Pikes Peak Atlas, by Robert M. Ormes. Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Publishing Co., 1959. 28 pages with 21 sketch maps. Price: $3.50.

Few people know the Colorado Rockies as well as Bob Ormes (Author of Guide to the Colorado Mountains, Denver: Sage Books. Price, $3.50.) and there is no one more at home then he in the hills just west of his hometown, Colorado Springs. The intimate knowledge of years plus a world of affection have gone into the making of Pikes Peak Atlas.

The lively text sketches the adventurous background of the city and its environs. General Palmer, the founder, was an enthusiastic horseman and the trails he built at the turn of the century survive to this day with scarcely a lick of work done on them in the meantime. Early miners, ranchers and timbermen played an important part in opening up the remoter mountain regions. Many of the roads and pathways once used by them lead off from the old Cripple Creek stage road and from the two narrow guage railway lines, now abandoned, that linked that hoary gold camp to the outside world. Walkers of a hardier era than the present used to fan out in hordes from the summer cabin colonies of Jones and Crystal Parks, of which only ruins now remain. Today one can climb Pikes Peak and a score of lesser summits by the trails they enjoyed and ramble endlessly through the upland valleys as they did, but without sight or sound of another soul.

Numerous sketch maps and ample directions open up these wonderful regions to the interested explorer of the present day. He may find the format of the Atlas rather cumbersome. It is large (approximately 12 x 18 inches) and built to last. But when rolled up and stuck into a pack it is hardly more awkward to carry than the loaf of French bread one of my early Swiss guides used to tuck into his knapsack when en route to a hut. As both are items that come in very handy later on, the slight bother involved seems entirely worthwhile.

Elizabeth S. Partridge