holds two Master’s degrees and is an accomplished public speaker, entertaining students, conference attendees and recreation/conservation groups with his compelling narratives. When not wandering the backcountry, he hangs his hat in Red Lodge, Montana. See more of his work at www.jackballard.com.

Eli Burakian

Eli Burakian is a professional photographer. He has worked on numerous books with Globe Pequot and FalconGuides. He also wrote and photographed Moosilauke: A Portrait of a Mountain. He is an avid skier and hiker, and spends any time he can playing in the outdoors. He currently works for Dartmouth College as the college photographer and he lives with his wife, son, and two dogs in Windsor, Vermont. Visit him at BurakianPhotography.com.

Bill Cunningham

Polly and Bill Cunningham are lifelong hikers and wilderness advocates. They have collaborated on several other FalconGuides, including Wild Utah, Hiking New Mexico's Gila Wilderness, Hiking New Mexico's Aldo Leopold Wilderness, Best Easy Day Hikes Joshua Tree, Hiking California's Desert Parks, Hiking Mojave National Preserve, Hiking Joshua Tree National Park, Hiking Death Valley National Park, and Hiking Anza-Borrego Desert National Park.

Bruce Grubbs is an avid camper, backpacker, hiker, mountain biker, and cross-country skier who has been exploring the American desert for over thirty years. A professional outdoor writer and photographer, he has written many previous FalconGuides, including Hiking Arizona. He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Polly Cunningham

Polly and Bill Cunningham are lifelong hikers and wilderness advocates. They have collaborated on several other FalconGuides, including Wild Utah, Hiking New Mexico's Gila Wilderness, Hiking New Mexico's Aldo Leopold Wilderness, Best Easy Day Hikes Joshua Tree, Hiking California's Desert Parks, Hiking Mojave National Preserve, Hiking Joshua Tree National Park, Hiking Death Valley National Park, and Hiking Anza-Borrego Desert National Park.

Bruce Grubbs is an avid camper, backpacker, hiker, mountain biker, and cross-country skier who has been exploring the American desert for over thirty years. A professional outdoor writer and photographer, he has written many previous FalconGuides, including Hiking Arizona. He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Jane Gildart

Bert and Jane Gildart share an enthusiasm for adventure, hiking, photography, and natural history. Bert is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and has been writing about the outoors for the past twenty years. He has served as a backcountry ranger in Glacier National Park and has written more than 300 magazine articles and nine books. Bert and Jane's others book for Falcon include Hiking South Dakota's Black Hills Country, Hiking Shenandoah National Park, and Death Valley National Park: A Guide for Exploring the Great Outdoors.

Mike Graf

Mike Graf has shared his writing and national park experiences with children and teachers in hundreds of schools. He has penned more than 70 books for children. A national park fanatic, Graf visits about twenty-five national parks across the country every year. 

Bruce Grubbs

Polly and Bill Cunningham are lifelong hikers and wilderness advocates. They have collaborated on several other FalconGuides, including Wild Utah, Hiking New Mexico's Gila Wilderness, Hiking New Mexico's Aldo Leopold Wilderness, Best Easy Day Hikes Joshua Tree, Hiking California's Desert Parks, Hiking Mojave National Preserve, Hiking Joshua Tree National Park, Hiking Death Valley National Park, and Hiking Anza-Borrego Desert National Park.

Bruce Grubbs is an avid camper, backpacker, hiker, mountain biker, and cross-country skier who has been exploring the American desert for over thirty years. A professional outdoor writer and photographer, he has written many previous FalconGuides, including Hiking Arizona. He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

James Halfpenny

James Halfpenny was featured in a Discovery Channel documentary on the loss of native tracking skills and has taught outdoor education since 1961 for the Smithsonian, Outward Bound, and the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Paul Hoffman

S. E. Schlosser has been telling stories since she was a child, when games of “let's pretend” quickly built themselves into full-length stories. She created and maintains the Web site AmericanFolklore.net, where she shares a wealth of stories from all 50 states, some dating back to the origins of America.

Paul Hoffman illustrates books of many genres—children's titles, textbooks, short story collections, natural history volumes, and cookbooks. For the Spooky series, he employs a scratchboard technique and an active imagination.

Cliff Jacobson

Marjorie Leggitt

Mike Graf has shared his writing and national park experiences with children and teachers in hundreds of schools. He has penned more than 70 books for children. A national park fanatic, Graf visits about twenty-five national parks across the country every year. 

Randi Minetor

Wife-and husband-team Randi and Nic Minetor have collaborated on more than twenty books about hiking, exploring historic cities, America’s national parks, and birds and nature. The team behind the popular book The New England Bird Lover’s Garden, they also worked together on eight Quick Reference Guides to the native birds, trees, and wildflowers of New York State, New York City, and the Mid-Atlantic States. Avid birders and seasoned road trippers, the Minetors collaborated on the best-selling Backyard Birding: A Guide to Attracting and Identifying Birds for Lyons Press.



When not in the car or on the trail, Randi is a journalist specializing in theater technology, medicine, and municipal utilities, and Nic is the resident lighting designer for several theatre and opera companies and museums in upstate New York. The Minetors live in Rochester, New York.

