We've ranked the best national parks books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.
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Desert Solitaire
Edward Abbey
5.0
First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man’s quest to experience nature in its purest form.
Through prose that is by turns passionate and poetic, Abbey reflects on the condition of our remaining wilderness and the future of a civilization that cannot reconcile itself to living in the natural world as well as his own internal struggle with morality. As the world continues its rapid development, Abbey’s cry to maintain the natural beauty of the West remains just as relevant today as when this book was written.
Abbey is full of passion, fury and contempt – a fiery fighter to shake up the sometimes over-tranquil atmosphere of nature writing. [source]
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National Geographic Guide to National Parks of the United States
National Geographic and Phil Schermeister
4.9
In time for the National Park's 100th birthday, this flagship, best-selling guide is fully revamped and updated with all new text, photographs, and design. National Geographic writers hit all 59 national parks—including Pinnacles, the newest in the crown—for intensive on-the-ground research. 300 photos and 80 colorful maps complete the extraordinary package. Practical and comprehensive coverage includes engaging, individual park descriptions and brief history, travel planning tips, itineraries and directions, activities, park lodges and hotels, visitor center contact information, and camping information. Well-known national parks writers provide new insights into the parks and share favorite spots for viewing scenery, wildlife, sunsets, and more in this Centennial edition.
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Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Cheryl Strayed
4.8
An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
I found the narrative honest and riveting. The author used the journey through the hiking trail to work out her problems. [source]
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Your Guide to the National Parks, 2nd Edition: The Complete Guide to All 59 National Parks
Michael Joseph Oswald
4.8
Your Guide to the National Parks"provides step-by-step itineraries, kid-friendly activities, and the most popular ranger programs to help plan your family vacation. Thousands of hotels, restaurants, and attractions beyond the parks and 11 suggested road trips make it the ultimate dashboard companion. Exhaustive activity information, including hiking tables, easy-to-find trailhead markers, outfitter details, and backpacking essentials, serves as blueprint for an adventure of a lifetime. With something for everyone this is Your Guide to the National Parks. This completely refreshed edition includes the addition of Pinnacles National Park. The second edition also features new pictures throughout the book and updates to most maps as well as smaller content changes throughout the book.
Award winning and well-reviewed "Your Guide to the National Parks" first edition was the #1 bestselling guide book on the subject of national parks in 2015, according to Nielsen BookScan.
" In short, this is a great, almost encyclopedic, guide to help you prepare for your park visits." Kurt Repanshek (nationalparkstraveler.com)
Oswald provides an amazing, almost overwhelming, amount of data on each place. ]]a timely and useful reference. Library Journal
Each entry includes location info, what to expect from nature, how to find the park, open seasons, notable attractions, and plenty of full color photography to back the details up. "Your Guide to the National Parks" is a must for nature and vacation collections. Midwest Book Review
This gem of a travel guide is one of the most comprehensive and well-crafted books of its genre on the market. ForeWord Reviews
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A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Bill Bryson
4.6
The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America—majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way—and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).
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The National Parks: America's Best Idea
Dayton Duncan
4.6
The companion volume to the twelve-hour PBS series from the acclaimed filmmaker behind The Civil War, Baseball, and The War
America’s national parks spring from an idea as radical as the Declaration of Independence: that the nation’s most magnificent and sacred places should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. In this evocative and lavishly illustrated narrative, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan delve into the history of the park idea, from the first sighting by white men in 1851 of the valley that would become Yosemite and the creation of the world’s first national park at Yellowstone in 1872, through the most recentadditions to a system that now encompasses nearly four hundred sites and 84 million acres.
The authors recount the adventures, mythmaking, and intense political battles behind the evolution of the park system, and the enduringideals that fostered its growth. They capture the importance and splendors of the individual parks: from Haleakala in Hawaii to Acadia in Maine, from Denali in Alaska to the Everglades in Florida, from Glacier in Montana to Big Bend in Texas. And they introduce us to a diverse cast of compelling characters—both unsung heroes and famous figures such as John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ansel Adams—who have been transformed by these special places and committed themselves to saving them from destruction so that the rest of us could be transformed as well.
The National Parks is a glorious celebration of an essential expression of American democracy.
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Track of the Cat (Anna Pigeon, #1)
Nevada Barr
4.6
Anna Pigeon has fled New York and her memories to find work as a ranger in the country’s national parks. In the remote backcountry of West Texas, however, she discovers murder and violence. Fellow park ranger Sheila Drury is mysteriously killed, presumably by a mountain lion. But the deep claw marks Anna finds across Drury’s throat and the paw prints surrounding the body are too perfect to be real.
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You Are Home: An Ode to the National Parks
Evan Turk
4.6
Award-winning author and illustrator Evan Turk showcases the beauty and importance of the National Parks in this gorgeous picture book that takes readers on an amazing tour across the United States.
Beneath the soaring doorways of stone, and peaks that pierce the ceiling of clouds, from every river, star, and stone comes the eternal refrain: you are home.
In simple, soaring language and breathtaking art, acclaimed author-illustrator Evan Turk has created a stirring ode to nature and nation. From the rugged coast of Maine to the fiery volcanoes of Hawaii, You Are Home reminds us that every animal, plant, and person helps make this land a brilliant, beautiful sanctuary of life.
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Blood Lure (Anna Pigeon, #9)
Nevada Barr
4.6
Straddling the border between Montana and Canada lies the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park—Anna’s home away from home when she is sent on a cross-training assignment to study grizzly bears. Along with bear researcher Joan Rand and a volatile, unpredictable teenage boy, Anna hikes the back country, seeking signs of bear. But the tables are turned on their second night out, when one of the beasts comes looking for them. Daybreak finds the boy missing, a camper mutilated, and Anna caught in a grip of fear, painfully aware that her lifelong bond with nature has inexplicably snapped…
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Deep South (Anna Pigeon, #8)
Nevada Barr
4.6
Anna Pigeon finally gives in to her bureaucratic clock—and signs on for a promotion. Next thing she knows, she’s knee-deep in mud and Mississippi. Not exactly what she had in mind. Almost immediately, as the new district ranger on the Natchez Trace, Anna discovers the body of a young prom queen near a country cemetery, a sheet around her head, a noose around her neck. It’s a bizarre twist on a best-forgotten past of frightening racial undertones. As fast as the ever-encroaching kudzu vines of the region, the roots of this story run deep—and threaten to suffocate anyone in the way, including Anna...
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National Parks of the U.S.A.
Kate Siber, Chris Turnham
4.6
Take a tour of America's great outdoors and discover the beauty and diversity of its most iconic and majestic national parks. Explore Florida's river-laced Everglades, travel down the white water rapids of the Grand Canyon, trek across the deserts of Death Valley and scale the soaring summits of the Rocky Mountains with this book that brings you up close to nature's greatest adventures. Packed with maps and fascinating facts about the flora and fauna unique to each park, this fully-illustrated coast-to-coast journey documents the nation’s most magnificent and sacred places—and shows why they should be preserved for future generations to enjoy. With maps and information about flora and fauna found in each of the 21 icon parks portrayed, this is a fantastic celebration of the great outdoors.
Parks include: Acadia, Badlands, Big Bend, Biscayne, Bryce Canyon, Channel Islands, Death Valley, Denali, Everglades, Glacier, Glacier Bay, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky, Mountains, Hawaii volcanoes, Isle Royal, Mesa Verde, Olympic, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Virgin Islands, Yellowstone and Yosemite.
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Recommended by Seth Haber.
Seth Haber
When we first encountered this book we immediately knew it was one of the best children's books about the great outdoors that we had ever seen. Find it under the books section in our shop. Photo by @audreyburk #treklightgear https://t.co/0FkxFgeP3f [source]
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Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks
Andrea Lankford
4.5
The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks
For twelve years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes.
Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
In this graphic and yet surprisingly funny account of her and others’ extraordinary careers, Lankford unveils a world in which park rangers struggle to maintain their idealism in the face of death, disillusionment, and the loss of a comrade killed while holding that thin green line between protecting the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from each other. Ranger Confidential is the story behind the scenery of the nation’s crown jewels—Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smokies, Denali. In these iconic landscapes, where nature and humanity constantly collide, scenery can be as cruel as it is redemptive.
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Borderline (Anna Pigeon, #15)
Nevada Barr
4.5
The killings on Isle Royale have left Anna drained and haunted, her memories of her time with the wolf study group forever marred by the carnage on the island.
Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, she is on administrative leave, per her superintendent's urging. Anna wonders if the leave might not be permanent, either by her own choice or that of the National Park Service. The one bright spot in Anna's life is Paul, her husband of less than a year. Hoping the warmth and the adventure of a raft trip in Big Bend National Park will lift her spirits, Paul takes Anna to southwest Texas, where the sun is hot and the Rio Grande is running high. The sheer beauty of the Chihuahuan Desert and the power of the river work their magic--until the raft is lost in the rapids and a young college student falls overboard, resulting in an even more grisly discovery. Caught in a strainer between two boulders and more dead than alive, is a pregnant woman, hair and arms tangled in the downed branches. Instead of the soul-soothing experience they'd longed for, Anna and Paul find themselves sucked into a labyrinth of intrigue that leads from the Mexican desert to the steps of the Governor's Mansion in Austin, Texas.
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Blind Descent (Anna Pigeon, #6)
Nevada Barr
4.5
Lechuguilla Cavern is a man-eating cave discovered in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the mid-1980s. Estimated to extend for more than three hundred miles, only ninety of them mapped, the cave was formed by acid burning away the limestone; corridors, pits, cramped wormholes, cliffs, and splendid rooms the size of football fields tangle together in a maze shrouded in the utter darkness of the underground. When a fellow ranger is injured in a caving accident, Anna swallows her paralyzing fear of small spaces and descends into Lechuguilla to help a friend in need. Worse than the claustrophobia that haunts her are the signs - some natural and some, more ominously, manmade - that not everyone is destined to emerge from this wondrous living tomb. The terrain is alien and hostile; the greed and destructive powers of mankind all too familiar. In this place of internal terrors, Anna must learn who it is she can trust and, in the end, decide who is to live and who is to die.
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Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks
Mark Woods
4.5
Many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark’s most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks.
On the eve of turning fifty and a little burned-out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks. He planned to take his mother to a park she'd not yet visited and to re-create his childhood trips with his wife and their iPad-generation daughter.
But then the unthinkable happened: his mother was diagnosed with cancer, given just months to live. Mark had initially intended to write a book about the future of the national parks, but Lassoing the Sun grew into something more: a book about family, the parks, the legacies we inherit and the ones we leave behind.
