Another interesting thing about this book is that the author went through the trouble of coming up with a waterfall classification system based on the shape of the waterfall. Even though this isn't a scientific (therefore subjective and inconsistent) way of classifying waterfalls, he keys each of the over 500 waterfalls in his book to this system. The rest of the literature (us included) followed suit and pretty much adopted Plumb's convention of attempting to classify waterfall types based on their shape.

The drawbacks for this book (and they're particularly frustrating) are the lack of photos, the lack of maps being keyed to the descriptions/critiques of attractions/businesses pointed out in the book (something that the Lonely Planet guides do very well), and the presence of ads. The relative lack of photos makes it hard to visualize what it is you're reading about while the lack of keys on maps makes it real hard to figure out where some of these places are located! Still, it got the job done for us, and given how easily our trip could've turned into a disaster, this book could even be considered a trip saver!

But I still have a major gripe with the Topo! series' poor interface. You actually need to purchase supplemental patches to get added functionality including the ever-so-important live GPS navigation. In all honesty, I think Topo! maps are excellent for hiking and backpacking, but they're terrible for road navigation or even trip logging.

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