MOON UTAH

Moon Handbooks give you the tools to make your own choices, with
• Can’t-miss sights, activities, restaurants, and accommodations, marked with
• Suggestions on how to plan a trip that’s perfect for you, including:
   The Best of Utah
   Camp It Up
   Jurassic Utah
   Touring the National Parks
   Summer Music Festivals
   Pictographs and Petroglyphs
• 60 detailed and easy-to-use maps
• The firsthand experience and unique perspective of authors W. C. McRae and Judy Jewell

Moon Utah
8th Edition
W. C. McRae & Judy Jewell
ISBN 1-56691-838-3
ISBN-13 978-1-56691-838-1
$19.95
Purchase here through Amazon.com or visit Booksense.com to find your local independent bookseller.

Bill McRae was born and raised in rural eastern Montana, on a traditional cattle and sheep ranch. Although he was brought up with one foot in the saddle, from an early age his real passion was for the culture of Europe, a taste that he evolved from stories of his grandparents' native Scotland. He made his first trip to the United Kingdom at 18, which awakened a serious urge to travel. This was the 1970s and much of the world seemed like a well-meaning and courteous place to have a party. And so he did. He used his college years as an excuse to travel, attending universities in England, Scotland, France, Canada, and the United States. He finished his education at the University of Kent, with an M.A. in Modern Literature. All of this traipsing about didn't make for much of an academic career, but it was a great education in life.

After university, Bill moved to Portland, Oregon, which is still his home. Since moving to Portland, Bill has supported his writing habit by working at a number of real jobs, including university teacher, caterer, journalist, and tile-setter. With his name on various travel guides, including Moon Handbooks Zion & Bryce, Moon Handbooks Montana, and Moon Handbooks Utah, Bill has also worked as an editor and contributor for Expedia.com, GORP.com, and National Geographic. Between travel writing junkets, Bill makes his money writing about technology. You can always interest him in a hand of bridge, a camping trip, or cooking up something French and full of calories.
 
Bill has been traveling to Utah for a couple of decades, each time getting further off the road and digging deeper into the landscape. Every trip has a different focus, whether it's hiking into a new and more remote canyon, fixating on ancient rock art, or going deluxe at guest ranches. For Bill, Utah is the kind of place that gets under your skin, where you find yourself already planning your next adventure before you've finished up the current one.

Judy Jewell was born and raised in Baltimore, MD, where crossing a busy street was a typical outdoor adventure. When Judy was a youngster, she wanted to be a paleontologist. In fact, her project “Fossils of Calvert Cliffs, Maryland” won a ribbon at the junior high school science fair. However, paleontology was not ultimately considered to be a practical career choice, so instead she became . . . a travel writer. Surprise! That’s not entirely practical either, so Judy also works as a scientific editor.

In addition to Moon Utah, Judy is also the coauthor of several other guidebooks with Bill McRae, including Moon Zion & Bryce, Moon Oregon, Moon Coastal Oregon, and Moon Montana. She lives with her husband and dog in Portland, where they enjoy swimming, yoga, skiing, gardening, and cooking.

This edition of Moon Utah takes Judy back in time, and you may occasionally note the voice of a 12-year-old fossil geek burbling up through her site descriptions. Before the trip to update Moon Utah, Judy copyedited an article about dinosaur footprints. When she arrived in St. George, after a requisite first-night camping trip at Snow Canyon State Park, she set off to see the dino prints outside of town. They were so cool, and so much better than the ones in the big-shot article she'd edited, that she was immediately back in touch with her inner paleontologist and eager to explore the other dinosaur sites in Utah.

Other travel guides authored by W.C. McRae and Judy Jewell:
Moon Montana
Moon Zion & Bryce