Book: Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park
Basic Information : Synopsis : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References
Basic Information:
Author: Conor Knighton
Edition: epub on Libby from the San Francisco Public Library
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 198482354X (ISBN13: 9781984823540)
Start Date: August 20, 2021
Read Date: September 1, 2021
323 pages
Genre: Travel. National Parks, Osher
Language Warning: None
Rated Overall: 3 out of 5
Synopsis:
Knighton’s fiance has just broken up with him. He needs to start over. So he sets a goal of going to all 59 National Parks in a year. The book is his commentary on his journey. It is not in chronological order, but in various themes.
Recommendation: Osher Book Group
When: May 2021
Date Became Aware of Book: May 2021
How come do I want to read this book: Sounds like a book I can get excited about.
What do I think I will get out of it? Insight into why I want to visit some of the National parks I have not been to.
From Efrain Robles’ blog, it looks like this tour of parks happened in 2016.
Prologue (Badlands)
Describes the breakup with his fiancee. An anniversary is actually what inspired this journey—the one hundredth anniversary of the National Park Service. Freelancer for CBS. Interested them into doing a series on the National Parks.
Badlands-a combination of Mordor and the Shire. Ah…see, that’s the beauty of this place,” a ranger tells me at the visitor center when I stop in to ask for some advice. “Here, you get to make your own trails. In some ways this describes how to see any of the parks. Just go out and be your own person, without being destructive. Once, today would have been choreographed down to the minute. Now it’s completely uncharted territory—it’s up to me to choose my own path forward.
Don Drapers-a fictional marketing executive
1 Sunrise (Acadia)
Knighton is at Acadia NP to catch the first light of the year. He goes up the road to Cadillac Mountain to achieve this. apparently something about the promise of a new year that makes people do things they would never do otherwise (that is to go up a mountain in hand numbing weather.) Lots of things could go wrong in his project, but I was perfectly calm. I had a good feeling about this, and I was filled with gratitude for an adventure that hadn’t even started yet.
What might begin with a few childhood visits to places like Yosemite and the Grand Canyon gradually morphs into a piecemeal pastime. He is talking about the quest to visit all of the national parks.
Probably the best and longest description of a park in the book. In this book, I won’t be focusing as much on the chronology or geography that separates the parks I visited. Far more interesting, I discovered, are the threads that tie them together—and that tie us to nature. That is why he groups the chapters by subject matter-his subject matter.
there’s no such thing as an average national park.
2 Water (Hot Springs, Biscayne)
Hot Springs, Arkansas-a pretty full description of what a bath at Hot Springs entails
We get introduced to his side-kick and friend and videographer, Efrain Robles.
Exploring the underwater park of Biscayne. They will explore the sunken ship Lugano. A park ranger explains what is being looked at. Once I got over my initial jitters, I found I really enjoyed being underwater. …. I hadn’t expected the bottom of the ocean to be more relaxing than the inside of a Hot Springs bathhouse, but it was.
3 Animals (Everglades, Channel Islands, Pinnacles, Death Valley)
The overall theme to this chapter is the role National Parks play in preventing extinction of species.
Talks about the Everglades where both alligators and crocodiles coexist. All across the country, the national parks have been crucial in the rehabilitation of all sorts of species on the brink of extinction.
Then off to the Channel Islands with Efrain. Talking about the Channel Island fox.
Then off to the Pinnacles and condors. High Peaks Trail at Pinnacles National Park in Central California.
Death Valley next-talking about the pup fish.
John Muir quote—“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” Apparently lots of people misquote this. Knighton got it right.
4 God (Yosemite, Capitol Reef, Lake Clark)
Places where you can find your center, commune with God. To Knighton, there are certain places which remind him where he needed the confidence of being secure or where emotions could be laid bare. A lonely trail is one of those places. I cried on that walk[at summer camp] every time. That very first trip somehow linked the two experiences for me: A quiet hike in the dark is when you cry.
He does a Reader’s Digest version of Muir’s religious background. To Knighton, I was always thinking about what created the forests and canyons and mountains.
nowhere are church and state more intertwined than at Capitol Reef National Park.
To Knighton, it feels like the national parks have more cathedrals than Italy. He then goes on and quotes Muir in The Yosemite: Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer give strength to body and soul alike.
Then on to Clark Lake, only accessible by boat or plane, in Alaska. Also about the vets which are sent there as a means to get over stress.
