Your Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

Your Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
by Dennis Bokovoy, John Hergenrather, Michael Oard, Tom Vail

Book Description:

This guide book uniquely celebrates the biblical history revealed within the landscapes of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Within 188 pages you will find travel tips, maps, details on the vast forests, grasslands, geysers, trails, flowers, hiking trails, wildlife and more, vibrantly portrayed in the hundreds of full color photos. Whether you are planning a visit to these parks or desire to study the majesty of God’s amazing creation, this book will give you an incredible perspective.

About the Authors:

Dennis Bokovoy followed his childhood interests in geology and fossils, earning his Master of Science degree in geology from Montana State University. His 30 years as an educator include 15 years as an Adjunct Professor of Geology. Dennis and his wife, Yvonne, live in Hood River, Oregon. He is part of a field team co-authoring road guides from a creation perspective including Yellowstone National Park and the John Day area of central Oregon. In addition, Bokovoy is a tour leader for Creation Encounter Ministries.

John Hergenrather was graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography. Today he is Vice President of the Design Science Association, a Portland, Oregon-based creation science group. For 15 years he has been part of a creation geology research team which co-authored road guides from a creation perspective. John and his wife, Rhea, live in Hood River, Oregon. Besides researching and writing creation guidebooks to the National Parks, John conducts field trips through Creation Encounter Ministries.

Michael Oard earned his master’s degree in atmospheric science in 1973 from the University of Washington. He was a meteorologist with the National Weather Service beginning in 1973 and lead forecaster in Great Falls, Montana from 1981 to 2001.

Tom Vail took a vacation in 1980 that would prove to be a turning point in my life – a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. Two years later, I left the corporate world behind and became a career rafting guide, leading trips through the Grand Canyon ever since. I have also worked as a part-time guide for the Grand Canyon National Park Service, and am a past-elected member of the board of directors for Grand Canyon River Guides.

My time in the Canyon not only led to a career I love, but also brought about a spiritual change in my life. In 1994, Paula, a passenger on a trip shared Christ with me. A few months later, I received Christ as my Lord and Savior and Paula is now my wife. In 1997, the concept of Canyon Ministries was born and we ran our first Christ-centered rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. Since then, we have shared the Canyon from a Biblical perspective with hundreds of people. We have been selected by both Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research, as well as several other organizations, to provide charter services for their Grand Canyon tours and research trips.

Book Details:

Hardcover: 188 pages
Publisher: New Leaf Publishing Group; Spi edition (March 23, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0890516405
ISBN-13: 978-0890516409

My Thoughts:

Your Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks is another wonderful guide book in the True North Series. We’ve been blessed to be able to use both of the other books in this series, Your Guide to the Grand Canyon and Your Guide to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, while at the actual parks. They were both excellent, well-written books that helped us get the most out of the parks. We look forward to using this latest guide at Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in the future.

The hardback, spiral-bound guide is broken down into eleven main sections:

• About This True North Guide
• Perspective
• How to See Yellowstone and Grand Teton
• What Evidence Will You See?
• Examine Yellowstone Carefully
• Examine Grand Teton Carefully
• Understanding the Parks
• Geology
• Fossils
• Ecology
• History

One of our favorite parts of the book are the sections on examining the parks carefully. It’s in this section that readers/visitors are taken on a stop-by-stop tour of the park. Readers are given suggestions on what to see based upon how many days they will be at the park(s). The introduction to the park also features a map of the park, but it does strongly suggest you make sure you pick up the most recent information at the parks. At each stop, readers can learn important information as well as look at the fold-out page which shows the various things to see a that particular stop in their tour. Each stop has a question for the reader to really help them dig deeper into what they are seeing/experiencing/reading.

The guide book is packed with information about the parks. It features beautiful full-color (when possible) images. (Some images are historical images, so they are in black and white.) The guide concludes with an additional resource list for further study as well as a glossary. The guide is written from a Biblical worldview, and it takes time to compare and contrast the Biblical worldview with the evolutionary world view. The side-by-side comparison helps readers to see the complete picture and make informed decisions.

I look forward to seeing what guide will be published next as we have thoroughly enjoyed this series.

I received a copy of this book from New Leaf Publishing/Master Books to help facilitate the writing of a frank and honest review. All opinions are my own.