My son gave me Conor Knighton’s “Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park” for Fathers Day and I just finished reading it.

It’s a cool book. Knighton, a correspondent for CBS News, went to all our National Parks in one year in 2016. I think there were 59 National Parks in 2016 and it looks like we are at 64 now. He starts out on New Year’s Day on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park where the sun first shines on the contiguous USA and ends at Point Reyes National Park on New Year’s Eve which is the last place the sun sets (on that date) on the contiguous USA.

In between he travels to all the other parks and has a little bit to say on each one of them. It’s more than just a listing of highlights. He talks about why he is going on this journey (spoiler, he got dumped by a woman) and his experiences. I found out we have a lot of parks that I have never heard of that are hard to get to and are not very “wired” although given the book was based on his 2016 experiences.

He also has something to say about the Parks not being very diverse in terms of their racial diversity and what is being done about that.

This was a surprising book and I loved it. I highly recommend it.