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Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon
Michael P. Ghiglieri, Thomas M. Myers
4.5
Gripping accounts of all known fatal mishaps in the most famous of the World's Seven Natural Wonders.
Two veterans of decades of adventuring in Grand Canyon chronicle the first complete and comprehensive history of Canyon misadventures. These episodes span the entire era of visitation from the time of the first river exploration by John Wesley Powell and his crew of 1869 to that of tourists falling off its rims in Y2K.
These accounts of the 550 people who have met untimely deaths in the Canyon set a new high water mark for offering the most astounding array of adventures, misadventures, and life saving lessons published between any two covers. Over the Edge promises to be the most intense yet informative book on Grand Canyon ever written.
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Ill Wind (Anna Pigeon, #3)
Nevada Barr
4.5
Lately, visitors to Mesa Verde have been bringing home more than photos--they're also carrying a strange, deadly disease. And once it strikes, park ranger Anna Pigeon must find the very human source of the evil wind.
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A Superior Death (Anna Pigeon, #2)
Nevada Barr
4.5
Park ranger Anna Pigeon returns, in a mystery that unfolds in and around Lake Superior, in whose chilling depths sunken treasure comes with a deadly price. In her latest mystery, Nevada Barr sends Ranger Pigeon to a new post amid the cold, deserted, and isolated beauty of Isle Royale National Park, a remote island off the coast of Michigan known for fantastic deep-water dives of wrecked sailing vessels. Leaving behind memories of the Texas high desert and the environmental scam she helped uncover, Anna is adjusting to the cool damp of Lake Superior and the spirits and lore of the northern Midwest. But when a routine application for a diving permit reveals a grisly underwater murder, Anna finds herself 260 feet below the forbidding surface of the lake, searching for the connection between a drowned man and an age-old cargo ship. Written with a naturalist's feel for the wilderness and a keen understanding of characters who thrive in extreme conditions, A Superior Death is a passionate, atmospheric page-turner.
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The Camping Trip That Changed America: Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and Our National Parks
Barb Rosenstock, Mordicai Gerstein
4.5
Caldecott medalist Mordicai Gerstein captures the majestic redwoods of Yosemite in this little-known but important story from our nation's history. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt joined naturalist John Muir on a trip to Yosemite. Camping by themselves in the uncharted woods, the two men saw sights and held discussions that would ultimately lead to the establishment of our National Parks.
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Firestorm (Anna Pigeon, #4)
Nevada Barr
4.5
As part of the army battling the Jackknife fire in northern California's Lassen Volcanic National Park, Anna, in her capacity as spike camp medic and security officer, tends the injuries and the frayed nerves of the firefighters. When the National Weather Service predicts a cold front followed by snow, promising to all but extinguish the fire, the camp is demobilized, but a last-minute rescue of a firefighter with a broken leg detains Anna and the San Juan crew. Driven on by the erratic thunderstorm of the front, wind shears in the steep canyon, creating the deadly weather conditions for a firestorm. As the ravine explodes in flames propelled by the racing winds, the crew tries desperately to outrun the blaze, ultimately seeking refuge in their individual silver fire shelters wryly referred to as shake 'n' bakes. When the fire finally passes, Anna emerges from her shelter to check on the fate of her companions. The sound of each exhausted voice, the sight of each bruised and blackened figure, is cause for celebration - until one member of the crew is found inside his shelter with a knife in his back. With darkness comes snow, making immediate rescue impossible, and Anna must tend to the physical and emotional wounds of the crew while seeking the identity of the murderer in their midst.
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Endangered Species (Anna Pigeon, #5)
Nevada Barr
4.5
Was the crash of the drug interdiction plane on an iolated Georgia island an accident - or sabotage? Park ranger Anna Pigeon investigates. Though the "experts" are called in to evaluate the crash, Anna can't let the investigation rest solely in their hands. Her inquiry causes her to stumble into shady dealings that question the integrity - and honor - of her own crew.
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Hunting Season (Anna Pigeon, #10)
Nevada Barr
4.5
Park Ranger Anna Pigeon returns to face her most duplicitous foe--human nature--in the latest entry in Nevada Barr's bestselling, award-winning series ...
The quiet beauty of autumn on Mississippi's Natchez Trace is swiftly shattered when Anna answers a call to Mt. Locust, once a working plantation and inn, now a tourist spot. But the man Anna finds in an old bedroom is no tourist in distress. He's nearly naked and very dead-his body bearing marks consistent with sex games gone awry. On a writing table nearby is an open Bible with ominous passages circled in red.
There are secrets that prominent men in this God-fearing country wish to keep under wraps-and Anna has stumbled into a nest of them.
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Liberty Falling (Anna Pigeon, #7)
Nevada Barr
4.4
There is peril beneath the watchful eyes of the Lady... When Anna Pigeon left New York City after her husband was killed, she hoped it would be forever. But now her sister Molly is clinging to life in an uptown hospital ICU, so Anna has reluctantly returned. Rooming with a friend and fellow park ranger in close quarters on Liberty Island—the small strip of land that is home to Lady Liberty—Anna spends her free time exploring the grand monument and the crumbling, overgrown, and eerie ruins in the unrestored sections of nearby Ellis Island. But the peace she seeks here is shattered when she finds herself among a crowd gathered at the Lady's base, staring at the broken body of a teenager who fell—or was pushed—to her death. The reason behind the youthful girl's fatal plunge is not the only mystery alive on these historic sites—nor will hers be the only death. Hidden in a dangerous labyrinth of stone, glass, and steel are secrets Anna Pigeon is now compelled to uncover...and an insidious threat to herself and to others that could wreak havoc on a nation's proudest day. There is peril beneath the watchful eyes of the Lady...
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The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks
Terry Tempest Williams
4.4
America’s national parks are breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why more than 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the environmental classic Refuge and the beloved memoir When Women Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks, an exploration of what they mean to us and what we mean to them.
From the Grand Tetons in Wyoming to Acadia in Maine to Big Bend in Texas and more, Williams creates a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of each place while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making. Part memoir, part natural history, and part social critique, The Hour of Land is a meditation and a manifesto on why wild lands matter to the soul of America.
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High Country (Anna Pigeon, #12)
Nevada Barr
4.4
It's fall in the Sierra Mountains, and Anna Pigeon is slinging hash in Yosemite National Park's historic Ahwahnee Hotel. Four young people, all seasonal park employees, have disappeared, and two weeks of work by crack search-and-rescue teams have failed to turn up a single clue; investigators are unsure as to whether the four went AWOL for reasons of their own - or died in the park. Needing an out-of-park ranger to work undercover, Anna is detailed to dining room duty; but after a week of waiting tables, she knows the missing employees are only the first indication of a sickness threatening the park. Her twenty-something roommates give up their party-girl ways and panic; her new restaurant colleagues regard her with suspicion and fear. Yet when Anna's life is threatened and her temporary supervisor turns a deaf ear, she follows the scent of evil, taking a solo hike up a snowy trial to the high country, seeking answers. What awaits her is a nightmare of death and greed - and perhaps her final adventure.
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Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park
Lee H. Whittlesey
4.4
Intriguing stories of how people have died in Yellowstone warn about the many dangers that exist there and in wild areas in general.
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Winter Study (Anna Pigeon, #14)
Nevada Barr
4.4
Soon after Anna Pigeon joins the famed wolf study team of Isle Royale National Park in the middle of Lake Superior, the wolf packs begin to behave in peculiar ways. Giant wolf prints are found, and Anna spies the form of a great wolf from a surveillance plane. When a female member of the team is savaged, Anna is convinced they are being stalked, and what was once a beautiful, idyllic refuge becomes a place of unnatural occurrences and danger beyond the ordinary…
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Flashback (Anna Pigeon, #11)
Nevada Barr
4.4
The five-week New York Times bestseller, now in paperback.Running from a proposal of marriage from Sheriff Paul Davidson, Anna Pigeon takes a post as a temporary supervisory ranger on remote Garden Key in Dry Tortugas National Park, a small grouping of tiny islands in a natural harbor seventy miles off Key West. This island paradise has secrets it would keep; not just in the present, but in shadows from its gritty past, when it served as a prison for the Lincoln conspirators during and after the Civil War.
Here, on this last lick of the United States, in a giant crumbling fortress, Anna has little company except for the occasional sunburned tourist or unruly shrimper. When her sister, Molly, sends her a packet of letters from a great-great-aunt who lived at the fort with her husband, a career soldier, Anna's fantasy life is filled with visions of this long-ago time.
When a mysterious boat explosion-and the discovery of unidentifiable body parts-keeps her anchored to the present, Anna finds crimes of past and present closing in on her. A tangled web that was woven before she arrived begins to threaten her sanity and her life. Cut off from the mainland by miles of water, poor phone service, and sketchy radio contact, and aided by one law-enforcement ranger, Anna must find answers or weather a storm to rival the hurricanes for which the islands are famous.
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National Geographic Secrets of the National Parks: The Experts' Guide to the Best Experiences Beyond the Tourist Trail
National Geographic
4.4
Find the best National Geographic picks in 32 amazing national parks including Yellowstone's Lamar Valley, the Everglades' Nine Mile Pond Canoe Trail, and Yosemite's exquisite Snow Creek Trail. Discover that Lamar Valley is home to many of the park's wolf packs; why the Everglades is the domain of the pink flamingo; and that astounding views of Yosemite's Half Dome and Tenaya Canyon are accessible on an easy day hike. The majority of national park visitors often stick to the most celebrated trails and scenic overlooks, missing a whole world of stunning scenery in the process. Informed by park rangers, superintendents, and frequent park visitors, National Geographic Secrets of the National Parks provides all the inspiration and information you need to plan your visit beyond the well-trodden, touristy spots in these 32 great national parks. Stunning photographs, informative sidebars, and easy-to-use maps will help make your next national park adventure memorable.
FEATURED PARKS: EAST: Acadia - Shenandoah - Great Smoky Mountains - Biscayne - Everglades SOUTHWEST & ROCKIES: Big Bend - Petrified Forest - Grand Canyon - Bryce Canyon - Zion - Capitol Reef - Mesa Verde - Canyonlands - Arches - Rocky Mountain - Wind Cave - Badlands - Theodore Roosevelt - Yellowstone - Grand Teton - Glacier PACIFIC: Mount Ranier - Olympic - Crater Lake - Redwood - Yosemite - Channel Islands - Sequoia & Kings Canyon - Death Valley - Joshua Tree - Hawaii Volcanoes - Haleakala
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National Parks of America: Experience America's 59 National Parks
Lonely Planet
4.4
To celebrate America's amazing national parks, Lonely Planet, the world's leading travel publisher, takes you on an informative and gorgeous tour of all 59 parks with our lavishly finished hardcover gift guide packed with detailed itineraries and practical tips on what to do and see in each park to get you started planning your next adventure.
