A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon

The Bright Angel Trail is one of the Grand Canyon’s most popular and accessible hiking routes, historically created by the Havasupai people and later co-opted by the National Park Service. In A Walk in the Park, the trail represents both the accessibility of the Grand Canyon for casual visitors and the layered history of Indigenous displacement. The trail serves as a focal point for discussions about tourism, commercialization, and the balance between preservation and access.

The Confluence refers to the meeting point of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers, a site of immense cultural and spiritual significance for Indigenous tribes. In the book, the Confluence becomes a battleground between developers advocating for a tramway project and activists fighting to preserve the area’s sanctity. Fedarko uses this term to highlight the tension between economic interests and cultural heritage, framing it as a microcosm of the canyon’s larger struggles.

The Esplanade is a vast, flat sandstone terrace within the Grand Canyon, known for its beauty and challenging terrain. Fedarko’s descriptions of this landscape emphasize its role as a place of transformation and reflection, where the silence and isolation allow for personal insight. The Esplanade serves as a backdrop for some of the book’s most memorable moments, illustrating the canyon’s duality as both a physical and spiritual journey.