Biography
Kevin Fedarko is the author of the massive bestseller, A Walk in the Park, an inspiring and poignant account of an epic 750-mile odyssey on foot through the heart of America’s most magnificent national park and the grandest wilderness on earth, the Grand Canyon. The book won the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His 2013 book, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, also became a New York Times bestseller and won the National Outdoor Book Award. He has written for National Geographic, The New York Times, Esquire, Outside, and other publications. He studied political science at Columbia University and Russian history at Oxford before joining the staff at Time magazine.
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
From the author of the beloved bestseller The Emerald Mile, a rollicking and poignant account of an epic 750-mile odyssey, on foot, through the heart of America’s most magnificent national park and the grandest wilderness on earth.
Two friends, zero preparation, one dream. A few years after quitting his job to follow an ill-advised dream of becoming a 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 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. But always, there was the great gorge itself: austere and unforgiving but 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.