Welcome! If you’re going hiking in North Carolina or Virginia, from the Blue Ridge Parkway to the coast, check out one of my guides— including the brand new, 2007 2nd Edition of Hiking North Carolina, one of the nation’s best-selling trail guides.

I write these books with a mission in mind—to help enthusiastic hikers like you find exciting outdoor experiences. What sets my trail guides apart? For starters, too many guidebooks are boring. I want mine to read like the informative outdoor and travel articles I’ve been publishing for years in national magazines and newspapers.

And too many guides have few or no maps and a handful of fuzzy photos. My guides feature great maps and plentiful pictures. Granted, I am a map freak. But hikers are topographically and aesthetically oriented people who want a map to orient them and pictures to inform and inspire them.

Roan Mountain, NC in the summer

In my two recent Blue Ridge Parkway guides, the maps are finely detailed topos. In 2007’s Hiking North Carolina, they’re GPS compatible hypsometric maps. And there are lots of photos. Words are wonderful, but as a nationally published photojournalist with pictures in the major outdoor and ski magazines, I know that photos impart a true sense of place.

My trail descriptions include meaty details on history, climate, culture, and ecology—but they focus on why a place inspires me. I don’t want my guidebooks to read like a slog through each disembodied trail. I suggest how to explore an entire area and often recommend a range of day or overnight hikes.

I’ve been a hiker since I was a kid, and I’ve also been a trail designer, wilderness researcher, and trail manager. I try to write the kind of trail books that trail enthusiasts want to read. I hope you’ll consider my hiking guides and that they’ll help you find the kind of hiking experiences that inspired me to write them. Check out the rest of the site and feel free to be in touch.

Be sure to visit Randy's website: www.randyjohnsonbooks.com