Onward to Yosemite. Muir, once again: it seems to me almost like a sacrilege to build a church within the portals of this grandest of all God’s temples. It is like building a toy church within the walls of St. Peter’s cathedral at Rome. But it will clearly show the contrast between the frail and puny works of man, as compared with the mighty grandeur and magnificence of the works of God, and I hope it will do good.
Ending with Muir: The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness
5 Sound (Great Sand Dunes, Katmai)
The quiet of the Great Sand Dunes. Later on he reminiscences about this in Yellowstone during the Winter.
He goes off and thinks about sound in various parts of his life.
Then making noise in Katmai to make bears aware that you are there. Brooks Falls is famous for watching bears feeding on fish. My brother was in one of the more watched videos of bears feeding. Describes his confrontation with a bear.
6 Trees (Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Redwood)
Most of the notable trees locations are kept secret due to the concern of exposure and the resulting crowds which might injury or kill them.
Starts with Joshua Tree, noting it is not really a tree. John C Fremont is quoted as saying: Their stiff and ungraceful form makes them, to the traveler, the most repulsive tree in the vegetable kingdom.
Then onward to Redwood. Talks about the destruction of the Discovery Tree.
Then to Sequoia.A sign says: Looking up at the General Sherman Tree for a six-foot-tall human is about the equivalent of a mouse looking up at the six-foot-tall human,” it said. Knighton then goes on and notes that The night before, I’d encountered a mouse scurrying around the musty mountain cabin I’d rented for the weekend. If only I had thought of myself as a mighty sequoia, I might not have jumped so high or screamed so loudly.
A few notes about trees seem to have their own communications system. That may be their most human quality of all. Like us, the trees are stronger together than they are on their own. See Overstory.
Interesting enough. He talks about Sequoia, but not Kings Canyon.
7 Mystery (Crater Lake, Congaree)
Congaree: They have mosquito meters, we have fire danger meters. I guess it depends on where the concern is. Talks about the fireflies. Talks about the ivory-billed woodpecker. Could it be there? Close to extinction. (Note: On Sept 28, 2021, the EPA declared it extinct.)
Then it is on to the other side of the continent, to Crater Lake. The discovery of Crater Lake. Then talks a lot about the Old Man of the Lake-a floating log. The question of its longevity came up. No good answers. The ranger/scientist who was taking Knighton around noted that: I think, maybe some questions should remain unanswered, ...maybe it’s part of the human condition to believe in a little bit of mystery and the interconnectedness of all things.
8 Borders (Big Bend, American Samoa)
Talks about the culture of Big Bend. About how it borders Mexico and there has been freedom of movement along the border.
Victor Valdez of Boquillas died shortly after Knighton interviewed him.
Efrain was introspective after this visit. He had come across the border and was thinking about when he was a child, brought by his mother. This trip was safer. From Efrain’s daily struggles to help people pronounce his name (eff-rah-EEN) to the extra attention he would occasionally get from suspicious gas station clerks when we stopped for snacks—glances I witnessed but never got myself—his experience in America was often that of an outsider. His trip across the river had come with a lifetime of baggage, whether he wanted it to or not.
American Samoa-a place where the people are on US territory, but cannot be citizens. Talked about the culture of the area.
9 Volcanoes (Lassen Volcanic, Hawaii Volcanoes, Haleakala)
Lassen is the first park on the list. Talks about the sulphur fumes (discussion of farts). Of course he talks about Bumpus Hell-a place I have been to a couple of times.
Then it is on to Hawaii and the volcanos there. Talks about Craig Steely and his Lavaflow houses. What is it like to live on top of lava and knowing that lava will come again? Steely’s answer: You’re not, like, permanently here.
Talks about a boat ride to see lava going into the ocean on the Big Island.
He is joined by his sister, a former seasonal ranger at Yosemite, chasing bears away from campsites. They watched the sun come up from on top of a mountain.
A couple of years later, another eruption. Knighton thought about what a guide told him. Everywhere else in your life you see destruction,” Kainoa had told me when I asked why he loved the lava. “Things getting destroyed. Here you finally get something being created.” But creation itself can be destructive.
