What to do when you have national parks on your mind, but can’t actually visit them? 

You might have found yourself in this situation in the last year or so, with the travel restrictions from the global pandemic - or a national park trip might be off the books for countless other reasons.

I’ve been in this situation for a while, actually. 

I adore our national parks, but I don’t visit them often, and that’s mostly because of debt. My husband and I have a lot of it, mostly student loans, and we’re working our tails off to beat the debt to the ground so we can be free of it once and for all. That means that we’re putting bigger expenses on hold and not traveling much at all. If we can somehow fit a stop at a national park into a trip to visit family or one of our cross-country moves, we absolutely do, but we’re not making many special trips just to vacation at a National Park — yet.

And yes, it kills me to wait like this, but the reward of getting out of debt faster and afterward having the freedom to travel as much as we want? That’s worth it.

So what do I do when I’m longing for a national park adventure, but can’t actually hit the road?

I read about them.

I study them.

I soak in their stories and their topographies.

Books are a fantastic way to explore America’s national parks, whether you’re looking for a vicarious adventure, a mental retreat, or planning your next trip. Below I’ve listed a few of the national-park related books I’ve enjoyed reading recently -- books which any fan of our national parks is bound to appreciate.

Find your next national park adventure in one of these titles:

Our National Parks, by John Muir

Beloved naturalist John Muir wrote this book in 1901, when America only had four national parks: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon (then known as General Grant National Park). Muir’s great love of Yosemite, in particular, is made clear in this book, as it takes up more than half of the pages. Our National Parks is a fascinating taste of what national park travel was like in the early days, delivered in Muir’s characteristically vibrant prose.

In one chapter, Muir takes the reader on a mountain-climbing trek in Yosemite, acting as your guide, interpreter, and naturalist as he paints such a vivid picture of the whole journey that you can practically feel the Sierra wind on your face and smell the lush carpets of flowers along the way.

Muir’s Our National Parks offers a picture of the National Parks when they were still in their infancy, and a taste of what it was like to explore them in the year 1901, when they were still almost entirely mysterious and unreachable to most Americans.

Buy it: Indie Booksellers / Amazon

King Sequoia, by William C. Tweed

I picked this book up as we were leaving Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks a few years ago, and it was one of the first books I ever read about the history of National Parks or the idea of National Parks. Before reading this book, I had always thought of National Parks as places preserved to be the natural playgrounds of the people, set aside for hiking, camping, and the like. 

Through Tweed’s tour of the history of the Giant Sequoia trees of the Sierra Nevada mountains, however, I learned that there’s often another, darker reason for the establishment of national parks, and that recreation is just a welcome side effect; national parks like Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite were designated to protect these places from destruction by people who sought to exploit their natural resources (namely, the majestic Sequoia trees) for profit.

Of all the national parks I’ve visited thus far, Sequoia National Park is my favorite. Nothing can prepare you for the true immensity of those towering trees, and I can’t quite put into words just how awe-inspiring it is to walk among them. Reading King Sequoia only added to my gratitude for the experience - and that these trees were saved from the loggers’ saws so that we have the opportunity to see them at all.

Buy it: Indie Booksellers / Amazon

Death in Yellowstone, by Lee Whittlesey

Longtime park employee, Lee Whittlesey, takes you on a fascinating, sobering, and gritty tour through the history of accidents, murders, maulings, in Yellowstone National Park. Along the way, you’ll dive into the history of the park, from its ‘discovery’ by European-American trappers and explorers beginning in 1807, to accidents in the hot springs near Old Faithful in the 2010’s.

You’ll come away from reading Death in Yellowstone with a deeper understanding of the park’s wildly varying landscapes, what not to do in Yellowstone, and perhaps most importantly, a healthy respect for nature. National parks are not nature’s theme parks; they are amazing places, but they are not “safe,” or tamed versions of the wilderness, and they should be approached with all due care and caution. 

Oh, and the signs are not hyperbole. The water really is that hot, and the rules are actually there to protect you (as well as the landscapes and animals you came to see).

Buy it: Indie Booksellers / Amazon

Leave Only Footprints, by Conor Knighton

Conor Knighton was reeling from the sudden break off of his engagement and decided to spend a year touring America’s national parks, just in time for the centennial celebration of the National Park Service in 2016. 

Leave Only Footprints reads like the Parks for the People; It would be hard to write in depth about every national park in the limited space of a 310-page book. But, Knighton offers an engaging introduction to each of the parks he visited, and these introductions range from heartfelt to hilarious (the Old Man of Crater Lake National Park, for example), to fascinating (such as the story of a tiny, rare fish in Death Valley National Park).

You’ll come away from Knighton’s book with something new about each and every one of the national parks, and if it doesn’t spur you to want to visit one of them, I don’t know what will.

Buy it: Indie Booksellers / Amazon

Campfire Stories, edited by Dave + Ilyssa Kyu

If I could recommend only one book about the national parks, it would unquestionably be Campfire Stories. 

Husband and wife authors and editors set out to collect the stories that bring America’s six most loved national parks to life: Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, Rocky Mountain, Zion, Yosemite, and Yellowstone National Parks.

Each of these parks are celebrated with a collection of poems, stories, and Native American myths, with the intention that the reader might share one around the campfire - ideally while visiting the park itself. I found it an absolutely delightful read, cover to cover, even while sitting in my living room, far away from the parks therein. Campfire Stories takes you beyond the landscape or topography, and deep into the lore and personality of each park.

If Knighton’s book, Leave Only Footprints, introduces you to each national park to the level of basic acquaintance, then in Campfire Stories, the Kyus invite you to sit down at their campfire and listen to enthralling story after enthralling story, and you come away feeling like you’ve made a new lifelong friend.

Buy it: Indie Booksellers / Amazon

What’s your favorite book about national parks? Share it in the comments!

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