Winner of the 2024 National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature Winner of the 2025 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 A few years after quitting his job to become a whitewater guide on the Colorado River, Kevin Fedarko was approached by his best friend, National Geographic photographer Pete McBride, with a vision to embark on an end-to-end traverse of the Grand Canyon -- a journey that, McBride promised, would be "a walk in the park." The ensuing ordeal revealed a place that was deeper, richer, and far more complex than anything the two men had imagined. 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.