Johnny Molloy

Johnny Molloy has written more than three dozen guidebooks about hiking, camping, and paddling in various reaches of America's Southeast and beyond.

Erik Molvar

Veteran author and backcountry explorer Erik Molvar discovered backpacking while working on a volunteer trails crew in the North Cascades of Washington. He is the author of more than a dozen FalconGuides for such places as Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Olympic National Park, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park, as well as Colorado's Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. He lives in Laramie, Wyoming.

Tom Ogden

Tom Ogden is one of America’s most celebrated magicians. He has appeared on television specials, such as TheWorld’s Greatest Magic II (NBC) and The Great Magic of Las Vegas (FOX). The author of several books, including Haunted Highways, HauntedHollywood, Haunted Theaters, Haunted Hotels, Haunted Cemeteries, and HauntedGreenwich Village (all Globe Pequot Press), as well as The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ghosts and Hauntings and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Street Magic, he lives in Hollywood, California.

Emily Ressler-Tanner

JD Tanner and Emily Ressler Tanner met in the Midwest and have spent much of their adulthood traveling back and forth across the United States. Their educational backgrounds are in outdoor recreation and education, and they have over 20 years of combined outdoor education experience. Before becoming authors for Falcon Guides, they spent three years promoting responsible outdoor recreation as part of the educational traveling program known as the Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers. This opportunity gave them the chance to explore all of the lower 48 states and work with a wide range of outdoor enthusiasts.  Logging over 700 nights in a tent during that time, they visited almost 50 National Parks as they climbed, hiked, biked, and paddled throughout the United States. They served as revisers for Hiking Grand Staircase-Escalante & the Glen Canyon Region and are authors of Best Easy Day Hikes St. Louis (both FalconGuides). JD is currently the Outdoor Recreation Director at San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico, and Emily teaches at the Mosaic Academy in Aztec, New Mexico.

 

Their shared love of wild places and their commitment to environmental education has provided them with the opportunity to work with people from all walks of life. When the two are not off teaching a course you might find them searching for state highpoints, planning their next big adventure, or hitting the trail for FalconGuides.

 

Garret Romaine

Garret Romaine is an avid gold prospector, rockhound, and fossil collector with years of experience in the field. He is a long-time writer for Gold Prospectors magazine, and is the author of The Modern Rockhounding and Prospecting Handbook, Rocks, Gems and Minerals of the Southwest, Rocks, Gems, and Minerals of the Rocky Mountains, and Rockhounding Idaho, all from FalconGuides, as well as Gem Trails of Washington and Gem Trails of Oregon. Garret is a member of the Board of Directors of the Rice NW Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Tracy Salcedo

Tracy Salcedo-Chourré has written more than a score of guidebooks to destinations in California and Colorado, including Hiking Lassen Volcanic National Park, Exploring California’s Missions and Presidios, Exploring Point Reyes National Seashore and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Best Rail Trails California, and Best Easy Day Hikes guides to the San Francisco Bay Area, Lake Tahoe, Reno, Sacramento, Boulder, Denver, and Aspen.
She is also an editor, teacher, and soccer mom—but somehow still finds time to hike, cycle, swim, and garden. She lives with her husband, three sons, and a small menagerie of pets in California’s Wine Country.
Her guidebooks are available online through FalconGuides/Globe Pequot Press, at various outdoor shops, and through local and national booksellers.

Stewart M. Green lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he works as a freelance writer, editor, and photographer for FalconGuides/Globe Pequot Press and other publications. He’s written more than thirty-five travel and climbing books for Globe Pequot, including Best Hikes Near Colorado Springs, Rock Climbing Colorado, Rock Climbing Europe, Rock Climbing Utah, Scenic Routes & Byways Colorado, Best Easy Day Hikes Moab, and Rock Climbing New England. Stewart, a Colorado native, has hiked almost every trail around Colorado Springs and in the Pikes Peak region. He’s also a professional rock climbing guide with Front Range Climbing Company. Visit him at http://green1109.wixsite.com/stewartmgreenphoto.

S. E. Schlosser

S. E. Schlosser has been telling stories since she was a child, when games of “let's pretend” quickly built themselves into full-length stories. She created and maintains the Web site AmericanFolklore.net, where she shares a wealth of stories from all 50 states, some dating back to the origins of America.

Paul Hoffman illustrates books of many genres—children's titles, textbooks, short story collections, natural history volumes, and cookbooks. For the Spooky series, he employs a scratchboard technique and an active imagination.

Bill Schneider

Suzanne Swedo

Suzanne Swedo, director of W.I.L.D., has backpacked the mountains of every continent. She has led groups into the wilderness for over 25 years and teaches wilderness survival and natural sciences for individuals, schools, universities, museums, and organizations such as Yosemite Association and the Sierra Club. She is author of Hiking the Hawaiian Islands, Best Easy Day Hikes Yosemite National Park, Hiking Yosemite, Hiking California's Golden Trout Wilderness, and Adventure Travel Tips, all FalconGuides. She lectures and consults about backpacking, botany, and survival on radio and television, as well as in print.