America's national parks are full of timeless marvels that still rejuvenate the soul: the world's largest trees in Sequoia; its most spectacular geothermal site in Yellowstone; the grandest canyon.
From Acadia to Zion, this beautiful introduction to America's preserved natural treasures is packed with landscape photography, original wildlife illustrations, and practical information. You will surely be inspired to rediscover these incredible spaces and find out why they're worth celebrating and you'll have all the tools to plan the first of many exciting trips.
This book is intended to be a practical introduction to each of America's 59 national parks, distilled by Lonely Planet's expert authors. We highlight the best activities and trails, explain how to get there and where to stay, show you the wildlife to watch out for, and suggest ideal itineraries. Whether you're lucky enough to have a park on your doorstep or need to travel further, we hope that the following pages inspire you both the iconic and lesser-known gems that make up the USA's diversely breathtaking expanses.
Covers all 59 US National Parks:
Acadia American Samoa Arches Badlands Big Bend Biscayne Black Canyon of the Gunnison Bryce Canyon Canyonlands Capitol Reef Carlsbad Caverns Channel Islands Congaree Crater Lake Cuyahoga Valley Death Valley Denali Dry Tortugas Everglades Gates of the Arctic Glacier Glacier Bay Grand Canyon Grand Teton Great Basin Great Sand Dunes Great Smoky Mountains Guadalupe Mountains Haleakal? Hawaii Volcanoes Hot Springs Isle Royale Joshua Tree Katmai Kenai Fjords Kings Canyon Kobuk Valley Lake Clark Lassen Volcanic Mammoth Cave Mesa Verde Mt Rainier North Cascades Olympic Petrified Forest Pinnacles Redwood Rocky Mountain Saguaro Sequoia Shenandoah Theodore Roosevelt Virgin Islands Voyageurs Wind Cave Wrangell-St Elias Yellowstone Yosemite Zion About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in.
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Moon USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 59 Parks
Becky Lomax
4.4
They've been dubbed America's best idea for a reason: get inspired, get outdoors, and discover the wild beauty of the United States with Moon USA National Parks. Inside you'll find:
Coverage of all 59 national parks, from the misty mountains of the east and the redwoods of the west, to the glaciers of Alaska and volcanoes of Hawaii, organized by region
Strategic lists and itineraries: Choose from lists of the best parks for hiking, wildlife, families, and scenic drives, or make your way down the list of the top ten national parks experiences across the country
The best outdoor adventures in every park, including backpacking, biking, mountain climbing, kayaking, rafting, and more, plus detailed hike descriptions and trail maps marked with distance, duration, effort level, and trailheads
National parks road trips with driving times and advice for linking multiple parks, interesting stops between them, and nearby attractions and state parks
Comprehensive planning resources: With detailed maps and transportation tips, you'll have the tools to explore each park or region individually, or visit multiple for an epic national parks trip
Expert advice from former park guide and award-winning author Becky Lomax on how to avoid crowds, what time of year to visit, and where to stay inside and outside the parks, from campgrounds to hotels
Know before you go: Find essential background on climate, terrain, wildlife, history, and safety precautions, plus practical information on park fees, passes, and reservations, including how to obtain and use a National Parks Pass
Gorgeous, full-color photos throughout, plus a handy keepsake section for your national parks stamps and a detachable fold-out poster map
Whether you're trekking to striking vistas, rafting a wild river, or camping under the stars, find your park adventure with Moon USA National Parks.
For more in-depth information on a specific park, check out Moon's national parks travel guides.
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American Wolf
Nate Blakeslee
4.3
ISBN moved from this edition The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her
Before men ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West.
With novelistic detail, Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, a charismatic alpha female named for the year of her birth. Uncommonly powerful, with gray fur and faint black ovals around each eye, O-Six is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter, and a doting mother. She is beloved by wolf watchers, particularly renowned naturalist Rick McIntyre, and becomes something of a social media star, with followers around the world.
But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park’s stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.
These forces collide in American Wolf, a riveting multigenerational saga of hardship and triumph that tells a larger story about the ongoing cultural clash in the West—between those fighting for a vanishing way of life and those committed to restoring one of the country’s most iconic landscapes.
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The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
Timothy Egan
4.3
On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in the blink of an eye. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men — college boys, day workers, immigrants from mining camps — to fight the fire. But no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them.
Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force. Equally dramatic is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by and preserved for every citizen. The robber barons fought Roosevelt and Pinchot’s rangers, but the Big Burn saved the forests even as it destroyed them: the heroism shown by the rangers turned public opinion permanently in their favor and became the creation myth that drove the Forest Service, with consequences still felt in the way our national lands are protected — or not — today.
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34
The Last Season
Eric Blehm
4.3
To pick up The Last Season is to lose oneself in a mesmerizing story about a place few could survive in and even fewer have visited -- the unforgiving backcountry of the Sierra Nevadas. Blehm narrates this true account of the disappearance and search for Randy Morgenson, a National Park Service ranger who, one morning after 28 seasons on the job, failed to answer his radio call.
The introverted Morgenson was more comfortable with the natural world than with people. A gifted photographer and a lyrical writer, he dropped out of college to begin a career that would send him into the remote parts of California's Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Passionate about the mountains, he excelled at his responsibilities, which ranged from clearing away garbage left by careless campers to rescuing injured hikers. Dedicated to keeping the wilderness undisturbed, he was proud of his ability to leave no trace of himself wherever he camped.
That skill would prove costly when, at age 54, he went missing. Blehm seamlessly combines a detective story with a celebration of nature that calls to mind the works of classic American writers like Thoreau and Emerson. His gripping narrative will cause readers' hearts to ache at the disappearance of this undervalued soul. But their spirits will soar at the grandeur and mysticism of nature expertly captured in its most primal state.
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35
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
Tony Horwitz
4.3
When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.
Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is an adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the ghosts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembrance.
In Virginia, Horwitz joins a band of 'hardcore' reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollow-eyed look of starved Confederates; in Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies and calls for race war sparked by the killing of a white man who brandishes a rebel flag; at Andersonville, he finds that the prison's commander, executed as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; and in the book's climax, Horwitz takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodge, an eccentric pilgrim who dubs their odyssey the 'Civil Wargasm.'
Written with Horwitz's signature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism, Confederates in the Attic brings alive old battlefields and new ones 'classrooms, courts, country bars' where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways. Poignant and picaresque, haunting and hilarious, it speaks to anyone who has ever felt drawn to the mythic South and to the dark romance of the Civil War.
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Recommended by Robert Maguire.
Robert Maguire
Please take this sad news as an opportunity to read, or re-read, Confederates in the Attic. It is a remarkable book that is sadly still very relevant 20 years later https://t.co/zAyPfq8xBK [source]
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36
Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park
Conor Knighton
4.3
From the Emmy-winning CBS Sunday Morning correspondent, an entertaining chronicle of his year spent traveling to every one of our National Parks, including his experiences with some of the most beautiful places--and most interesting people--that America has to offer.
When Conor Knighton decided to spend a year wandering through "America's Best Idea," he was worried the whole thing might end up being his worst idea. But, after a broken engagement and a broken heart, he desperately needed a change of scenery. The ambitious plan he cooked up went a bit overboard in that department; Knighton set out to visit every single one of America's National Parks, from Acadia to Zion.
Leave Only Footprints is the memoir of his year spent traveling across the United States, a journey that yielded his "On the Trail" series, which quickly became one of CBS Sunday Morning's most beloved segments. In this smart, informative, and often hilarious book, he'll share how his journey through these natural wonders, unchanged by man, ended up changing his worldview on everything from God to politics to love and technology. Whether it's waking up early for a naked scrub in an Arkansas bathhouse or staying up late to stargaze along our loneliest highway, Knighton goes behind the scenery to provide an unfiltered look at America. In the tradition of books like A Walk in the Woods or Turn Right at Machu Picchu, this is an irresistible mix of personal narrative and travelogue-some well-placed pop culture references, too-and a must-read for any of the 331 million yearly National Parks visitors.
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37
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon
Kevin Fedarko
4.3
From one of Outside magazine’s “Literary All-Stars” comes the thrilling true tale of the fastest boat ride ever, down the entire length of the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon, during the legendary flood of 1983.
In the tradition of The Perfect Storm and Seabiscuit, the engrossing tale of the fastest boat ride ever down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
In the winter of 1983,the largest El Niño event on record—a chain of “superstorms” that swept in from the Pacific Ocean—battered the entire West. That spring, a massive snowmelt sent runoff racing down the Colorado River toward the Glen Canyon Dam, a 710-foot-high wall of concrete that sat at the head of the most iconic landscape feature in America, the Grand Canyon. As the water clawed toward the parapet of the dam, worried federal officials desperately scrambled to avoid a worst-case scenario: one of the most dramatic dam failures in history.
In the midst of this crisis, beneath the light of a full moon, a trio of river guides secretly launched a small, hand-built wooden boat, a dory named the Emerald Mile, into the Colorado just below the dam’s base and rocketed toward the dark chasm downstream, where the torrents of water released by the dam engineers had created a rock-walled maelstrom so powerful it shifted giant boulders and created bizarre hydraulic features never previously seen. The river was already choked with the wreckage of commercial rafting trips: injured passengers clung to the remnants of three-ton motorboats that had been turned upside down and torn to pieces. The chaos had claimed its first fatality, further launches were forbidden, and rangers were conducting the largest helicopter evacuation in the history of Grand Canyon National Park.
An insurgent river run under such conditions seemed to border on the suicidal, but Kenton Grua, the captain of that dory, was on an unusual mission: a gesture of defiance unlike anything the river world had ever seen. His aim was to use the flood as a hydraulic slingshot that would hurl him and two companions through 277 miles of some of the most ferocious white water in North America and, if everything went as planned, catapult the Emerald Mile into legend as the fastest boat ever propelled—by oar, by motor, or by the grace of God—through the heart of the Grand Canyon.
Grua himself was already something of a mythic figure, a fearless boatman obsessed with the mysteries of the canyon. His quest embraced not only the trials of the speed run itself but also the larger story of his predecessors: the men who had first discovered the canyon and pioneered its exploration, as well as those who waged a landmark battle to prevent it from being hog-tied by a series of massive hydroelectric dams—a conflict that continues to this day.
