Useful links to prepare,
bibliography and maps

Web Links

You'll find below, much of the links I used, there are surely many others but, generally just follow the links provided on these sites.

Give honour ...

    ouestusa.fr: Web site of Thierry Lagarde and Philip Schuler; lot of useful information. This is the site I used the most for the preparation of our trip.

French Sites

   roadtrippin.fr: lots of information and links
   Vazyvite: lots of information and links

    voyageforum.com: French Canadian forum where you will inevitably find your account and has been very helpful (and continuing) for preparation and more.

Travel diaries, reading, watching, as I say, to taste:

    Si Belle La Terre
    Le Monde de Grisemote
    Les Fabuleux Voyages de Krikri et Hervé
    Carnet d'Amériques... et d'ailleurs
    Typolover: site of a photographer

US Sites

    nps.gov: THE site of the National Parks
    usgs.gov: maps,maps, ...
    americansouthwest.net: tons of information

    naturalarches.org: the bible of arches and natural bridges
    4cornershikesarche: hikes and arches!
    arches.marbleart.us: still arches
    users.sisna.com: and still arches

    aa.usno.navy.mil: time of sunrise and sunset and moon
    gaisma.com: still more information on schedules

    petroglyphs.us: petroglyphs, you know?
    indian_rock_art.htm: still petroglyphs

    zionnational-park.com: a real gold mine, but you have to search
    traildamage.com: info on hikes in 4WD
    utahtrails.com: news about hiking in utah
    utah.com: Hikes and other in Utah
    climb-utah.com: Hikes in Utah, often with maps
    backpacker.com find your hike

German sites

"I do not understand German, so why?", will you tell me.

Well, the name of a location in the U.S. (or elsewhere) do not translate (or rarely), a map of hiking is always a map, a GPS point also and "translators" such as Google are there to help you. I found there lots of information and it is not my vague memories of German (2 years - 1966 and 67) who helped me a lot. So, don't hesitate!

    1st Zehrer[s] Place: my favorite link, maps, GPS coordinates, descriptions, photos, ...
    Westernlady's World: maps, GPS coordinates, descriptions, ...
    usa-canyons.de: while clicking on the pictures, one discovers the GPS points
    Lal@'s Reisen: site indicated by Germans during our hike on CBS

Bibliography

Parcs nationaux de l'ouest américain (guide du routard)

Californie (guide du routard)

Ouest américain (Lonely Planet)

Californie - Arizona - Nevada - Utah (Petit futé)

Photographing the Southwest volume 1: Southern Utah

Photographing the Southwest volume 2: Arizona

These last 2 U.S. books, provide a wealth of practical information. Essential, in my opinion. They even followed us in the backpack during hikes.

A field guide to the Plants of Arizona: book purchased at the Visitor Center in Saguaro NP. Practice to try to identify many flowers that we met.

Maps

Before leaving, we bought maps of Arizona and Utah states. They have mainly served to "follow" the road, but they are not really necessary because we "drove" with the GPS. Anyway, we can find free maps at gas stations.

By cons, we have extensively used the mapping system on a PC from National Geographic: TOPO!. With this tool, we could prepare our own hiking maps (at 1 / 24 000th), determine the points for our car GPS (TomTom) and our touring GPS (Garmin Colorado). In total, I entered 254 points in our Tomtom and almost all were correct.