2: Well-organized, succinct and useful. Not comprehensive.
This guide is very succinct, affordable, and accessible. It's not at all comprehensive, yet is still one of the most useful guides to the region due to its brevity and organziation. Plus it covers both Sequoia/Kings Canyon and Yosemite.
Planning: A nice job is done. There is a lot of detail on roads into the parks and hotels, information lacking in the more specialized hiking guides. It covers most of the big park highlights you don't want to miss if you're only visiting the region once or twice. This is not the sort of guide that will tell you where to find solitude and remote regions. It is also one of the best guides to have if you don't want to rough it the entire trip. I like to space long backpacking treks with a visit to a nice restaurant-this guide offers a lot of variety on this end. The same goes for hotels, if you're not into backpacking or looking for a place just after getting on/off a plane.
Hiking Trip Descriptions: Pretty minimal. This book spotlights the more popular trails but does a fairly decent job of highlighting don't miss items.
Maps: Non-topographic but highly readable. The printing is crisp and highly readable. Useful for planning short day trips.
Overall this is a pretty useful guide. As the price is great you can easily buy this to supplement a more specialized hiking guide and map. Note that Frommer seems to put out a new edition every couple of years. I don't think very much could have changed, so an older edition will do just fine.
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