Didn't finish my thought, there...

For digital zoom, that's not too bad. I've seen much worse, and I'd certainly consider it an acceptable quality for the trade-off of not having to carry a large camera and zoom lens on a potentially long hike. Is it a shot I'd blow up and hang as a poster on my wall? Of course not -- but it would hold up just fine as a 4x6, sitting on my desk at work.

To answer Doug's question of what kind of DSLR kit would it require? Well, if I were shooting for a magazine, I'd want something equivalent to Canon's 100-400mm zoom lens ($1600 USD from Newegg), on a 1D body ($5000 USD from Newegg). If it's just for myself, I don't need such a fancy body -- a prosumer, or even a consumer-level body would be just fine, with a 200mm zoom lens (and maybe an extender) for a package (probably) coming in under $2K.

Were really insane, I'd get a 800mm prime ($11K) with a 1D body mounted on a motion-control head (custom $$$), and shoot a series of shots (starting with the areas most likely to move, i.e. the people) and stitching them together after the fact.

Or I could get a medium-format Hasselblad DSLR (their H4D is $26K) and their 300mm lens ($4K), and blow the snot out of your puny 35mm DSLR quality.