A writer who has worked as a river guide himself and is intimately familiar with the canyon’s many secrets, Kevin Fedarko is the ideal narrator for this American epic. The saga of The Emerald Mile is a thrilling adventure, as well as a magisterial portrait of the hidden kingdom of white water at the bottom of the greatest river canyon on earth. This book announces Fedarko as a major writing talent and at last sets forth the full story of an American legend—the legend of The Emerald Mile.
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Recommended by Carl Bass.
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38
The Monkey Wrench Gang (Monkey Wrench Gang, #1)
Edward Abbey
4.3
Ed Abbey called The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a "comic extravaganza." Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it's true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief.
The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to the desert to find his beloved canyons and rivers threatened by industrial development. On a rafting trip down the Colorado River, Hayduke joins forces with feminist saboteur Bonnie Abbzug, wilderness guide Seldom Seen Smith, and billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., and together they wander off to wage war on the big yellow machines, on dam builders and road builders and strip miners. As they do, his characters voice Abbey's concerns about wilderness preservation ("Hell of a place to lose a cow," Smith thinks to himself while roaming through the canyonlands of southern Utah. "Hell of a place to lose your heart. Hell of a place... to lose. Period").
Moving from one improbable situation to the next, packing more adventure into the space of a few weeks than most real people do in a lifetime, the motley gang puts fear into the hearts of their enemies, laughing all the while. It's comic, yes, and required reading for anyone who has come to love the desert.
The book itself is hilarious, and brilliant in its own right. It’s importance, however, in part stems from the wider impact it had in the years following its publication. It’s widely understood that the book gave rise to radical environmental groups across the world from the 1980s onwards. [source]
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39
Take Me with You
Catherine Ryan Hyde
4.3
August Shroeder, a burned-out teacher, has been sober since his 19-year-old son died. Every year he's spent the summer on the road, but making it to Yellowstone this year means everything. The plan had been to travel there with his son, but now August is making the trip with Philip's ashes instead. An unexpected twist of fate lands August with two extra passengers for his journey, two half-orphans with nowhere else to go.
What none of them could have known was how transformative both the trip and the bonds that develop between them would prove, driving each to create a new destiny together.
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40
Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service
Annette Bay Pimentel, Rich Lo
4.3
The true story of a Chinese American mountain man who fed thirty people for ten days in the wilderness--and helped inspire the creation of the National Park Service.
Tie Sing was born in the mountains. The mountains were in his blood. But because he was of Chinese descent at a time in America when to be Chinese meant working in restaurants or laundries, Tie Sing’s prospects were limited. But he had bigger plans. He began cooking for mapmakers and soon built a reputation as the best trail cook in California.
When millionaire Stephen Mather began his quest to create a national park service in 1915, he invited a group of influential men—writers, tycoons, members of Congress, and even a movie star—to go camping in the Sierras. Tie Sing was hired to cook.
Tie Sing planned diligently. He understood the importance of this trip. But when disaster struck—twice!—and Tie Sing’s supplies were lost, it was his creative spirit and quick mind that saved the day. His sumptuous menus had to be struck and Tie Sing had to start over in order to feed the thirty people in the group for ten whole days. His skills were tested and Tie Sing rose to the challenge.
On the last night, he fed not just the campers' bodies, but also their minds, reminding them to remember and protect the mountains.
2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, created by Congress on August 25, 1916.
Today, you can hike to Sing Peak, named for Tie Sing, in Yosemite National Park.
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41
Fodor's The Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West (Full-color Travel Guide)
Fodor's Travel Guides
4.3
Expanded Coverage: Highlights include deeper coverage of outdoor adventures like hiking and rafting in the National Parks of the American West.
Illustrated Features: Rich full-color features help travelers to the National Parks of the West make the most of top experiences, from white-water rafting on the Colorado River and understanding Yellowstone's geothermal features to choosing a historic lodge and stargazing. The illustrated field guides to wildlife and geology make identification a snap.
Indispensable Trip Planning Tools: This book is not only indispensible on the ground; it also makes choosing a park simple. Thirty-seven United States western national parks are divided by state in the What's Where section so it's easy to decide which parks to see together. Nine customizable driving tours do the work of planning a road trip. The Best of the National Parks section breaks down the parks by themes, such as parks for day trippers, for spotting wildlife, and for inspiration. The new Outdoor Adventures section lists the best parks for hiking, rafting, rock climbing, and camping. Everything needed to plan a visit is here, from information on discount park passes and what to pack to tips for families and photographers. Each National Park has a convenient overview with highlights and practical advice for getting around, plus information on activities, dining, and lodging in and around the park.
Discerning Recommendations: Fodor's National Parks of the West offers savvy advice and recommendations from local writers to help park visitors make the most of their trip. Fodor's Choice designates our best picks, from hotels to activities, while "Word of Mouth" quotes from fellow travelers provide valuable park insights.
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42
National Geographic The National Parks: An Illustrated History
Kim Heacox
4.3
An inspired tribute to the astonishing beauty and priceless cultural treasures of America's National Parks, this volume is a lavish celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. National Geographic The National Parks collects the very best of National Geographic's photographs, combined with an expertly told history: from the multi-hued layers of the Grand Canyon to the verdigris flame of the Statue of Liberty, this book presents a breathtaking panorama of the National Parks.
With the stories behind the first female park ranger, a decidedly amateur scuba expedition that unearthed a submerged Civil War treasure trove, and so much more, Heacox takes readers on a VIP tour of America's rich natural and cultural heritage. The full sweep of wonders—from pristine coral reefs to the Gettysburg battlefield to glaciers and all the glorious diversity in between—offers a breathtaking tour of the very best of America's national treasures.
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43
Hard Truth (Anna Pigeon, #13)
Nevada Barr
4.3
Just days after marrying Sheriff Paul Davidson, Anna Pigeon moves to Colorado to assume her new post as district ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park. When two of three children who'd gone missing from a religious retreat reappear, Anna's investigation brings her face-to-face with a paranoid sect--and with a villain so evil, he'll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end
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44
The Yosemite
John Muir
4.3
2017 Reprint of 1962 Edition. This edition reprints the original text from 1912 along with notes and a new introduction by Frederic Gunsky first published in 1962. New maps and photos from the 1962 edition are also reprinted. This is a descriptive guide to the Yosemite, written by Muir. He provides directions for walks and hikes, sketches of Yosemite as it was in 1912, including description of birds, flowers and trees. He also describes canyons, falls the number peaks. The book is the fruit of long experience and loving, earnest, relentless study. In this book,
"...Mr. Muir brings to his Sierra Club friends much of that feeling of joyful anticipation with which we enter upon an outing into the High Sierra. From its pages we are sure to gain a sense of actual contact with the mountain world. We are sure to find in it passages that with a few simple words will bring some forgotten mountain picture flashing back to memory with all its first glory renewed. This is particularly true of his recent volume, The Yosemite. It is a treasure-house of wonderful pictures of all the changing phases of the Yosemite year -- of flood-time, with "rejoicing flood waterfalls chanting together in jubilee dress;" of Indian summer, and the "brooding, changeful days" that come between it and winter, "when the leaf colors have grown dim and the clouds come and go among the cliffs like living creatures looking for work;" of "the sunbeams streaming through the snowy High Sierra passes;" of "the sublime darkness of storm nights, when all the lights are out." Review Sierra Club Bulletin, Vol. VIII. No. 4, June 1912.
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45
The Rope (Anna Pigeon, #17)
Nevada Barr
4.3
Anna Pigeon's first case—this is the story her fans have been clamoring for...this is where it all starts. In The Rope, the latest in Nevada Barr’s bestselling novels featuring Anna Pigeon, Nevada Barr gathers together the many strings of Anna’s past and finally reveals the story that her many fans have been long asking for. In 1995 and 35 years old, fresh off the bus from New York City and nursing a broken heart, Anna Pigeon takes a decidedly unglamorous job as a seasonal employee of the Glen Canyon National Recreational Area. On her day off, Anna goes hiking into the park never to return. Her co-workers think she’s simply moved on—her cabin is cleaned out and her things gone. But Anna herself wakes up, trapped at the bottom of a dry natural well, naked, without supplies and no clear memory of how she found herself in this situation.
As she slowly pieces together her memory, it soon becomes clear that someone has trapped her there, in an inescapable prison, and no one knows that she is even missing. Plunged into a landscape and a plot she is unfit and untrained to handle, Anna Pigeon must muster the courage, determination and will to live that she didn’t even know she still possessed to survive, outwit and triumph.
For those legions of readers who have been entranced over the years by Park Ranger Anna Pigeon’s strength and determination and those who are new to Nevada Barr’s captivating, compelling novels, this is where it all starts.
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46
59 Illustrated National Parks Coloring Book
Anderson Design Group
4.3
This deluxe 72-page coloring book is perfect for coloring enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels. Anderson Design Group took their award-winning poster art and redrew each composition by hand to create 64 coloring pages that feature all 59 of the National Parks plus 5 bonus pages of popular indigenous animals. They have also included 8 full-color pages with reference imagery of their original poster designs, plus quotes from famous nature lovers like Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir. This deluxe 8.5" x 11" coloring book is printed on gallery-grade drawing paper with perforated pages so you can easily tear out your masterpieces and display them with pride. Created for use with crayons, colored pencils or felt tip markers, this beautiful and educational book offers hours of coloring fun!
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47
My First Summer in the Sierra
John Muir
4.2
In the summer of 1869, John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, joined a crew of shepherds in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. The diary he kept while tending sheep formed the heart of this book and eventually lured thousands of Americans to visit Yosemite country.
First published in 1911, My First Summer in the Sierra incorporates the lyrical accounts and sketches he produced during his four-month stay in the Yosemite River Valley and the High Sierra. His record tracks that memorable experience, describing in picturesque terms the majestic vistas, flora and fauna, and other breathtaking natural wonders of the area.
Today, Muir is recognized as one of the most important and influential naturalists and nature writers in America. This book, the most popular of the author's works, will delight environmentalists and nature lovers with its exuberant observations.
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48
The Road to Paradise (Vintage National Parks, #1)
Karen Barnett
4.2
From Book 1: An ideal sanctuary and a dream come true–that’s what Margaret Lane feels as she takes in God’s gorgeous handiwork in Mount Rainier National Park. It’s 1927 and the National Park Service is in its youth when Margie, an avid naturalist, lands a coveted position alongside the park rangers living and working in the unrivaled splendor of Mount Rainier’s long shadow.
But Chief Ranger Ford Brayden is still haunted by his father’s death on the mountain, and the ranger takes his work managing the park and its crowd of visitors seriously. The job of watching over an idealistic senator’s daughter with few practical survival skills seems a waste of resources.