10 Ice (Glacier Bay, Glacier, Kenai Fjords, Wrangell-St. Elias)
Disappearing glaciers from Glacier NP. Talks about climate change, then on to Wrangell-St. Elias. You fly into it. He walks onto a glacier there. Then to Kenai Fjords. Another glacier/ice which is in full retreat-miles of it. President Obama had toured Kenai.
11 People (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Zion)
Some of my favorite places. He talks more about the porta-potties at Zion than about Zion. More about traffic at Bryce. Then moves on to the Denver Service Center where my brother worked.
For Zion, he talks about meeting people on the Emerald Pools Trail. Not so much about the Emerald Pool, which was where I got my eyes opened about the majesty of Zion. He later goes on and talks about the number of people in the Narrows. A little bit about Angels Landing.
He then talks about the traffic at Bryce.
The Denver Service Center does not offer official tours, although I wish it did. For anyone interested in the Park Service, I’d argue that a visit to that nondescript office provides a more illuminating look into how the parks actually operate than a trip to Teddy Roosevelt’s old cabin in North Dakota. Situated among the strip malls of Lakewood, Colorado, the red-brick-and-glass building looks like it might be the headquarters of an SAT prep company or an e-commerce site that sells scented candles. The windows offer views of an Advance Auto Parts store and a Sonic Drive-In across the street. I have been inside of this building on visits with my brother.
I was shocked by how the crowds would disappear the moment I wandered away from the parking lots. The vast majority of visitors spend mere hours at the parks. I can find places in Yosemite Valley in the middle of summer where I will hardly meet people. It does require me to move away from the popular places.
there are more than two thousand other arches at Arches National Park [than the Delicate Arch]. Yep and going off the beaten track is a wonderful experience here.
Our best weapon for protecting the parks from people has always been people
The impression which I have coming away from this chapter is do not go to these parks because there are too many people. Not what draws people to the park and how to enjoy the beauty of the places without being one of the hordes.
12 Home (Mesa Verde, Great Smoky Mountains)
Mesa Verde-talked about the people who lived here and where did they go?
Talked about Great Smokey Mountain. He sees the Road to Nowhere and walks part of it. Some of the story behind this road.
As I traveled through the parks, it was the one question I kept getting asked—“Where’s home?”
Parks are the homes we’ve taken off the market. He thinks about the painful stories of when land is taken for parks, but also that this is land which will be there for generations.
13 Canyons (Grand Canyon, Black Canyon of the Gunnison)
Grand Canyon-talks a lot about the buildings and the architecture for them, how tey were meant to reflect a theme. The architect was Mary Colter. While Colter was not the first architect to see the value in matching structures to their surroundings, she helped to popularize the practice at what would soon become one of the most popular parks, at a critical time in Park Service history. Her buildings became prime examples of an architectural style still employed today: National Park Rustic. You can see this in the buildings in Yosemite, such as at Glacier Point or some of the fire lookouts there. Geologic Fireplace
Black Canyon of the Gunnison:
14 Forgiveness (Dry Tortugas, Petrified Forest)
Dry Tortugas lies sixty-eight miles farther out into the ocean, closer to Cuba than to the mainland United States. It’s one of our most inaccessible national parks. That’s what made it a perfect prison. He notes that a 4½ hours trip leaves time for about a lunch break on the island. It is a fort turned into a prison, notably one for Dr Mudd, the person who set John Wilkes Booth’s leg after assassinating Lincoln.
Petrified Forest-Talks about how wood turns into stone. Then talks a lot about people who take items from this park, as well as other parks. If you’re the kinda person who would take something from a national park, maybe you just have poor judgment skills
15 Caves (Wind Cave, Carlsbad Caverns, Mammoth Cave)
In talking about forced going into a cave as an organized group, both for the people’s and the caves protection: I find that all of the blissful solitude, the quiet, and the ability to roam free that I’ve come to treasure in the parks disappears. On the other hand, it seems like alot of Knighton’s travels was to meet people.
Caves-deep dark scary places. He comes back a different person than when he went down. This should be true for any endeavor or activity.
16 Light (Great Basin, Saguaro)
Great Basin-lonely and dark. Ideal for stargazing. Ranger lead times where flashlights are forbidden. Rising up from the east, the Milky Way slowly streaked across Great Basin’s horizon—it looked like the heavens had been ripped apart. This wasn’t some faint constellation where you have to struggle to connect the dots just to see a shape that vaguely resembles a bear chasing after twin crabs. This was an unmissable interstellar Grand Canyon, a massive band of light so brilliant it cast shadows on the ground. He is impressed. While today we know far more about the cosmos than any generation in history, we see far less of it
Saguaro has Tucson in the middle of it.
