On August 25, 2016, the National Park Service celebrates its 100th anniversary. This is a little sneaky, since technically the first national park, Yellowstone, dates back to 1872. The Park Service, in contrast, didn’t come around until 1916. No matter the date, I’m all for more celebration of America’s beautiful spaces, historic sites, seashores, and monuments. Ken Burns called the National Parks “America’s best idea” and, honestly, I agree with him.
That said, the National Parks aren’t the most diverse spaces in the nation. The good news is that the NPS knows this is an issue and is actively working on it. They’re creating more historic sites dedicated to LGBTQ history and preserving places associated with the experiences of people of color. They selected Sonia Sanchez, an African American poet, scholar, and activist, as the NPS centennial’s poet laureate. Still, the relative lack of diversity in the parks is reflected in this list. Even some of the books about the NPS’ problematic relationship with Native communities are written by white people.
These limitations aside, America’s national parks inspire awe and more than a little writing. This list includes children’s books, fiction, nonfiction, some poetry, and coloring books! It’s heavy on nonfiction, memoir, and biography but also has books from romance and mystery series. I included only one book per author and did not include any guidebooks, though. There are well over 400 sites in the National Park System (spanning 84 million acres in all 50 states and some territories)! We could easily do a round up of just guidebooks to the National Parks.
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
Yellowstone Has Teeth by Marjane Ambler
Altitude Adjustment: A Quest For Love, Home, And Meaning In The Tetons by Mary Beth Baptiste
Track of the Cat (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) by Nevada Barr
Endangered (A Sam Westin Mystery) by Pamela Beason
Death Canyon (A Jake Trent Novel) by David Riley Bertsch
The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston
Empire of Shadows: The Epic Story of Yellowstone by George Black
The Last Season by Eric Blehm
Mapping Yellowstone: A History of the Mapping of Yellowstone National Park by Bruce H. Blevins
Back of Beyond by C. J. Box
When the Killing’s Done by T.C. Boyle
Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley
Mule Train Mail by Craig Brown
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Hey Ranger! True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America’s National Parks by Jim Burnett
Our Great Big Backyard by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush Hager
So Far from God by Ana Castillo
Waltzing In Ragtime by Eileen Charbonneau
Redwoods by Jason Chin
National Parks Coloring Book illustrated by Peter F. Copeland
The Wild Inside: A Novel of Suspense by Christine Carbo
America’s National Parks: A Pop-Up Book by Don Compton, illustrated by Dave Ember and Bruce Foster
Love is a Monument (A Walk in the Park Book) by Annalisa Daughety
Yellowstone Summers: Touring with the Wylie Camping Company in America’s First National Park by Jane Galloway Demaray
Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell’s 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon by Edward Dolnick
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples by Mark Dowie
Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry edited by Camille T. Dungy
The Black & Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places: African Americans Making Nature and the Environment a Part of Their Everyday Lives by Dudley Edmondson
Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers
In the Summer of 1903: Colonel Charles Young and the Buffalo Soldiers in Sequoia National Park by Ward Eldredge
Temple Grove by Scott Elliott
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko
The Carry Home by Gary Ferguson
Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney
Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage by Dianne D. Glave
Good Night Yellowstone by Adam Gamble and Mark Jasper
All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West by David Gessner
Canyon Sacrifice (National Park Mystery Series) by Scott Graham
Among Wolves: Gordon Haber’s Insights into Alaska’s Most Misunderstood Animal by Gordon Haber and Marybeth Holleman
Denali’s Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America’s Wildest Peak by Andy Hall
Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo
The Year Yellowstone Burned: A Twenty-Five-Year Perspective by Jeff Henry
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston
The Ways of My Grandmothers by Beverly Hungry Wolf
Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation by Karl Jacoby
Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, a Life in Nature by Cindy Jenson-Elliott
Bear in the Back Seat: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by Kim DeLozier and Carolyn Jourdan
Gloryland by Shelton Johnson
Out on a Limb: A Smoky Mountain Mystery by Carolyn Jourdan
Old Faithful Murder (Yellowstone Mystery Series) by Raymond Kieft
Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr
Pilgrim’s Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier by Tom Kizzia
All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life by Winona LaDuke
In the Temple of Wolves: A Winter’s Immersion in Wild Yellowstone by Rick Lamplugh
The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Lankford
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery
Talking to the Dead: Religion, Music, and Lived Memory among Gullah/Geechee Women by LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant
A Trail Of Love by Bess McBride
National Parks: A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments and Landmarks by Erin McHugh
The Killing of Wolf Number Ten: The True Story by Thomas McNamee
All Aboard! National Parks: A Wildlife Primer by Haily Meyers and Kevin Meyers
The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors by James E. Mills
In the Bear’s House by N. Scott Momaday
The Yosemite by John Muir
Freshwater Road by Denise Nicholas
American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America by Michelle Obama
No-No Boy by John Okada
Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens by Steve Olson
from Sand Creek by Simon J. Ortiz
A Weird and Wild Beauty: The Story of Yellowstone, the World’s First National Park by Erin Peabody
Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Inheritance and Tells Why Every American Should Care by Audrey Peterman
Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
Lost Canyon by Nina Revoyr
Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail by Suzanne Roberts
Who Pooped in the Park? Acadia National Park: Scat and Tracks for Kids by Gary D. Robson
The Camping Trip that Changed America by Barb Rosenstock
Homegirls and Handgrenades by Sonia Sanchez
Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape by Kirk Savage
Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy
Engineering Eden: The True Story of a Violent Death, a Trial, and the Fight over Controlling Nature by Jordan Fisher Smith
Nature Noir: A Park Ranger’s Patrol in the Sierra by Jordan Fisher Smith
Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks by Mark David Spence
Ansel Adams in the National Parks: Photographs from America’s Wild Places edited by Andrea G. Stillman
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Ecology II: Throat Song from the Everglades by Anne McCrary Sullivan
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
Bachelor Father by Vicki Lewis Thompson
The National Parks Coloring Book by Sophie Tivona
Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class by Larry Tye
Poaching Daisies (Yellowstone Mystery) by Carole Thayne Warburton
Women in Wonderland: Lives, Legends, and Legacies of Yellowstone National Park by Elizabeth A Watry
In Velvet by Burt Weissbourd
Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping by Dan White
The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams
The Chief Ranger by Rebecca Winters
Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America’s National Parks
by Mark Woods
Flames by Ginny L. Yttrup
If these aren’t enough for your TBR pile, check out our list of 100 must-read books about nature.
What are your favorite books that celebrate America’s wild spaces? What did you read to prepare for a vacation at an NPS site? Let us know in the comments.