When Margie’s former fiancé sets his mind on developing the Paradise Inn and its surroundings into a tourist playground, the plans might put more than the park’s pristine beauty in danger. What will Margie and Ford sacrifice to preserve the splendor and simplicity of the wilderness they both love?
Karen Barnett’s vintage national parks novels bring to vivid life President Theodore Roosevelt’s vision for protected lands, when he wrote in Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter: "There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred."
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49
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
Douglas Brinkley
4.2
"Douglas Brinkley brings to this magnificent story of Theodore Roosevelt's crusade on behalf of America's national parks the same qualities that made TR so fascinating a figure—an astonishing range of knowledge, a superb narrative skill, a wonderfully vivid writing style and an inexhaustible energy." —Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals
A vast, inspiring, and enormously entertaining book.” — New York Times Book Review
From New York Times bestselling historian Douglas Brinkley comes a sweeping historical narrative and eye-opening look at the pioneering environmental policies of President Theodore Roosevelt, avid bird-watcher, naturalist, and the founding father of America’s conservation movement—now approaching its 100th anniversary.
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50
Where the Fire Falls (Vintage National Parks, #2)
Karen Barnett
4.2
Stunning Yosemite National Park sets the stage for this late 1920s historical romance with mystery, adventure, heart, and a sense of the place John Muir described as "pervaded with divine light."
Watercolorist Olivia Rutherford fashioned her image as an avant-garde artist to appeal to the region's wealthy art-collectors. When she lands a lucrative contract painting illustrations of Yosemite National Park for a travel magazine including its nightly one-of-a-kind Firefall event, she hopes the money will lift Olivia and her sisters out of poverty.
After false accusations cost him everything, former minister Clark Johnson has found purpose as a backcountry guide in this natural cathedral of granite and trees. Now he's faced with the choice of becoming a National Parks Ranger, but is it his true calling?
As Clark helps open Olivia's eyes to the wonders of Yosemite, she discovers the people are as vital to the park's story as its vistas-- a revelation that may bring her charade to an end.
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51
100 Parks, 5,000 Ideas: Where to Go, When to Go, What to See, What to Do
Joe Yogerst
4.2
Filled with helpful travel tips and beautiful National Geographic photography, this expert guide showcases the best experiences in the top national, state, and city parks throughout North America.
In the sequel to the best-selling 50 States, 5,000 ideas, National Geographic turns to the United States' and Canada's most pristine--and adventure-filled--national, state, and city parks with 5,000 ideas for the ultimate vacation. Showcasing the best experiences, both obvious and unexpected, each entry in this robust guide provides an overview of the park, detailed travel advice, fascinating facts, insider knowledge about wildlife, and expert tips for hiking, biking, camping, and exploring. From the geysers of Yellowstone National Park to the Everglades' Nine Mile Pond Canoe Trail and the stunning peaks of Banff and Jasper in Alberta, each page will fuel your wanderlust. Plus, explore the natural beauty tucked away in cities like New York's Central Park and Boston Commons, and find bonus parks with day-trip suggestions to nearby neighbors. Top 10 lists throughout highlight best-of destinations for river trips, monuments, panoramic views, beaches, and more. This comprehensive book provides all the inspiration and information you need to plan your next park visit--and make it a memorable one.
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52
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring
Richard Preston
4.2
From the #1 bestselling author of The Hot Zone comes an amazing account of scientific and spiritual passion for the tallest trees in the world, the startling biosystem of Rthe canopy, S and those who are committed to the preservation of this astonishing and largely unknown world.
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53
Park Scientists: Gila Monsters, Geysers, and Grizzly Bears in America's Own Backyard
Mary Kay Carson, Tom Uhlman
4.2
America's National Parks are protected places and have become living museums for as many as 270 million visitors per year! In addition, researchers are able to perform long term studies of a wide number of subjects from salamanders the size of thumbnails to gigantic geothermal geysers. These parks are natural laboratories for scientists. Did you know that Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming sits on top of an active (and very large) volcano? This volcano is monitored and studied on a daily basis, not only as a means of protection (though it seems a long way off from erupting) but also as a way of understanding how the environment changes and influences what goes on deep underground.
The scientists profiled in The Park Scientists also study grizzly bears in Yellowstone, the majestic Sagauro catci in Arizona, and fireflies in Tennessee -- and suggest many ways for the average reader of any age to help out. The emphasis here is twofold: the great science that happens everyday in these important, protected spaces, and the fact that you can visit all of them and participate in the research.
It's backyard science at its biggest and best in this resourceful addition to the Scientists in the Field series!
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54
Destroyer Angel (Anna Pigeon, #18)
Nevada Barr
4.2
Anna Pigeon, a ranger for the U.S. Park Services, sets off on vacation—an autumn canoe trip in the to the Iron Range in upstate Minnesota. With Anna is her friend Heath, a paraplegic; Heath’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Elizabeth; Leah, a wealthy designer of outdoor equipment; and her daughter, Katie, who is thirteen. For Heath and Leah, this is a shakedown cruise to test a new cutting edge line of camping equipment. The equipment, designed by Leah, will make camping and canoeing more accessible to disabled outdoorsmen.
On their second night out, Anna goes off on her own for a solo evening float on the Fox River. When she comes back, she finds that four thugs, armed with rifles, pistols, and knives, have taken the two women and their teenaged daughters captive. With limited resources and no access to the outside world, Anna has only two days to rescue them before her friends are either killed or flown out of the country.
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55
Rescue Me (Montana Rescue, #2)
Susan May Warren
4.2
When Deputy Sam Brooks commits to something, nothing can sway him—not just on the job as liaison between the Mercy Falls sheriff's department and PEAK Rescue, but in his private life. He's the one who stuck around to take care of his mother after his father's accidental death. And he's the one—perhaps the only one—who believes Sierra Rose is the perfect girl for him. Safe, practical, and organized, she's nothing like her hippie, impulsive, bleeding heart sister, Willow.
Willow, however, has been in love with Sam Brooks for as long as she can remember. But she wants her sister to have a happy ending. Besides, Willow has other things to focus on—namely, nabbing the job as youth pastor for her small-town church. Best thing for her to do is to purge Sam from her heart.
Neither can predict the events that will bring them together in a fight for their lives in the forbidding wilderness of Glacier National Park. Stranded, injured, and with the winter weather closing in, Sam and Willow will have to work together to save a crew of terrified teenagers. As they fight to survive, they might just discover a new hope for love.
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56
Free Fire
C. J. Box
4.2
A Joe Pickett novel from #1"New York Times-"bestselling author C.J. Box. Joe Pickett s been hired to investigate one of the most cold-blooded mass killings in Wyoming history. Attorney Clay McCann admitted to slaughtering four campers in a back-country corner of Yellowstone National Park a free-fire zone with no residents or jurisdiction. In this remote fifty-square-mile stretch a man can literally get away with murder. Now McCann s a free man, and Pickett s about to discover his motive one buried in Yellowstone s rugged terrain, and as dangerous as the man who wants to keep it hidden."
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57
Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite
Michael P. Ghiglieri & Charles R. "Butch" Farabee, Jr., Jim Myers
4.2
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58
A Matter of Trust (Montana Rescue, #3)
Susan May Susan May Warren
4.1
Champion backcountry snowboarder Gage Watson has left the limelight behind after the death of one of his fans. After being sued for negligence and stripped of his sponsorships, he's remade his life as a ski patrol in Montana's rugged mountains, as well as serving on the PEAK Rescue team. But he can't seem to find his footing--or forget the woman he loved, who betrayed him.
Senator and former attorney Ella Blair spends much of her time in the limelight as the second-youngest senator in the country. But she has a secret--one that cost Gage his career. More than anything, she wants to atone for her betrayal of him in the courtroom and find a way to help him put his career back on track.
When Ella's brother goes missing on one of Glacier National Park's most dangerous peaks, Gage and his team are called in for the rescue. But Gage isn't so sure he wants to help the woman who destroyed his life. More, when she insists on joining the search, he'll have to keep her safe while finding her reckless brother, a recipe for disaster when a snowstorm hits the mountain.
But old sparks relight as they search for the missing snowboarder--and suddenly, they are faced with emotions neither can deny. But when Ella's secret is revealed, can they learn to trust each other--even when disaster happens again?
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59
National Geographic Kids National Parks Guide USA Centennial Edition: The Most Amazing Sights, Scenes, and Cool Activities from Coast to Coast!
National Geographic Kids
4.1
Happy 100th Birthday, National Parks! Join the centennial celebration by reading all about these greatest of American treasures -- from Acadia to Zion -- in preparation for a parks visit sometime soon. Filled with color photos, information on animals, fascinating lists, fun facts, maps, cool things to do, conservation tips, and much more -- think of this book is your trusted guide to these most majestic of places.
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60
Decade of the Wolf: Returning the Wild to Yellowstone
Douglas W. Smith, Gary Ferguson
4.1
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61
Yosemite
Ansel Adams, Michael L. Fischer, Andrea G. Stillman
4.1
This beautifully printed paperback original collects Ansel Adams' finest images of the place closest to his heart, Yosemite National Park. "I knew my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite", wrote Adams, who first visited the park at the age of fourteen and returned every year of his life thereafter. This new book presents the essence of Adams' long association with Yosemite: sixty-six memorable photographs of glacial lakes and craggy peaks, cascading waterfalls and granite monoliths, lone trees and sylvan streams. Here are Moon and Half Dome, Clearing Winter Storm, and El Capitan, Winter, Sunrise - images that have become veritable icons of the American wilderness. Selections from Adams' writings about the park and its environment, and an introductory essay that reveals the prescience of Adams' views on park management issues, enhance this majestic photographic portrait of Yosemite National Park by America's foremost landscape photographer.
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62
Into the Wild
Jon Krakauer
4.1
Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here
In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.
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Recommended by Holger Seim.
Holger Seim
When it comes to adventure stories, Into the Wild. [source]
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63
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park: The Essential Guide
Erik Stensland and Janna Nyswander
4.1
If you are heading to Rocky Mountain National Park, you'll definitely want to get your hands on this hiking guide. Written by an avid outdoorsman who has spent the last 15 years hiking every trail in the park, this guide covers everything you need to know to have a safe and amazing experience in one of our nation's most beautiful national parks. This guide covers nearly 200 miles of trail from marshland to alpine tundra. Each trail in the book is progressively more difficult making it easy to find the hiking trails which match your fitness level. The hikes are accompanied by large full-color photos, easy to read custom maps, elevation profile graphs and engaging descriptions, as if you were being shown around by the author. He highlights what to look for, when is the best time to go, safety considerations of each hike and wildlife you might encounter on the way. With nearly 100 pages of introductory material, you are introduced to everything you need to know to have a fun, safe and informed time in the Rocky Mountains. You'll find quick stats about each location at the back of the book and a full index making it easy to find the information you are looking for. Hikes are categorized by difficulty level and are color coded with color tabs on the outside of the book. You'll be hard pressed to find another hiking guide of this quality.
