Offroad and Backroad Books for Northern California, Part 6

Backroads of Northern California and Ghost Towns of Northern California

Backroads and ghost towns are both things that I enjoy very much, so it’s nice to be able to recommend both of these books from Voyageur Press.

Both are billed as “pictorial discovery guides” which I think is a rather good description. Neither book is overflowing with details, opting instead to offer brief descriptions of many interesting locations, complete with large and attractive color photos.

You won’t find coordinates or über-detailed turn-by-turn directions, but you will get an adequate summary of how to get to the places listed in the books, complete with local driving distances.

The descriptions are also fairly short, but again adequate to convey their points. Together with the the plentiful photographs, you’ll have no trouble quickly determining whether or not you wish to visit one of these areas. As noted in the Backroads book, certainly the picture of the bras hanging from the ceiling of the Cuthroat Saloon is worth a thousand words!

I checked the photos of several places I have visited, and found that they do a very good job of cropping the pictures for maximum effect. It might be useful to know that sometimes the weathered and historic old structures have perhaps less-pleasing structures nearby, lest the reader think otherwise. Similarly, a few additional words of description sometimes wouldn’t have been amiss.

Both are published in a large 8.5 x 11″ format, which was the right choice. These probably aren’t books you’ll be referring to from the driver’s seat as you would with some other trail or guidebooks, so they don’t need to be compact. Backroads runs 176 pages, while Ghost Towns is 160.

Each features a table of content, area and detail maps, and a good index. The books are very reasonably priced and are well made, featuring glossy paper and square binding.

Both books are good, although the Ghost Towns book is probably the more useful of the two, with its more limited subject. I’d definitely recommend either book as part of a well-rounded personal library. They’re a great resource for new destinations, or for finding interesting locations around northern California.