Improved Edition
I borrowed the earlier edition from a friend to use for a long weekend in Banff NP. No question the title is accurate. I took one highly rated hike (Sentinel Pass) and was blown away with the scenery, once out of the larches. Views from the pass are worth the effort.

Day two we had planned Plain of Six Glaciers but the weather was lousy and took off to Lake Agnes. We should have paid attention to the guide. It was not our best use of time, the views were very limited. The lake and tea house were noteworthy though.

The rain damaged my buddies edition and I bought him this version. Contains improved maps and color photos. I should have bought two just for the photos. If you are inclined to get above tree line for great views, it seems the author has you mind. Only four stars as the maps are still a bit lacking.

Excellent! A must-have! Buy it! :0)
I just spent three weeks hiking in Banff, Jasper, and Yoho National Parks. "Don't Waste Your Time" was the most helpful guide book I could have imagined.

I don't need to repeat every point made in the other five-star reviews on here; but I would like to point out the one feature that made the Copelands' book so useful to me - and this is their ratings system:

The Copelands don't just list dozens of hikes without telling you which one is better or worse than others. Instead they rate them and tell you how worthwile each hike actually is, and why -- and just having hiked for three weeks with "Don't Waste Your Time" in hand I can say, they are pretty much spot-on.

If you would have YEARS to hike in the Canadian Rockies, you could do without these ratings, of course. But if you have only a few days or, at most, two or three weeks, you will be very grateful for the Copelands pointing you towards the very best in hiking the Canadian Rockies have to offer.

One reads that the "Canadian Rockies Trail Guide" by Brian Patton is the "bible" with which "the locals" hike -- which supposedly means that "the locals" do not hike using "Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies".

If that is really the case, or not, I don't know. However, I think this argument is a bit of a no-brainer: People visiting the Canadian Rockies have different needs than the locals. The locals don't need to get the most out of a few days of hiking - visitors coming in for a few days do.

And that's where "Don't Waste Your Time" is superior. It may not list as many hikes as the "Canadian Rockies Trail Guide", but it is so much more helpful in deciding where to hike every day.

If you want to buy only one hiking guide for the Canadian Rockies, buy "Don't Waste Your Time". If you want to buy two guide books, also buy the "Canadian Rockies Trail Guide". To a certain degree, these two complement each other.

perfect for a hiker
I found it very helpful, and the grading "easy to challenging" was really meaningful. Trail descriptions are meticulous. Scenery of the trails was exactly as described. My grading of scenery could be a little different, but this is the matter of taste.
Warning:
If you are not a hiker and planning a little walk in your sandals do not buy this book.

Buy the book if hiking in Banff
A friend of mine recommended the book and we absolutely loved it. Although we only did two hikes in our 4 days in Banff, the book paid for itself as we had to wonderful day hikes that I know we wouldn't have done without the knowledge of the book. We did a hike out of Lake Louise that was only listed as "outstanding' by the book which was awesome, so we wondered about how good a 'premier' hike could be. After hiking to Mt. Borgeau, we were again impressed. The book insights are spot on and give great directions. On our Mt. St. Piran hike, the signage from the St. Agnes Tea house was spotty, but the book set us straight.
We loved the little explanations. This book is keeper. Tons of pictures, simple maps, and one we'll definately use again when we head up that way again. I wish the authors wrote guide books for US National Parks!!

Very good item
Althought the autor gives his personal point of view in all the hikes, I must recognize is very usefull and have a lot of spectacular pictures.