I read some great adventure books last year: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, about one of the deadliest climbing years ever on Mt Everest, and Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, about one of the longest races in the world. Another one I just finished and that is just as deserving of a read as the others is A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko.
I won’t try to describe what makes this book so great, as others have already done a better job than I could have ever done. Here is the gist:
A few years after quitting his job to pursue the ill-advised ambition of becoming a whitewater guide on the Colorado River, Kevin Fedarko was approached by his best friend, the National Geographic photographer Pete McBride, with a vision as bold as it was harebrained. Together, they would embark on an end-to-end traverse of the Grand Canyon—a journey McBride promised would be “a walk in the park.” Against his better judgment, Fedarko agreed to the scheme, unaware that the tiny cluster of experts who were familiar with this particular trek billed it as “the toughest hike in the world.”
from Kevin Fedarko’s website
The ensuing ordeal revealed a place that was harsher, richer, and far more complex than anything the two men had imagined—and came within a hair’s breadth of killing them both.
A Walk in the Park is an immersive account of haunting journey, a singular portrait of a sublime place, and a moving plea for the preservation of America’s greatest natural treasure.
Let me just say that aside from being a completely awesome read, the book sent me into some (still ongoing) deliberations about how and when I can get to the Grand Canyon in the next year to explore it. I haven’t ever been to this national treasure (there are lots of national parks/monuments I haven’t been to, actually), and reading this has kindled a desire to plan a big road trip.
Anyway…
If you need any more encouragement to read it, here is another author (who wrote another book that I am planning to read this year, The Wide Wide Sea), heaping the deserved praise:
“Part memoir, part travelogue, part extended essay on the profound meanings of wilderness, A Walk in the Park is a paean to one of earth’s most spectacular places, and a testament to the irresistible pull this mighty landscape exerts over human beings. Fans of Bill Bryson, Cheryl Strayed, and Edward Abbey will love this rich, funny, and spirited work from the Grand Canyon’s most eloquent bard. Fedarko’s bushwhacking, boulder-hopping, scree-slipping odyssey makes for delightful reading, and underscores the essential truth that mystics and penitents down through the ages have always known: Put one foot in front of the other, and magical things will follow.”
Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and The Wide Wide Sea
See more recent and past book recommendations from 2024, 2023, and 2022.
Comments welcome!