Leave Only Footprints
My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park
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NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY OUTSIDE
When Conor Knighton set off to explore America’s “best idea,” he worried the whole thing could end up being his worst idea. A broken engagement and a broken heart had left him longing for a change of scenery, but the plan he’d cooked up in response had gone a bit overboard in that department: Over the course of a single year, Knighton would visit every national park in the country, from Acadia to Zion.
In Leave Only Footprints, Knighton shares informative and entertaining dispatches from what turned out to be the road trip of a lifetime. Whether he’s waking up early for a naked scrub in a historic bathhouse in Arkansas or staying up late to stargaze along our loneliest highway in Nevada, Knighton weaves together the type of stories you’re not likely to find in any guidebook. Through his unique lens, America the Beautiful becomes America the Captivating, the Hilarious, and the Inspiring. Along the way, he identifies the threads that tie these wildly different places together—and that tie us to nature—and reveals how his trip ended up changing his views on everything from God and love to politics and technology.
Filled with fascinating tidbits about our parks’ past and reflections on their fragile future, this book is both a celebration of and a passionate case for the natural wonders that all Americans share.
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I loved this book. A journalist crushed after being ditched by his fiance, convinces CBS Sunday Morning to fund his travel/reporting at all the U.S. National Parks. Whatever parks CBS chose not to film, Knighton paid his own way, traveling from the east coast to the west coast and even to American Samoa and Dry Tortugas. He has no orderly system for his travel and so crisscrosses the US several times which compliments his unsettled mind as he wanders and philosophizes throughout his travels. He had a captive audience in me as I enjoyed his sense of humor and down to earth manner. This is a travelogue where I became well-acquainted with the author and sometimes felt like I was traveling with him. His conversations with park rangers and guides are sometimes thought provoking. I have since watched some of the CBS Sunday Morning segments on Youtube and plan to see them all. My cons are that he does not visit them in an orderly manner nor does he set up his chapters chronologically which was distracting. I do, however, highly recommend reading this book about our national parks.
We forget, but there are lots of ways to read a book.
I read a book last week. It was an immersive experience.
The book is Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park. It was written by Conor Knighton who undertook the journey to visit all fifty-nine* American national parks in a year. He filmed segments for CBS Sunday Morning along the way.
Happily, I found all twenty-four of the segments available online: On the Trail: CBS Sunday Morning.
I'd read a chapter, and then I'd watch a segment.
National parks I've visited, like Yosemite and Yellowstone and Bryce Canyon and Crater Lake and Big Bend. Many more I wanted to visit and hadn't yet, like Smokey Mountain and Everglades and Glacier and Arches. Even more that I'd never heard of and didn't realize I wanted to visit, like Congaree and Dry Tortugas and Indiana Dunes.
What a great way to read a book. What a great way to visit all the national parks. I didn't even leave any footprints.
*Note: There are now sixty-two national parks, with the addition of three new parks since 2016 when this book was written and the segments filmed.