17 Travelers (Theodore Roosevelt, Voyageurs, Denali)
Theodore Roosevelt-Of all of our national parks, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one named after a person. Place of bison.
Voyageurs-remote. Most of it on/by the water. Sometimes the best trips are reconnaissance missions. Winter may be the best time-the lake is iced and people snowmobile on the lake.
Denali-goes into the naming of the mountain. Also the place of dogsleds in modern life.
Some chapter concluding thoughts: wherever I traveled, there was no mistaking that I was always a visitor. I was welcomed, but I never really belonged. And a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison. (words of Roosevelt).
Interesting-he lets on that everyplace he goes he tries to get a date.
18 Love (Canyonlands, North Cascades)
In Canyonlands, he meets a couple who has been on the road for years-he only months.
He talks more about his dating habits. He mentions Fresno in terms that the dating apps recommendations of Nashville have more references to God than the ones in Fresno. Efrain has a steady girlfriend. Knighton said that I was learning about different people, but I didn’t know how much I was learning about myself.
In North Cascade, he meets a couple of females. They have lunch together. He dated one. Nothing comes of it.
19 Food (Gates of the Arctic, Kobuk Valley, Cuyahoga Valley)
Gates of the Arctic-talked about flying into the park because there are no roads or trails. He talks to a 16 year old resident who hunts for his food. … killing an animal for fun would never even occur to In’uli.
(Tell a kid to “come home at dark” in Alaska, and they might not show up till September.)
Kobuk Valley-he teams up with an ex-ranger. Here, it is legal for native populations to subsistence hunt for food. Respect was a word I heard a lot in rural Alaska
Cuyahoga Valley-Ohio. Talks to a chef who lives here who uses it for farm-to-table.
20 Mountains (Guadalupe Mountains, Rocky Mountain)
Guadalupe Mountain-tallest mountain in Texas. He prefers Hunters Peak.
Rocky Mountain-contains 14’ers. Brief history of the park. Decided not to climb Longs Peak. But did go to the top of Pikes Peak. along I-25 were impossible to make out. Everything looked so different from so far up, and none of it—at least nothing that humans had made—looked even the slightest bit important. …. Mountaintops allow us to visit, but then they do their best to push us away. We are not meant for such great heights. It was because of Pikes Peak did America the Beautiful get written.
He starts to question his decision to go to all parks. Instead of peak bagging, he was park bagging.
21 Diversity (Mount Rainier, Shenandoah)
He talks with an Afircan-American volunteer, extensively who he met at Mount Rainier. This is where Shelton Johnson comes in. Knighton talks about Oprah’s visit. Then about Charles Young. More talk about how the Parks are getting more diversified. Note: I have met Johnson, once, not that he would remember me. But he is a truly caring and delightful person.
Shenandoah-There were the original signs at the park about separate facilities for Blacks. That Lewis Mountain sign came down a long time ago, but it’s hard to overestimate its legacy.
He meets Sally Jewel, former NPS director at Mount Rainier. The “National Park Idea” is an idea, not a guarantee, and if it’s an idea that’s going to survive, then it’s about time we get some new ideas about how to make the parks more inclusive.
22 Disconnecting (Isle Royale, Olympic, Virgin Islands)
He goes into the WIlderness Act. The Wilderness Act promises land for solitude and primitive recreation—how primitive can it be if it’s blanketed with a 4G signal. As a note, Grand Teton just got cell service in a few spots, not in all and definitely not outside of the highway corridor.
Isle Royale-He gets there by seaplane. Most of the island is designated wilderness. He spends four days, pretty much isolated. It is beyond reach of cell service. This is a time of reflection. When someone says about being cut off from the outside world, he says that it is the outside world which is cut off from this.
Talks about Cheryl Strayed’s book, Wild.
Olympic-Talks about how cell service is coming to the park.
Virgin Islands-Talks about how Laurence Rockefeller bought land here with the idea of giving it away to create a national park which would be a refuge from the ruckus of city life.
He talks about the need to encourage the next generation to visit parks. This is based upon a Senate subcommittee on this subject.