JD Tanner

JD Tanner and Emily Ressler Tanner met in the Midwest and have spent much of their adulthood traveling back and forth across the United States. Their educational backgrounds are in outdoor recreation and education, and they have over 20 years of combined outdoor education experience. Before becoming authors for Falcon Guides, they spent three years promoting responsible outdoor recreation as part of the educational traveling program known as the Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers. This opportunity gave them the chance to explore all of the lower 48 states and work with a wide range of outdoor enthusiasts.  Logging over 700 nights in a tent during that time, they visited almost 50 National Parks as they climbed, hiked, biked, and paddled throughout the United States. They served as revisers for Hiking Grand Staircase-Escalante & the Glen Canyon Region and are authors of Best Easy Day Hikes St. Louis (both FalconGuides). JD is currently the Outdoor Recreation Director at San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico, and Emily teaches at the Mosaic Academy in Aztec, New Mexico.

 

Their shared love of wild places and their commitment to environmental education has provided them with the opportunity to work with people from all walks of life. When the two are not off teaching a course you might find them searching for state highpoints, planning their next big adventure, or hitting the trail for FalconGuides.

 

Todd Telander

Todd Telander is a freelance natural science illustrator and wildlife artist. He is the author and illustrator of Birds of California, Birds of Colorado, Birds of Florida, and Mushrooms (all FalconGuides), and he illustrated Scats and Tracks of North America and America’s 100 Most Wanted Birds (both FalconGuides). He studied biology and environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

Buck Tilton

Buck Tilton, a leading wilderness medicine expert and Backpacker magazine columnist, is the author of Backcountry First Aid and Wilderness First Responder (both FalconGuides), as well as Knack Hiking and Backpacking and Knack Knots You Need. He teaches at Central Wyoming College.
Stephen Gorman is a photographer and writer whose photo-essay books include The American Wilderness. His work has appeared in several Knack how-to books, including Knack Canoeing for Everyone and Knack Car Camping for Everyone, as well as Outside and Audubon.
Eli Burakian, a freelance photographer previously contributed to Knack Dog Care & Training and Knack Chess for Everyone.

Stacy Tornio

Stacy Tornio love of nature shows itself in all aspects of her life. She is the editor of Birds & Blooms magazine, and is a master gardener in Milwaukee where she teaches youth gardening classes in the community. Stacy enjoys watching her two children explore nature in ttheir own backyard and beyond.
Ken Keffer was born and raised in Wyoming. A vagabond naturalist and environmental educator, he’s worked in Alaska, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Ken enjoys floating on lazy rivers, birding, snowshoeing, fly fishing in the mountains out West, and walking his dog, Willow the Wonder Mutt.
They are the authors of The Kids’ Outdoor Adventure Book and The Truth About Nature (both FalconGuides). Visit the authors at DestinationNature.net.

Erin H. Turner

Lamar Underwood

Lamar Underwood is the former editor in chief of Sports Afield and Outdoor Life, and also the editorial director of the Outdoor Magazine Group of Harris Publications in New York City. He has authored or edited dozens of books, including The Bass Almanac, On Dangerous Ground, and Whitetail Tactics of the Pros. He lives in Pennington, NJ.

John Long

John Long is a legendary rock climber, world adventurer, and top-selling author in the outdoor industry (more than a million copies in print). His feats include the first one-day ascent of El Capitan and a coast-to-coast traverse of Borneo. He has written numerous books, including the best-selling How to Rock Climb!, the world's foremost book of climbing instruction, now in its fourth edition, and he has coauthored Climbing Anchors, Advanced Rock Climbing, and Big Walls. He resides in Venezuela and in Venice, California.

Bob Gaines is an American Mountain Guides Association Certified Rock Instructor and owner/director of Vertical Adventures Rock Climbing School, based at Joshua Tree National Park, California.

Stewart M. Green

Eric Horst has been a cutting edge climber for the past 30 years while pursuing his vertical passion in relative seclusion in southeastern Pennsylvania, hardly a hot-bed of American climbing. Eric helped develop the New River Gorge in West Virginia in the 1980s and 1990s into a premier world-class climbing area. He started climbing at age 13 and by 1981 was regularly cranking 5.12 routes and in the mid-1980s did the first 5.13 climbs in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Eric has put up over 400 first ascents to date.

Besides his impressive rock resume, Eric is also a training for climbing guru. He’s written several best-selling books on climbing, including Training for Climbing, How to Climb 5.12, Learning to Climb Indoors, and the new Conditioning for Climbing. For more about Eric and his cool training tips, check out his website Trainingforclimbing.com.

Eric will guide one of our Climb With The Pros winners around the Shawangunks in New York for a day of climbing a lot of the classic routes that Layton Kor climbed back in the sixties on his trips back East. Routes include the great Gunks classics that Layton climbed back in the 1960s.

Christopher Nyerges

Christopher Nyerges, co-founder of the School of Self-reliance, has led wild food walks for thousands of students since 1974. He has authored 10 books on wild foods, survival, and self-reliance, and thousands of newspaper and magazine articles. He continues to teach where he lives in Los Angeles County, California.