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64
National Parks of the USA: Activity Book
Claire Grace, Kate Siber, et al.
4.1
The perfect companion to the best-selling reference National Parks of the USA, this lushly illustrated activity book is packed with wildlife and nature facts, park trivia, spotters guides, and a kaleidoscope of activities including coloring, puzzles, quizzes, and more.
Get ready for a journey like no other! Follow the park animals as you find your way through a seemingly never-ending maze, spot the difference between some amazing creepy crawlies, complete a ferocious crossword full of hungry predators, find your feathered park friends in a bird word search, design your very own national park, and so much more! Use the spotters guide for each park to see if you can find grunting northern elephant seals, fluttering hummingbirds, bounding snowshoe hares, and lots of other wonderful creatures.
The parks include: Acadia, Big Bend, Channel Islands, Death Valley, Denali, Everglades, Glacier Bay, Grand Canyon, Hawai'i volcanoes, Mesa Verde, Olympic, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and so many more.
Bite-sized information and awesome facts about the national parks are scattered throughout, with over 50 stickers to get creative with at the back of the book.
Celebrate the wonder of America’s national parks with this fun-filled activity book. Just what you need for any long trip!
Add some wilderness to your bedroom wall with the stunning pull-out poster featuring a map of the national parks and bustling with wildlife, included in the book.
Brimming with facts, activities, and beautiful illustrations, the National Parks of the USA series of books immerses young people in the wonders of America’s outdoors. Learn about the wonderful wildlife, stunning scenery, and rare plants that inhabit these precious outdoor spaces. Celebrate these beautiful and rare locations, and be awed by the diversity and grandeur of the national parks’ living landscapes.
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65
Letters from Yellowstone
Diane Smith
4.1
In the spring of 1898, A. E. (Alexandria) Bartram--a spirited young woman with a love for botany--is invited to join a field study in Yellowstone National Park. The study's leader, a mild-mannered professor from Montana, assumes she is a man, and is less than pleased to discover the truth. Once the scientists overcome the shock of having a woman on their team, they forge ahead on a summer of adventure, forming an enlightening web of relationships as they move from Mammoth Hot Springs to a camp high in the backcountry. But as they make their way collecting amid Yellowstone's beauty the group is splintered by differing views on science, nature, and economics. In the tradition of A. S. Byatt's Angels and Insects and Andrea Barrett's Ship Fever, this delightful novel captures an ever-fascinating era and one woman's attempt to take charge of her life.
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66
Serena
Ron Rash
4.1
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains—but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.
Rash's masterful balance of violence and beauty yields a riveting novel that, at its core, tells of love both honored and betrayed.
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67
Night of the Grizzlies
Jack Olsen
4.1
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68
That Wild Country: An Epic Journey through the Past, Present, and Future of America's Public Lands
Mark Kenyon
4.1
From prominent outdoorsman and nature writer Mark Kenyon comes an engrossing reflection on the past and future battles over our most revered landscapes—America’s public lands.
Every American is a public-land owner, inheritor to the largest public-land trust in the world. These vast expanses provide a home to wildlife populations, a vital source of clean air and water, and a haven for recreation.
Since its inception, however, America’s public land system has been embroiled in controversy—caught in the push and pull between the desire to develop the valuable resources the land holds or conserve them. Alarmed by rising tensions over the use of these lands, hunter, angler, and outdoor enthusiast Mark Kenyon set out to explore the spaces involved in this heated debate, and learn firsthand how they came to be and what their future might hold.
Part travelogue and part historical examination, That Wild Country invites readers on an intimate tour of the wondrous wild and public places that are a uniquely profound and endangered part of the American landscape.
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69
Junior Ranger Activity Book
National Geographic Kids
4.1
Calling all explorers and nature-lovers! From Acadia to Zion, discover all 59 of the United States' amazing National Parks in this jam-packed book of games, trivia, jokes, fun facts, and so much more, all inspired by the National Parks outdoor-based Junior Ranger Program. Great for generating pre-trip excitement, long car rides, poking around historical sites, or general learning, these fun and sometimes silly activities will entertain while they draw kids into the majestic and historic importance of America's national parks. Check out the most amazing park habitats, plus awesome sights and animals you might see, from birds to bears. Fun facts are jam-packed onto every page, so kids learn something amazing about each cool park.
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70
Almost Anywhere: Road Trip Ruminations on Love, Nature, National Parks, and Nonsense
Krista Schlyer
4.1
At twenty-eight years old, Krista Schlyer sold almost everything she owned and packed the rest of it in a station wagon bound for the American wild. Her two best friends joined her—one a grumpy, grieving introvert, the other a feisty dog—and together they sought out every national park, historic site, forest, and wilderness they could get to before their money ran out or their minds gave in.
The journey began as a desperate escape from urban isolation, heartbreak, and despair, but became an adventure beyond imagining. Chronicling their colorful escapade, Almost Anywhere explores the courage, cowardice, and heroics that live in all of us, as well as the life of nature and the nature of life.
This eloquent and accessible memoir is at once an immersion in the pain of losing someone particularly close and especially young and a healing journey of a broken life given over to the whimsy and humor of living on the road.
Almost Anywhere will appeal to outdoor lovers, armchair travelers, and anyone struggling to find a way forward in life.
Early Reviews: “Outstanding, wry, heart-wrenching and healing. Those words describe Almost Anywhere, which hits the bull’s-eye as a cross between Wild and Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. Krista’s unique voice will draw you in and take you on journey to the intersection of unfathomable grief and the healing power of wanderlust.” —Michelle Theall, author of Teaching the Cat to Sit
"Brave, beautiful, and utterly captivating, Almost Anywhere breaks your heart and puts it back together again on a long and often arduous road trip across an America where the uncertain future is always just beyond the horizon and the immutable past rushes at you without remorse. Measuring the sharpness of loss against the hugeness of life, Krista Schlyer has found her way, page by page, to a rare state of grace. An amazing book." –William Souder, author of Under a Wild Sky, A Plague of Frogs and On a Farther Shore.
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71
Moon Yellowstone & Grand Teton: Including Jackson Hole
Becky Lomax
4.1
Forge your way through forests, across mountain peaks, past geysers, and more with Moon Yellowstone & Grand Teton. Inside you'll find:
Flexible Itineraries: Adventure-packed ideas ranging from one day in each national park to a week-long road trip covering both, designed for wildlife watchers, geology buffs, snow-seekers, and more
The Best Hikes in Yellowstone & Grand Teton: Detailed descriptions, individual trail maps, mileage and elevation gains, and backpacking options
Experience the Outdoors: Marvel at the steam-spewing Old Faithful geyser or take a horseback ride to panoramic lakeside views. Hike through alpine forests to rushing waterfalls, and catch a glimpse of wild bison, elk, wolves, or bears. Climb to Inspiration Point for breathtaking views of Jackson Hole, explore the quirky nearby towns, or discover the best spots to hit the slopes during the winter season
How to Get There: Up-to-date information on gateway towns, park entrances, park fees, and tours
Where to Stay: Campgrounds, resorts, and more both inside and outside the park
Planning Tips: When to go, what to pack, safety information, and how to avoid the crowds, with full-color photos and detailed maps throughout
Expertise and Know-How: Explore both national parks with outdoors expert and former park guide Becky Lomax Find your adventure in Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks with Moon. Visiting more of North America's national parks? Try Moon Glacier National Park or Moon USA National Parks.
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72
Boar Island (Anna Pigeon, #19)
Nevada Barr
4.1
Anna Pigeon, in her career as a National Park Service Ranger, has had to deal with all manner of crimes and misdemeanors, but cyber-bullying and stalking is a new one. The target is Elizabeth, the adopted teenage daughter of her friend Heath Jarrod. Elizabeth is driven to despair by the disgusting rumors spreading online and bullying texts. Until, one day, Heath finds her daughter Elizabeth in the midst of an unsuccessful suicide attempt. And then she calls in the cavalry---her aunt Gwen and her friend Anna Pigeon.
While they try to deal with the fragile state of affairs---and find the person behind the harassment---the three adults decide the best thing to do is to remove Elizabeth from the situation. Since Anna is about to start her new post as Acting Chief Ranger at Acadia National Park in Maine, the three will join her and stay at a house on the cliff of a small island near the park, Boar Island.
But the move east doesn't solve the problem. The stalker has followed them east. And Heath (a paraplegic) and Elizabeth aren't alone on the otherwise deserted island. At the same time, Anna has barely arrived at Acadia before a brutal murder is committed by a killer uncomfortably close to her.
BOAR ISLAND is a brilliant intertwining of past and present, of victims and killers, in a compelling novel that only Nevada Barr could write.
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73
Wild Montana Skies (Montana Rescue, #1)
Susan May Warren
4.1
The last thing Search and Rescue helicopter pilot Kacey Fairing needs upon returning home to Mercy Falls, Montana, is to run into her mistakes. After a devastating crash during her recent military tour in Afghanistan, she is emotionally broken but ready to start putting her life back together. She just wants to reconnect with her teenage daughter and spend the summer working as the new lead pilot of PEAK Rescue in Glacier National Park.
But her mistakes aren't so easily forgotten. Because Ben King is also back in town.
Country music star Ben King abandoned his past when he moved to Nashville thirteen years ago to start his career. But when his father is injured, Ben is called home to help manage PEAK Rescue during his recovery. He doesn't realize his father has ulterior motives until his old flame, Kacey, walks into his house and back into his heart.
Now, with Mercy Falls in a state of emergency due to flash floods, Kacey and Ben will have to work together to save lives. But when secrets are uncovered and old hurts rise to the surface, will they walk away again? Or can they find a different ending to their country love songs?
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74
National Geographic Complete National Parks of the United States: Featuring 400+ Parks, Monuments, Battlefields, Historic Sites, Scenic Trails, Recreation Areas, and Seashores
Mel White
4.1
From recreation areas and trails to historic sites, from nature hikes to seashores, this comprehensi....
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75
In the Shadow of Denali (The Heart of Alaska, #1)
Tracie Peterson, Kimberley Woodhouse
4.1
Cassidy Ivanoff and her father John, a wilderness guide, work at a prestigious new hotel outside Mt. McKinley. John's new apprentice, Allan Brennan, finds a friend in Cassidy, but the real reason he's here--to learn the truth about his father's death--is far more dangerous than he knows.
