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A Year in the National Parks: The Greatest American Road Trip Hardcover – January 1, 2018

by Stefanie Payne (Author), Jonathan Irish (Author)

4.4 43 ratings

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The Greatest American Road Trip started on January 1, 2016 and ended on December 31, 2016. During that time, we road tripped in a 4X4 SUV with an Airstream trailer in tow to all 59 U.S. National Parks in 52 weeks—an average of one park per week. With parks located in Maine, the Caribbean, northern Alaska, in the heart of the Pacific Ocean and everywhere in between, it was an ambitious yet attainable goal. We plotted our route carefully and planned contingencies so that we could capture the best of every park in one calendar year. A Year in the National Parks: The Greatest American Road Trip will be a coffee table book showcasing our very best images from each of the 59 U.S. National Parks, shot while on assignment for National Geographic, as well as information about the depths of the American wilderness and our wild ride into it.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Fire Soul LLC
Publication date

January 1, 2018
ISBN-10

069292678X
ISBN-13

978-0692926789
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Stefanie Payne
55
Hardcover
56 offers from $4.08

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fire Soul LLC; First Edition (January 1, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 069292678X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0692926789
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.73 pounds

Best Sellers Rank: #2,469,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 43 ratings

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Stefanie Payne

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Stefanie Payne is a creative professional and communications strategist supporting NASA human spaceflight at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. When not telling the story of human exploration in space, she writes about adventures on Earth—with articles and photographs appearing in The Travel Channel, blogs for The National Geographic Society, Thrillist, The Huffington Post, and The Lonely Planet.

In 2016, she took on “the Greatest American Road Trip,” exploring and documenting 59 of the U.S. National Parks over 52 weeks.

Payne has written multiple books on the subject of national parks. Her next book, 'The National Park Journal', is available for pre-order on Amazon.

www.stefaniepayne.com

www.thegreatestroadtrip.com

Goodreads: /author/show/18162826.Stefanie_Payne

Instagram: @istefpayne

Twitter: @istefpayne

www.facebook.com/59in52

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4.4 out of 5

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National Parks

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

Beautiful photographs and such interesting information about all the National Parks! Very pleased with this book!

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Wwtejj

Great book about the author's trip, but there are better books about the National Parks

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

To visit and document each of the 59 National Parks that well within a single year is inspiring for anybody who dreams of hitting the road. The book is loaded with a wealth of content and thematic features that you don't see in other National Parks books. Besides gorgeous landscape and wildlife shots, you'll find travel album material such as many shots of roads, trails, signs, their Airstream, and both the authors enjoying themselves in various ways. The book is a great record of their trip.

However, as a coffee-table book about the National Parks, it doesn't work as well. The cramped layout looks like a magazine with the vast majority of shots printed with average quality and at a tiny size of 1/12th of a page or smaller. That's too bad because there are great shots that I would have liked to see larger. And unlike in magazines and other books, those shots are not captioned.

Many shots have a person or man-made elements in them. For instance, in Congaree we have four pictures of the boardwalk (a tiny area in the park), two of signs, one of Jonathan looking at the camera, one of Stefanie hiking, one of a squirrel, one of a subject I cannot identify, and none focusing on the beauty of the old-growth forest for which the park was established. Shenandoah is illustrated with one dark landscape, two frozen waterfalls, two signs, one boardwalk, one road, one overlook wall, and two photos of Stefanie hiking - all crammed into a single spread with text.

The authors did a remarkable job considering their scheduling constraints (for instance Lassen Volcanic is mostly inaccessible in the winter, when they were there) from visiting all the National Parks in a single year. Yet, that whirlwind trip results in a depiction of the National Parks bound to be superficial compared to that of other photographers, such as David Muench, who have dedicated a large part of their lives to them.

If you are looking for a photography book about the National Parks that does justice to their natural splendor, there are better choices. Among the recent books, I recommend QT Luong's Treasured Lands. Not only the photos and their presentation are better, the information is more generous and useful. And with twice as many pages for a similar cost, it is an exceptional value.

16 people found this helpful

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Gina Crezee

Beautiful!

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2019

Verified Purchase

Gorgeous book! Absolutely amazing pictures of the most amazing places in the US.

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2019

Oh wow! As everyone now says, this is an "oh wow" book. A Year In The National Parks is a beautiful "coffee table" book by Stephanie Payne and Jonathan Irish. As such, it is chock full of beautiful color photos and accompanying prose and poetry. It is a documentation of what seems to be impossible, a visit to each of our 59 national parks in 52 weeks. It is a work of great art and love. Other reviewers have used up all the superlative words to describe this greatest American road trip. So, am I left with nothing to say? Not really. A page turner, this is, with a new adventure and a new park to visit on every next page. And it is just what you might expect from the two experts, the authors. A visual/verbal masterpiece, yes, but much more. Feelings, real and imagined are hidden within. Like a Grandma's scrapbook, it is a document, and also a repository for Grandma's feelings--love and respect for her family. Hidden, and imagined, for instance, walking with Jonathan on the fallen log was Ansel Adams, wide eyed and excited at the beauty of nature's color, unrestricted to notion of several zones of gray. I could almost see Teddy Roosevelt next to the two upright bears of page 118, both looking into a distant dreamy horizon. Then, was that Steinbeck on the road to California perplexed by the flat tire on the Airstream? Walt Whitman, I think, there--slamming together un-rhyming words of joy and he turns a page? Thoreau is in there, see, looking at a bug on a leaf. Could it be the great Sitting Bull smoking a long stemmed pipe, Crazy Horse watching, watching behind a rock in the Badlands, and of course, John Muir, there, hugging a tree? All are there for me. I surely hope this treasure will again become available.

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douglas

Beautiful photography.. but beware of shipping!

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

This has absolutely beautiful photography through out the entirety of this book of our National Parks. It makes for an excellent coffee table book and provides helpful information for trip planning. So i would have to say I love the book, rated 4-5 stars for it and shipping was on time as well. But the book wasn’t wrapped for shipping and was placed in a larger box with other items that I had purchased from amazon at the same time. So due to these short cuts and careless mistakes the books cover was damaged during shipping, totally Amazon’s shipping and handling mistake. For a cheaper book this might not be such a big deal but for a $60 coffee table book it is! Rated 2 stars for packaging and shipping!

One person found this helpful

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sarah l.

A comprehensive and well written guide to our natural treasures

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2018

I am thoroughly enjoying perusing the lovely collection of photographs as I learn about my National Parks. I often forget just how many National Parks are all over this country. Aside from the beautiful photography, (the authors are clearly very talented photographers), I really enjoyed all the tips for visiting a park and/or wanting to take a road trip. The book comes equipped with tips for camping spots and the best roads to take along the way. I do love a good road trip! They even have a section highlighting other places to see that are just outside the parks. This book would make a great gift for anyone who loves the outdoors and photography, or for someone who just wants a really gorgeous book on their coffee table. But more than that, it's a comprehensive and well written guide to our natural treasures.

One person found this helpful

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Clemen Samuels

Want an autographed copy.

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2021

Have not purchased. Want autographed copy. When/how can I acquire one?
Super proud of ya Stef!

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