23 Sunset (Grand Teton, Yellowstone)
Interesting journey Knighton makes in Winter to Jackson, WY. He rents a Chevy Mailbu even though it is raining in Salt Lake City and he thinks it may snow in Grand Teton. Then does not look at his route, except to follow Google. Then blames Google for taking him a scenic way. He goes too fast, getting into a skid, landing off the highway until two females come by and get him out, along with another guy. He talks about scary drop-offs, which is probably true in Winter, but in September when I drove it a few weeks ago, it was very pleasant and beautiful.
He has made it to Jackson. The key to making a Hampton Inn breakfast taste amazing is to have a near-death experience the night before. He tracks down the women who helped him. He is attracted to one of them. She is engaged.
He is thinking now, where will he live after this year? After seeing so much of the country, it started to seem crazy to me that so many people choose to cluster together in so little of it. He is wondering, can he make a go of it living on the road.
Yellowstone-He stays at Yellowstone Lodge. They go to the Midway Geyser at night with a tour group. People come to Yellowstone to see the pools and the geysers, but standing there in the dark, we could only hear them. He remembers what he learned at Great Sand Dunes. They go back to the Lodge. He walks around after everybody is back. He sees Old Faithful erupt, alone.
He wants to go to the last place where sunlight will reach the continental United States. He thinks Washington, but then it gets pointed out it is at Pt Reyes. He talks a little bit about the history of Pt Reyes. His contract would expire at midnight.
When you can go anywhere, where do you choose to go?
It occurred to me that part of the reason I’d seen so much debate about the year’s first sunrise, and not its last sunset, was that our beginnings always seem more important than our endings.
The group of voyageurs who came here named the mountain peaks they found Les Trois Tetons, or “The Three Breasts .” This does not seem to be a common rendering, but may be somewhat historical as it was thought that some frozen French trappers came across these mountains and named the mountains this. Google Translate just comes out as The Three Tetons. But it would not be the first place named in such fashion as there is a similar connotation of Maggie’s Peaks near Tahoe.
Epilogue (Gateway Arch, Indiana Dunes, White Sands, New River Gorge)
CBS’ Sunday Morning ends with a minute of reflection on natural beauty. He reviews his own progress, being hired permanently to the show. Being able to go to other nation’s parks. But has a first love for his own.
He takes Teddy Roosevelt’s charge seriously. Not enough to visit the parks, but to fight for them.
The parks are our literal common ground. … I was surprised by how the distinctions between red states and blue states seemed to slip away whenever I was hiking through a forest, scrambling up a sand dune, or sharing a patch of shade.
He has adopted to a nomadic life. Not that he thinks it is permanent, but one he is satisfied with for right now.
So abundant and novel are the objects of interest in a pure wilderness that unless you are pursuing special studies it matters little where you go, or how often to the same place, ... Wherever you chance to be always seems at the moment of all places the best. - John Muir
The pictures at the end are beautiful.
Acknowledgments
Ben Cosgrove-composer.
Evaluation:
I have been trying to figure out why I am uncomfortable with this book. Most outdoors books I find interesting with the descriptions of the places, either bringing back memories of being there or the desire to go there and explore. On a recent trip to Grand Teton, I think I have come to the reason for this feeling, and it may be more accurate in saying disappointment: this is a book which is the equivalent of viewing a park from a car window and driving on.
I do sympathize with Knighton and his task. Describing each part extensively would lead to a book 15 times as long and be pretty unwieldy. Knighton usually examines a single facet of a park, hoping this will entice us to want more. The problem is that most parks are more than just one aspect: Yellowstone is more than Old Faithful; Yosemite goes beyond rock walls and thundering waterfalls, Arches is more than sandstone. What happened to me is that Knighton left me with the impression that is all that there was to a park is what he saw.
Is Knighton’s task doable? Writing a moderate length book and exploring 63 parks is a formidable task. I enjoyed Knighton’s prose in trying to describe a park, but not the brevity of insight. And maybe that is how our parks should be. They are not built to be raced through, but to be enjoyed and set up for reflection on nature, our history, and our own being. I hope that Knighton will continue to sharpen his writing and produce the book which will expand my being.
Notes from my book group:
Knighton arranges his visits by his perceived subject matter, instead of chronologically. Does this arrangement work for you? Do you agree with his groupings?
How do you approach going to a new place? How do you feel? How do you prepare?