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76
Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout
Philip Connors
4.1
A decade ago Philip Connors left work as an editor at the Wall Street Journal and talked his way into a job far from the streets of lower Manhattan: working as one of the last fire lookouts in America. Spending nearly half the year in a 7' x 7' tower, 10,000 feet above sea level in remote New Mexico, his tasks were simple: keep watch over one of the most fire-prone forests in the country and sound the alarm at the first sign of smoke.
Fire Season is Connors's remarkable reflection on work, our place in the wild, and the charms of solitude. The landscape over which he keeps watch is rugged and roadless — it was the first region in the world to be officially placed off limits to industrial machines — and it typically gets hit by lightning more than 30,000 times per year. Connors recounts his days and nights in this forbidding land, untethered from the comforts of modern life: the eerie pleasure of being alone in his glass-walled perch with only his dog Alice for company; occasional visits from smokejumpers and long-distance hikers; the strange dance of communion and wariness with bears, elk, and other wild creatures; trips to visit the hidden graves of buffalo soldiers slain during the Apache wars of the nineteenth century; and always the majesty and might of lightning storms and untamed fire.
Written with narrative verve and startling beauty, and filled with reflections on his literary forebears who also served as lookouts — among them Edward Abbey, Jack Kerouac, Norman Maclean, and Gary Snyder — Fire Season is a book to stand the test of time.
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77
Pilgrim's Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier
Tom Kizzia
4.1
Into the Wild meets Helter Skelter in this riveting true story of a modern-day homesteading family in the deepest reaches of the Alaskan wilderness – and of the chilling secrets of its maniacal, spellbinding patriarch.
When Papa Pilgrim appeared in the Alaska frontier outpost of McCarthy with his wife and fifteen children in tow, his new neighbors had little idea of the trouble to come. The Pilgrim Family presented themselves as a shining example of the homespun Christian ideal, with their proud piety and beautiful old-timey music, but their true story ran dark and deep. Within weeks, Papa had bulldozed a road through the mountains to the new family home at an abandoned copper mine, sparking a tense confrontation with the National Park Service and forcing his ghost town neighbors to take sides in an ever-more volatile battle over where a citizen’s rights end and the government’s power begins.
In Pilgrim’s Wilderness, veteran Alaska journalist Tom Kizzia unfolds the remarkable, at times harrowing, story of a charismatic spinner of American myths who was not what he seemed, the townspeople caught in his thrall, and the family he brought to the brink of ruin. As Kizzia discovered, Papa Pilgrim was in fact the son of a rich Texas family with ties to Hoover’s FBI and strange, oblique connections to the Kennedy assassination and the movie stars of Easy Rider. And as his fight with the government in Alaska grew more intense, the turmoil in his brood made it increasingly difficult to tell whether his children were messianic followers or hostages in desperate need of rescue. In this powerful piece of Americana, written with uncommon grace and high drama, Kizzia uses his unparalleled access to capture an era-defining clash between environmentalists and pioneers ignited by a mesmerizing sociopath who held a town and a family captive
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78
Hey Ranger! True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America's National Parks
Jim Burnett
4.1
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79
The 10 Best of Everything National Parks: 800 Top Picks From Parks Coast to Coast
National Geographic, Fran Mainella
4.1
National parks are more than the best idea America ever had—they're our country's best playgrounds for millions of vacationers who want to enjoy recreation activities, nature and wildlife, and down-time with friends, family, or as solo travelers. This timely, idea-filled guide covers "classic" parks, national historical parks, national monuments, national battlefields, national scenic trails, and beyond. Hundreds of Top 10 lists highlight every park's best attractions—best lodges, best hikes, best star-gazing spots, best campfire meal spots. Destinations are covered by region, theme, season, and occasion. Photos, anecdotes from park rangers, and insider tips, plus traveler resources such as hotels and restaurants, make this the national parks guide travelers have long sought.
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80
Prodigal Summer
Barbara Kingsolver
4.1
Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia.
From her outpost in an isolated mountain cabin, Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. She is caught off-guard by a young hunter who invades her most private spaces and confounds her self-assured, solitary life. On a farm several miles down the mountain, Lusa Maluf Landowski, a bookish city girl turned farmer's wife, finds herself unexpectedly marooned in a strange place where she must declare or lose her attachment to the land that has become her own. And a few more miles down the road, a pair of elderly feuding neighbors tend their respective farms and wrangle about God, pesticides, and the possibilities of a future neither of them expected.
Over the course of one humid summer, these characters find their connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with whom they share a place. Prodigal Summer demonstrates a balance of narrative, drama and ideas that is characteristic of Barbara Kingsolver's finest work.
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81
The Partly Cloudy Patriot
Sarah Vowell, Katherine Streeter
4.1
Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and, in doing so, investigates the dusty, bumpy roads of her own life. In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell—widely hailed for her inimitable stories on public radio's This American Life—ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny California so much worse than a bad life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal arguments haunt the sleepless nights of the true patriot?
Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, themes, icons, and historical moments: Ike, Teddy Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Address, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush's inauguration.
The result is a teeming and engrossing book, capturing Vowell's memorable wit and her keen social commentary.
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82
Our Great Big Backyard
Laura Bush, Jenna Bush Hager, Jacqueline Rogers
4.1
#1 New York Times bestselling authors former First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna Bush Hager have created an exuberant picture book tribute to our national parks and the importance and fun of connecting with nature.
Our Great Big Backyard follows Jane, whose plans of spending the summer playing video games with her friends are dashed when her parents announce that her family is going on a road trip to national parks around the country. Yet somewhere between the Everglades and Big Bend National Park, things begin to change.
Jane starts paying attention to the magnificent sights and spends less time looking at her screen. The stunning views open up her imagination as she and her brother see everything that nature has to offer.
And the more Jane discovers, the more she realizes how much there is to love about the outdoors—whether she’s in a national park across the country or right in her own backyard.
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83
A Distance Too Grand (American Wonders Collection, #1)
Scott
4.1
When a spunky photographer wrangles her way onto an 1871 survey crew of the Grand Canyon she thinks nothing can stand in her way. But her mind changes when she finds out she'll be working alongside the one man she doesn't want to fall in love with.
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84
National Geographic Complete National Parks of the United States: 400+ Parks, Monuments, Battlefields, Historic Sites, Scenic Trails, Recreation Areas, and Seashores
Mel White
4.0
Year after year, hundreds of millions of visitors spend more than a billion hours enjoying the magnificent, astonishingly diverse realm overseen by America's National Park Service. And the National Geographic Society has been involved with this forward-looking, environmentally-minded department from the very beginning.
This extensive travel planner covers not just the 58 official National Parks but also the nearly 350 additional properties in the Park Service's domain. The premier Parks are described in detail, but equal attention is given to the National Monuments, Memorials, Preserves, Historic Sites, Battlefields, Cemeteries, and Seashores, not to mention a network of "National Trails" and even the intriguingly referred to "Affiliated Areas." From Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty, from the hallowed ground of Gettysburg National Military Park to the Pacific waters shrouding Hawaii's U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, this catalog spans American history and territory both, with practical advice on how to reach each park, when to go, and what to do there.
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85
Small as an Elephant
Jennifer Richard Jacobson
4.0
"A deeply perceptive look at the universal fear of abandonment." -- Booklist (starred review)
Ever since Jack can remember, his mom has been unpredictable, sometimes loving and fun, other times caught in a whirlwind of energy and "spinning" wildly until it's over. But now she is gone, leaving him all alone on a campsite in Maine. Can he find his way back to Boston before the authorities realize what happened? With nothing but a small toy elephant to keep him company, Jack begins a journey that will test his wits and his loyalties -- and his trust that he may be part of a larger herd after all.
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86
Yellowstone Has Teeth
Marjane Ambler
4.0
Few people have experienced Yellowstone National Park like Marjane Ambler. She and her husband lived in a tiny community near the shores of Yellowstone Lake, deep in the park’s interior. The natural beauty was magnificent, but Ambler and her neighbors discovered that Yellowstone “had teeth.” It could be an unforgiving place where mistakes mattered.
In this well-constructed narrative, Ambler reveals a hidden Yellowstone, a place where delight and danger are separated by the slimmest of margins: a degree of pitch on an avalanche slope, a few inches of a buffalo’s horn, a moment during a deadly wildfire. She also tells about:
• The rangers and maintenance workers who handled everything from thundering avalanches to man-eating grizzly bears
• The mothers who carried their babies inside their snowmobile suits and prayed their machines would not fail on the long ride home
•The old-timers who forged communities despite the odds against them.
With insight, love, and humor, Yellowstone Has Teeth paints a never-before-seen portrait of an iconic American landscape and the people who live there.
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87
Moon Rocky Mountain National Park
Erin English
4.0
Moon Travel Guides: Find Your Adventure
Incredible wildlife, stunning glaciers and waterfalls, and unforgettable adventure awaits you in Moon Rocky Mountain National Park.
Moon Rocky Mountain National Park features:
Itineraries for every timeline and budget, ranging from one day in the park to a week-long trip, including: Family Fun, Day Hikes, Winter Adventures, and Gaga for Glaciers
Strategies for getting to Rocky Mountain National Park, avoiding crowds, and exploring its less-visited areas
In-depth chapters on each region of the park, including Bear Lake and the East Side, Longs Peak and Wild Basin, Trail Ridge Road, Kawuneeche Valley, and Lumpy Ridge and the Mummy Range
Coverage of gateway cities and towns, including Estes Park, Grand Lake, and Arapaho National Recreation Area Full-color, vibrant photos and detailed maps throughout
Expert tips for travelers looking to go hiking, biking, skiing, and more, plus essential packing and health and safety information
Detailed hike descriptions with individual trail maps and backpacking options
The top activities and unique ideas for exploring the park: Hike the dramatic glacier-formed gorges to find jaw-dropping waterfalls, and spot elk, moose, and bighorn sheep along the way. Join in on a summertime ranger program, snowshoe to a ghost town in the winter, or catch the annual Perseid meteor shower in August. Take an adventurous Rocky Mountain driving or cycling tour, or try your hand at rock climbing or fishing. Set up camp for a night under the stars, and wake up early for the spectacular sunrise
Valuable insight from seasoned explorer and Rocky Mountain expert Erin English
Honest advice on when to go and where to stay inside and outside the park, including campgrounds, guest ranches, cabins, and resorts
Up-to-date information on park fees, passes, and reservations
Recommendations for families, seniors, international visitors, travelers with disabilities, and traveling with pets
Thorough background on the wildlife, terrain, culture, and history Staying in Colorado? Try Moon Colorado or Moon Denver.
