A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon

Kevin Fedarko's account of a 750-mile end-to-end traverse of the Grand Canyon on foot. After leaving his job to pursue whitewater guiding on the Colorado River, Fedarko was approached by his best friend, National Geographic photographer Pete McBride, with a proposal to walk across the canyon—described as "a walk in the park." Unaware that experts consider it "the toughest hike in the world," Fedarko agreed to the journey, which lasted more than a year. The two men navigated the canyon's remote wilderness, a vertical landscape of thousand-foot cliffs and crumbling ledges with scarce water sources and constant danger. Along the way, experienced hikers revealed hidden areas unknown to rim tourists, members of the canyon's eleven Native American tribes shared historical perspectives that challenged national park narratives, and Fedarko's dying father—who had first shown him the canyon decades earlier—offered new ways of understanding the landscape. The journey brought them close to death while revealing the canyon's complexity, beauty, and vulnerability to commercial tourism. Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Air Mail, Smithsonian Magazine, and Financial Times.