Description

A New York Times Bestseller and winner of both the 2024 National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature and the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, this celebrated work has also been named among the year’s best books by The New York Times, Air Mail, Smithsonian Magazine, and Financial Times.

“A triumph. Fedarko doesn’t describe awe; he induces it.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Passionate…memorable…life-affirming.” —The Wall Street Journal

From the acclaimed author of the beloved bestseller The Emerald Mile comes a gripping and deeply moving true story about two friends embarking on an extraordinary 750-mile journey on foot through America’s most iconic national park and one of the world’s grandest wildernesses, the Grand Canyon.

Kevin Fedarko, who had previously left his conventional job to pursue the improbable dream of becoming a Colorado River guide, found himself drawn into another seemingly reckless venture when his close friend, National Geographic photographer Pete McBride, proposed hiking across the entire length of the Grand Canyon. Described casually by McBride as merely “a walk in the park,” the daunting expedition turned out to be an extraordinary feat that even expert outdoorsmen have labeled “the toughest hike in the world.”

Over more than a full year, Fedarko and McBride faced constant danger as they navigated the canyon’s nearly impassable terrain—an immense vertical maze filled with thousand-foot cliffs, crumbling ledges, and areas where water is painstakingly scarce. Lacking formal trails, the route nearly cost them their lives, but it also led them to discover an untouched world that tourists rarely see. Guided at times by experienced long-distance hikers, the two friends explored hidden corners of this vast canyon unknown to the crowds above.

Their journey also brought profound lessons from members of the eleven Native American tribes whose deep connection to this landscape challenged the pilgrims’ understanding of America’s beloved parklands and exposed the ever-present threat of commercial tourism. Adding a deeply personal dimension, Fedarko’s experience was shaped in part by his poignant relationship with his terminally ill father, who had sparked his son’s lifelong fascination with the Canyon more than forty years earlier but himself never had the chance to see its wonders firsthand.

Above all, this harrowing expedition revealed the soul of the Grand Canyon itself: harsh yet magnificent, hauntingly beautiful, and undeniable in its magic. Brilliantly crafted, inspiring, and deeply resonant, A Walk in the Park ultimately serves as a powerful call to preserve one of America’s greatest natural treasures before it’s too late.