Which parks do you want to go to? Why? Which parks are not attractive to you?
What place does technology have in our parks? What is technology? Should there be cell service in the parks? Where in the parks? Following your answer to the first part of this question, If you were to take part in an argument in 1915 about paving roads in Yosemite? What would you argue? (Before then, cars were not able to drive to Yosemite Valley.)
Knighton asks an eerie question, When you can go anywhere, where do you choose to go?
Knighton notes that the ending of Sunday Morning show is a minute of silent reflection about places of beauty. What do you do when you have times of silence?
The parks are our literal common ground. … I was surprised by how the distinctions between red states and blue states seemed to slip away whenever I was hiking through a forest, scrambling up a sand dune, or sharing a patch of shade. When you are in a park, do you see elements of red or blue politics?
How do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why the title of Leave Only Footprints?
How do you classify this book? Travellog? Personal reflection? Advocacy? ...
Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In what context was religion talked about in this book?
Why do you think the author wrote this book?
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What “takeaways” did you have from this book?
What central ideas does the author present?
Are they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual, medical, or scientific
What evidence does the author use to support the book's ideas?
Is the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?
Does the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment? Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?
What implications for you, our nation or the world do these ideas have?
Are these idea’s controversial?
To whom and why?
Describe the culture talked about in the book.
How is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
What economic or political situations are described?
Does the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
How did this book affect your view of the world?Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?
OSHER Book Club Questions, from Kay:
For me this book was a lot of making connections in reading
Text to Self
Text to Text
Text to World
Which of the parks that you have visited was your favorite? Why?
Which park that you have not visited would you like to visit? Why?
Author’s writing style
What emotions did the writing evoke in you if any during his journey?
Our charge: To not just visit the parks, but fight for them. To prioritize and protect them, so that future generations may enjoy their treasures.
He stated that a common theme at almost every part he visited would be “A discovery of land that was already inhabited by someone else, a history written by white settlers.
Did you find yourself laughing out loud at some of the things he said in the book?
Efrain……
Interesting thoughts/tidbits to ponder………………….
The Fortune Cookie – As a chapter ends, you will find yourself on a road to discovery
Ronald Reagan’s quote – “A tree is a tree. How many more do you need to look at.”
Operation Heal our Patriots in Alaska
Lack of trust surrounding climate science
Legal status of American Samoans, Guamanians, Puerto Ricans
Everglades the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles co-exist
Healing properties of water
Buffalo soldiers first rangers at Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks
Romance and on line dating while on the road
“America” poem inspired by Katharine Lee Bates on her visit to Pike’s Peak
The curse of Petrified Wood and the returning of the wood and apology letters
The cost of Disneyland passes vs National Park passes
Kentucky Cave Wars and the death of Floyd the cave explorer
Sound evokes more memories than pictures
Peak Bagger (14er’s)
Technology access in the parks – pros and cons
International Dark Sky communities
Lack of diversity (employees and visitors) in the parks
Oprah’s trip to Yosemite
The legends of the French Voyageurs of the 1800’s
Statements made throughout the book:
There’s something about the promise of a new year that makes people do things they would never do otherwise.
National parks are about more than protecting the land. Parks are also about protecting creatures who call the land home.
I won’t be focusing much on the chronology or geography that separates the parks. Far more interesting are the threads that tie them together and that tie us to nature.
Humans are by far the planet’s most destructive species but we’re also the only species that has ever worked together to ensure other forms of life don’t go extinct.
Quiet can be difficult to quantify – it’s easier to think of loud in relative terms. And his discussion on the importance of quietness.
The importance of trees – we speak often in terms of “trees” – putting down roots, charting our family tree, we see faces in their trunks and arms in their branches
Parks are the homes we have taken off the market
Parks have become our collective sanctuaries, places that welcome us back through their gates with open arms no matter how long we have been away.
Like that stolen wood at Petrified Forest, once a piece of you has been taken it can’t be put back
Seemingly inconsequential actions, done by enough people, can make an enormous difference.
My favorite part of traveling, though, has always been the way my trips have challenged me to rethink my preconceived notions about other places and people.
Our beginnings always seem more important than our endings. In life, we can often control how things starts. Endings are elusive and amorphous and uncertain.
