This week on The Write Question, the first of a two-part conversation with journalist Kevin Fedarko, author of A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon (Scribner).
Note: This conversation has been edited for time and was recorded live at the Ravalli County Museum in Hamilton, Montana, in partnership with Chapter One Bookstore.
About the book:
Two friends, zero preparation, one dream. A few years after quitting his job to pursue an ill-advised dream of becoming a whitewater guide on the Colorado River, Kevin Fedarko was approached by his best friend, 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 that, McBride promised, would be “a walk in the park.” Against his better judgment, Fedarko agreed, unaware that the small cluster of experts who had actually completed the crossing billed it as “the toughest hike in the world.”
The ensuing ordeal, which lasted more than a year, revealed a place that was deeper, richer, and far more complex than anything the two men had imagined—and came within a hair’s breadth of killing them both. They struggled to make their way through the all-but impenetrable reaches of the canyon’s truest wilderness, a vertical labyrinth of thousand-foot cliffs and crumbling ledges where water is measured out by the teaspoon and every step is fraught with peril—and where, even today, there is still no trail spanning the length of the country’s best-known and most iconic landmark.
Along the way, veteran long-distance hikers ushered them into secret pockets of enchantment, invisible to the millions of tourists gathered on the rim, that only a handful of humans have ever seen. Members of the canyon’s eleven Native American tribes brought them face-to-face with layers of history that forced them to reconsider myths at the very center of our national parks—and exposed them to the threats of commercial tourism. Even Fedarko’s dying father, who had first pointed him toward the chasm more than forty years earlier but had never set foot there himself, opened him to a new way of seeing the landscape.
And always, there was the great gorge itself: austere and unforgiving, yet suffused with magic, drenched in wonder, and redeemed by its own transcendent beauty. A singular portrait of a sublime place, A Walk in the Park is a deeply moving plea for the preservation of America’s greatest natural treasure.
About Kevin:
Kevin Fedarko is a seasoned author and journalist renowned for his exploration of the American Southwest and his fervent advocacy for environmental conservation. He has been a staff writer at Time magazine, where he worked primarily on the foreign affairs desk, and a senior editor at Outside, where he covered outdoor adventure. His writing has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times, and Esquire, among other publications. He and his wife, Annette Avery, owner of Bright Side Bookshop, live in Flagstaff, Arizona, where they spend as much of their free time as possible hiking in the Grand Canyon or in mountains just outside of town.
Mentioned in this episode:
Into the Canyon, a documentary produced by Pete McBride
Craig Childs, author of The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert (Little, Brown & Company), Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession (Little, Brown & Company), and The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light (Torrey House Press), among others
The Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim (Rizzoli), Seeing Silence: The Beauty of the World’s Most Quiet Places (Rizzoli), The Colorado River: Chasing Water (Rizzoli), and Witness to Water: One Photographer’s Mission to Defend the Colorado River (Hierophant Publishing) by Pete McBride
Rich Rudow, based in Phoenix, Arizona, was the first person to complete first descents of the 200-300 slot canyons in Grand Canyon National Park
John Wesley Powell, first recorded traversing the Grand Canyon by boat
Kevin Fedarko recommends:
Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon by Elias Butler and Tom Myers
Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors (Ecco Press)
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson (Scribner)
Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores (Basic Books)
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez (Scribner)
Plastic Shaman: The True Story of a Deadly Self-Help Retreat and America’s Misguided Question for Wellness by Annette McGivney (Torrey House Press)
Raven’s Exile: A Season on the Green River by Ellen Meloy (Henry Holt & Co.)
Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa Sevigny (W. W. Norton & Company)
The Hidden West by Rob Schultheis (Blackstone Publishing, Inc.)
Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West by Wallace Stegner (Penguin Random House)
Lauren Korn recommends:
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon and The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (Scribner)
Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa Sevigny (W. W. Norton & Company); listen to Justin Angle’s conversation with Melissa on A New Angle here!
In Old Sky: Poems Inspired by the Grand Canyon by Lauren Camp (Grand Canyon Conservancy)
Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All Women’s Ascent of Denali by Cassidy Randall (Abrams Books); listen to Lauren’s and Justin Angle’s conversation with Cassidy here!
Denali’s Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America’s Wildest Peak by Andy Hall (Plume)
A Woman Among Wolves: My Journey Through Forty Years of Wolf Recovery by Diane K. Boyd (Greystone Books); listen to Lauren's conversation with Diane here and here!
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst (Riverhead Books)
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The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer and sound engineer. This episode was produced in partnership with and supported by Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Montana, a literary and community resource for the Bitterroot Valley—providing space to explore, discover, and share passions since 1974. More information can be found at Chapter1Bookstore.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss.
Funding for The Write Question comes from members of Montana Public Radio and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
