Leave Only Footprints
My Acadia to Zion Journey Through Every National Park
Great! With a disclaimer--it may not be for everyone. Especially at the beginning, he dramatizes himself and his own life story and drags the "me, me, me!" on a little too long. But I didn't mind--I read a quote once, probably in Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, that before perusing a book the reader wants to know what sort of man is the author, whether he be of calm demeanor or choleric, whether he be tall or short, etc. Okay, I mangled that quote all to pieces. But Steinbeck said it well--in my case at least, I want to know who it is I'm about to devote hours of my listening life to.
And so I actually cared about his engagement and his breakup and the pain he endured. Since that was the reason for the journey to begin with, I wanted to hear it.
And then the journey began! He groups the parks by subject and doesn't even cover very many of them in this book. But each group of parks is organized under a general topic, and they are as far-ranging and intriguing as the parks themselves. He asks more questions than he answers--lots more--and fills your head with informed speculation as well as interviews with park rangers, tour operators, people he meets on the way and much, much more.
The topics? So many, I will only mention a few: Sound ( Great Sand Dunes, Katmai); People (Arches, Bryce Canyon); Diversity (Mount Ranier, Shenadoah); Light (Great Basin, Saguaro), Travelers (Theodore Roosevelt, Voyageurs, Denali); Borders (Big Bend, American Samoa). All are explored against a backdrop of majesty. Sometimes I wished he'd spent a little more time on the things he was seeing and hearing and feeling and a little less time in his own head, but the world around was never far from his thoughts.
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