For full coverage of America's national parks, check out Moon USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 59 National Parks.
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88
Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Voice of the River
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, John Rothchild
4.0
-- Story of an influential life told in a unique and spirited voice -- Nationally known as the first lady of conservation, the woman who "saved" the Florida Everglades -- Founder of the Friends of the Everglades, a feminist, a fighter for racial justice, and always a writer -- Her intelligence, wit, and insight mirror an indomitable spirit -- A must-have for anyone interested in conservation, the environment, or biographies of fascinating people -- Now in its 7th printing
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89
Volcano Dreams: A Story of Yellowstone
Janet Fox, Marlo Garnsworthy
4.0
Lyrical prose and luminous paintings lead readers on a tour of the Yellowstone supervolcano, from the wolves, elk, bears, and mountain goats that roam its surface to the fiery depths of its magma chamber. VOLCANO DREAMS knits together the vibrancy of the Yellowstone ecosystem with its explosive history, placing the everyday lives of its creatures within the context of geological time. Janet Fox's poetic text takes us to the root of it all--- the "sleeping giant" of magma responsible for the Yellowstone landscape--and Marlo Garnsworthy's evocative paintings capture the awe of natural forces at work in our nation's oldest national park.
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90
The Man Who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon
Colin Fletcher
4.0
The Man Who Walked Through Time is a remarkable classic of nature writing, an account of a journey both physical and spiritual. A detour from U.S. 66 to visit the Grand Canyon on a June morning in 1963 inspired Fletcher to walk the length of the Canyon below the rim. It is also a record of the Grand Canyon as it was before the massive influx of tourism. Fletcher's descriptions of the spectacular geography, the wildlife, and the remnants of much older cultures serve to remind us that the Grand Canyon has been around longer than humankind and may well outlast us.
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91
Yellowstone: A Journey through America's Wild Heart
David Quammen
4.0
Best-selling author David Quammen takes readers on a breathtaking journey through America's most inspiring and imperilled ecosystem - Yellowstone National Park. Filled with amazing images captured by eight National Geographic photographers over an extensive two year deployment in the park, it is unlike any Yellowstone book before it. Yellowstone's storied past, rich ecosystem and dynamic landscape are brilliantly portrayed in a captivating mosaic of photographs and eloquently written text that blend history, science and research from the field.
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92
Scenic Science of the National Parks: An Explorer's Guide to Wildlife, Geology, and Botany
Emily Hoff and Maygen Keller
4.0
Discover a fresh perspective on America's National Parks in a stunning illustrated guide featuring fascinating science, fun trivia, and helpful insider travel tips for all sixty parks.
What caused the stone arches in Arches National Park? Why are Yellowstone's geothermal pools such wild colors? How did the Badlands get their name? America's sixty National Parks are some of the most beautiful unique, and biodiverse places on earth, and are visited by millions annually. Home to some of our most treasured species of animals and plants, as well as some of the most striking geological features--like mountains, rock arches, caves, volcanoes, and geysers--the parks are also scientific playgrounds, where visitors can learn about botany, geology, and wildlife first hand.
Scenic Science of the National Parks curates and breaks down the most compelling natural science highlights of each park, from volcanic activity, glaciers, and coral reefs to ancient redwood groves, herds of bison, giant bats, and beyond. Highlighting information on the history and notable features of each park, as well as cool insider travel tips vetted by National Park Service park rangers, this book makes a fun addition to any park lover's book collection.
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93
A Thinking Person's Guide To America's National Parks
Robert E. Manning Ph.D, Rolf Diamant, Nora J. Mitchell Ph.D., David Harmon
4.0
The book delves into issues affecting an array of parks: the iconic western national parks like Yellowstone; the urban parks such as Golden Gate National Recreation Area; historic sites including the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Gettysburg National Military Park; and cultural areas like Mesa Verde National Park that are among America’s over 400 national parks.
Twenty-three essays from contributing authors with deep personal and professional connections to the national parks serve as expert guides to places in the park system where:
much of the nation’s biological and cultural diversity is represented; ideas such as freedom, civil rights, and conservation were conceived; vast wilderness offers solitude and reflection; storied landscapes preserve a sense of place; the balance between recreation and preservation is tested; research and learning engage the next generation; the dynamics of nature are being shaped by a changing climate; and innovations in technology, sustainability, and stewardship provide a sense of purpose and hope.
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94
Burn (Anna Pigeon, #16)
Nevada Barr
4.0
Nevada Barr brings her acclaimed "New York Times "bestselling Anna Pigeon series to Minotaur Books with one of her most compelling, complex novels yet! Anna Pigeon, a Ranger with the National Park Service, is newly married but on administrative leave from her job as she recovers from the traumas of the past couple of months. While the physical wounds have healed, the emotional ones are still healing. With her new husband back at work, Anna decides to go and stay with an old friend from the Park Service, Geneva, who works as a singer at the New Orleans Jazz NHP. She isn't in town long before she crosses paths with a tenant of Geneva's, a creepy guy named Jordan. She discovers what seems to be an attempt to place a curse on her--a gruesomely killed pigeon marked with runic symbols; and begins to slowly find traces of very dark doings in the heart of post-Katrina New Orleans. Tied up in all of this is Jordan, who is not at all what he appears to be; a fugitive mother accused of killing her husband and daughters in a fire; and faint whispers of unpleasant goings-on in the heart of the slowly recovering city. Now it will take all of Anna's skills learned in the untamed outdoors to navigate the urban jungle in which she finds herself, to uncover the threads that connect these seemingly disparate people, and to rescue the most vulnerable of creatures from the most savage of animals.
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95
What I Saw! in Yellowstone: A Kid's Guide to Wonderland
Durrae Johanek and Christopher Cauble
4.0
Durrae Johanek (Yellowstone Cookbook) makes What I Saw in Yellowstone fun for young people to find and identify the parks most frequently seen plants, animals, geothermal features, and more, whether they are driving park roads, resting at pull-offs, or hiking. The books is packed with color photos by Christopher Cauble (A Montana Journal), lively descriptions, fun guess what factoids, and precise where-to-see-it directions. Readers can check off what they saw and write notes about when, where, and how they saw it, turning the book into a great journal of their Yellowstone trip to share with friends and classmates back home.
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96
National Geographic Complete National Parks of Europe: 460 Parks, Including Flora and Fauna, Historic Sites, Scenic Hiking Trails, and More
National Geographic
4.0
Discover European wilderness--from Croatia's coastline to Scotland's highlands--in this comprehensive guide to pristine parks and wild spaces, full of photos, maps, and tips.
In these rich and informative pages, the travel pros at National Geographic bring you the premier guide to 460 national parks of Europe. Find your way to Snowdonia in Wales, offering more than 1,490 miles of walking trails through thick forests, coastal beaches, deep lakes, and jagged mountains. Catch a glimpse of more than 10,000 species inhabiting Germany's Bavarian Forest. Explore the flora and fauna while camping amid the twin peaks of France's Pyr�n�es. Or visit "the home of the giants," Norway's Jotunheimen park, containing the country's 29 highest peaks and plenty of backcountry hiking. This breathtaking tour spans the entire continent and will inspire your next grand adventure with more than 400 photos, 55 maps, rich histories, exciting itineraries, and need-to-know tips from what to do and how to get there. Each entry includes favorite spots for viewing scenery and wildlife, the best trails to walk or hike, and insights into what makes each of these parks worth visiting. Inspiring and informative, this illuminating guide will help you to experience Europe in a whole new way.
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97
The Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges, 7th
David L. Scott, Kay W. Scott
4.0
The definitive guide to memorable staysin America’s most beautiful places.
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98
Lonely Planet Zion & Bryce Canyon National Parks
Lonely Planet
4.0
Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher
Lonely Planet Zion & Bryce Canyon& National Parks is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Hike the Cable Mountain trail in Zion, ride a horse or mule through Bryce or go swimming or tubing in Zion's Virgin River -all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Zion & Bryce Canyon& National Parks and begin your journey now!
Inside the Lonely Planet Zion & Bryce Canyon National Parks Travel Guide:
User-friendly highlightsand itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests
Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots
Essential infoat your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices, emergency information, park seasonality, hiking trail junctions, viewpoints, landscapes, elevations, distances, difficulty levels, and durations
Focused on the best - hikes, drives, and cycling tours
Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, camping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, summer and winter activities, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss
Contextual insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, geology, wildlife, and conservation
Over65 full-color trail and park maps and full-color images throughout
Useful features - Travel with Children, Clothing and Equipment, and Day and Overnight Hikes
Covers Zion National Park, St George, Snow Canyon State Park, Cedar City, Glendale, Bryce Canyon& National Park, Red Canyon, Panguitch, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and more The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Zion & Bryce Canyon& National Parks, our most comprehensive guide to these parks, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less travelled.
Looking to visit more national parks? Check out USA's National Parks, a new full-color guide that covers all 59 of the USA's national parks. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet.
About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveler community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travelers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves.
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99
Ever Faithful (Vintage National Parks #3)
Karen Barnett
4.0
Cover unavailable
100
When the Killing's Done
T.C. Boyle
4.0
From the bestselling author of The Women comes an action- packed adventure about endangered animals and those who protect them.
Principally set on the wild and sparsely inhabited Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, T.C. Boyle's powerful new novel combines pulse-pounding adventure with a socially conscious, richly humane tale regarding the dominion we attempt to exert, for better or worse, over the natural world. Alma Boyd Takesue is a National Park Service biologist who is spearheading the efforts to save the island's endangered native creatures from invasive species like rats and feral pigs, which, in her view, must be eliminated. Her antagonist, Dave LaJoy, is a dreadlocked local businessman who, along with his lover, the folksinger Anise Reed, is fiercely opposed to the killing of any species whatsoever and will go to any lengths to subvert the plans of Alma and her colleagues.
Their confrontation plays out in a series of escalating scenes in which these characters violently confront one another, and tempt the awesome destructive power of nature itself. Boyle deepens his story by going back in time to relate the harrowing tale of Alma's grandmother Beverly, who was the sole survivor of a 1946 shipwreck in the channel, as well as the tragic story of Anise's mother, Rita, who in the late 1970s lived and worked on a sheep ranch on Santa Cruz Island. In dramatizing this collision between protectors of the environment and animal rights' activists, Boyle is, in his characteristic fashion, examining one of the essential questions of our time: Who has the right of possession of the land, the waters, the very lives of all the creatures who share this planet with us? When the Killing's Done will offer no transparent answers, but like The Tortilla Curtain, Boyle's classic take on illegal immigration, it will touch you deeply and put you in a position to decide.
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