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A Walk in the Park

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A Walk in the Park

By: Kevin Fedarko
Narrated by: Kevin Fedarko
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About this listen

* 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 triumph. Fedarko doesn’t describe awe; he induces it.” —The New York Times Book Review * “Passionate…memorable…life-affirming.” —The Wall Street Journal

This New York Times bestseller from the author of The Emerald Mile is a rollicking and poignant account of an epic 750-mile odyssey, on foot, through the heart of the Grand Canyon.


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.
Adventurers, Explorers & Survival North America Travel Writing & Commentary United States

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Critic reviews

"Listeners can sense the excitement, awe, and frustration in the author’s chronicle of his “walk” through the Grand Canyon. Kevin Fedarko does double duty as author and narrator, and his narration adds notes of authenticity to the production. His voice is clear and pleasant, and he changes things up to fit particular passages. For instance, he increases his pace slightly as he recounts navigating the Colorado River in a raft. And he slows it down during poetic descriptions of his surroundings. He gets louder to express experts’ incredulity at his plan to navigate the canyon on foot without years of training. And he grows quieter in describing Native Americans’ spiritual ties to the canyon. The audiobook is part travelogue, part history, part autobiography—and wholly enjoyable."
All stars
Most relevant
rich and interesting. when will audible UK make the Emerald Mile available? it is on audible usa

wonderful. please make The Emerald Mile available !

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This is a profound and interesting story about the Grand Canyon experienced through the writers eye, seems well researched and touches the conscience of three reader oh, and the soul

Intense

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Amazing book. Really connects you to the mysteries of the Grand Canyon. I hope this place is protected forever.

Amazing book

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A must read/listen for anyone visiting The Grand Canyon. Kevin Fedarko is a very rich story teller.

Beautiful and well told story

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Beautiful word use, really speaks to the imagination. Makes me want to go there. Nice to see some development of character, in which respect for nature grows.

super relaxing

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