Leave no trace. Take only memories and leave only footprints
- Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols
- The Birds of California by William Dawson
- Midnight on the Desert by J. B. Priestley
- The Yosemite by John Muir
- Our National Parks by John Muir
- The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
- The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
- Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
- Basin and Range by John McPhee
- The Black Canyon of the Gunnison: Today and Yesterday by Wallace Hansen
- Jim White’s Own Story: The Discovery and History of Carlsbad Cavern by James Larkin White
- Hunting Trips of a Ranchman by Theodore Roosevelt
- The Wilderness of Denali by Charles Sheldon
- The Spell of the Rockies by Enos A Mills
- Bird Memories of the Rockies by Enos A Mills
- The Rocky Mountain Wonderland by Enos A Mills
- Wild Life on the Rockies by Enos A Mills
- Picturesque Colorado by by Colorado and Southern Railway
- Picturesque Utah by Union Pacific Railroad Company
- Wild by Cheryl Strayed
- Travels in Alaska by John Muir
Good Quotes:
- First Line: It is a sunny Saturday in May, and I’ve been on the road for five hours
- Last Line: I always want the moment of nature to last just a little bit longer.
- There’s no such thing as an average national park. Chp 1 Sunrise (Acadia)
- When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra, page 110
- Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer give strength to body and soul alike. John Muir, The Yosemite
- I think, maybe some questions should remain unanswered, ...maybe it’s part of the human condition to believe in a little bit of mystery and the interconnectedness of all things. Mark Buktenica, Crater Lake Park Ranger. Quoted in chp 7 Mystery (Crater Lake, Congaree)
- While today we know far more about the cosmos than any generation in history, we see far less of it. Chp 16 Light (Great Basin, Saguaro)
- Mountaintops allow us to visit, but then they do their best to push us away. We are not meant for such great heights. Chp 20 Mountains (Guadalupe Mountains, Rocky Mountain)
- When you can go anywhere, where do you choose to go? Chp 23 Sunset (Grand Teton, Yellowstone)
- So abundant and novel are the objects of interest in a pure wilderness that unless you are pursuing special studies it matters little where you go, or how often to the same place. Wherever you chance to be always seems at the moment of all places the best; and you feel that there can be no happiness in this world or in any other for those who may not be happy. John Muir, Travels in Alaska, Chp V
- Prologue (Badlands) 3
- 1 Sunrise (Acadia) 15
- 2 Water (Hot Springs, Biscayne) 24
- 3 Animals (Everglades, Channel Islands, Pinnacles, Death Valley) 38
- 4 God (Yosemite, Capitol Reef, Lake Clark) 51
- 5 Sound (Great Sand Dunes, Katmai) 63
- 6 Trees (Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Redwood) 77
- 7 Mystery (Crater Lake, Congaree) 86
- 8 Borders (Big Bend, American Samoa) 97
- 9 Volcanoes (Lassen Volcanic, Hawaii Volcanoes, Haleakala) 115
- 10 Ice (Glacier Bay, Glacier, Kenai Fjords, Wrangell-St. Elias) 128
- 11 People (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Zion) 137
- 12 Home (Mesa Verde, Great Smoky Mountains) 148
- 13 Canyons (Grand Canyon, Black Canyon of the Gunnison) 159
- 14 Forgiveness (Dry Tortugas, Petrified Forest) 168
- 15 Caves (Wind Cave, Carlsbad Caverns, Mammoth Cave) 180
- 16 Light (Great Basin, Saguaro) 189
- 17 Travelers (Theodore Roosevelt, Voyageurs, Denali) 198
- 18 Love (Canyonlands, North Cascades) 215
- 19 Food (Gates of the Arctic, Kobuk Valley, Cuyahoga Valley) 229
- 20 Mountains (Guadalupe Mountains, Rocky Mountain) 245
- 21 Diversity (Mount Rainier, Shenandoah) 257
- 22 Disconnecting (Isle Royale, Olympic, Virgin Islands) 272
- 23 Sunset (Grand Teton, Yellowstone) 286
- Epilogue (Gateway Arch, Indiana Dunes, White Sands, New River Gorge) 307
- Acknowledgments 311
- Notes 315
References:
- Publisher's Web Site for Book
- Author's Web Site
- Wikipedia-Author
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- Barnes and Noble
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- Kirkus Review
- Book Page blog review
- CBS’ book review
- NPR article - June 1, 2023 - How a 93-year-old visited every national park and healed a family rift in the process
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