Michaux accompanied his father to the United States, and his Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale (three volumes, 1810-13) contains the results of his explorations, giving an account of the distribution and the scientific classification of the principal American timber trees north of Mexico and east of the Rocky Mountains. Michaux trekked the Allegheny Mountains in 1789 when trans-Allegheny travel was limited to indigenous peoples' trails and one military trail, Braddock Road, built in 1751. He travelled with friend and botanist John Fraser to the summit of the Great Roan.