100 Must-Read Books About the National Parks

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.

1. Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
2. Yellowstone Has Teeth by Marjane Ambler
3. Altitude Adjustment: A Quest For Love, Home, And Meaning In The Tetons by Mary Beth Baptiste
4. Track of the Cat (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) by Nevada Barr
5. Endangered (A Sam Westin Mystery) by Pamela Beason
6. Death Canyon (A Jake Trent Novel) by David Riley Bertsch
7. The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston
8. Empire of Shadows: The Epic Story of Yellowstone by George Black
9. The Last Season by Eric Blehm
10. Mapping Yellowstone: A History of the Mapping of Yellowstone National Park by Bruce H. Blevins
11. Back of Beyond by C. J. Box
12. When the Killing’s Done by T.C. Boyle
13. Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley
14. Mule Train Mail by Craig Brown
15. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
16. Hey Ranger! True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America’s National Parks by Jim Burnett
17. Our Great Big Backyard by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush Hager
18. So Far from God by Ana Castillo
19. Waltzing In Ragtime by Eileen Charbonneau
20. Redwoods by Jason Chin
21. National Parks Coloring Book illustrated by Peter F. Copeland
22. The Wild Inside: A Novel of Suspense by Christine Carbo
23. America’s National Parks: A Pop-Up Book by Don Compton, illustrated by Dave Ember and Bruce Foster
24. Love is a Monument (A Walk in the Park Book) by Annalisa Daughety
25. Yellowstone Summers: Touring with the Wylie Camping Company in America’s First National Park by Jane Galloway Demaray
26. Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell’s 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon by Edward Dolnick
27. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
28. Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples by Mark Dowie
29. Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry edited by Camille T. Dungy
30. 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
31. Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers
32. In the Summer of 1903: Colonel Charles Young and the Buffalo Soldiers in Sequoia National Park by Ward Eldredge
33. Temple Grove by Scott Elliott
34. The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko
35. The Carry Home by Gary Ferguson
36. Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney
37. Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage by Dianne D. Glave
38. Good Night Yellowstone by Adam Gamble and Mark Jasper
39. All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West by David Gessner
40. Canyon Sacrifice (National Park Mystery Series) by Scott Graham
41. Among Wolves: Gordon Haber’s Insights into Alaska’s Most Misunderstood Animal by Gordon Haber and Marybeth Holleman
42. Denali’s Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America’s Wildest Peak by Andy Hall
43. Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo
44. The Year Yellowstone Burned: A Twenty-Five-Year Perspective by Jeff Henry
45. Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston
46. The Ways of My Grandmothers by Beverly Hungry Wolf
47. Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation by Karl Jacoby
48. Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, a Life in Nature by Cindy Jenson-Elliott
49. Bear in the Back Seat: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by Kim DeLozier and Carolyn Jourdan
50. Gloryland by Shelton Johnson
51. Out on a Limb: A Smoky Mountain Mystery by Carolyn Jourdan
52. Old Faithful Murder (Yellowstone Mystery Series) by Raymond Kieft
53. Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr
54. Pilgrim’s Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier by Tom Kizzia
55. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life by Winona LaDuke
56. In the Temple of Wolves: A Winter’s Immersion in Wild Yellowstone by Rick Lamplugh
57. The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
58. Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Lankford
59. Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery
60. Talking to the Dead: Religion, Music, and Lived Memory among Gullah/Geechee Women by LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant
61. A Trail Of Love by Bess McBride
62. National Parks: A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments and Landmarks by Erin McHugh
63. The Killing of Wolf Number Ten: The True Story by Thomas McNamee
64. All Aboard! National Parks: A Wildlife Primer by Haily Meyers and Kevin Meyers
65. The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors by James E. Mills
66. In the Bear’s House by N. Scott Momaday
67. The Yosemite by John Muir
68. Freshwater Road by Denise Nicholas
69. American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America by Michelle Obama
70. No-No Boy by John Okada
71. Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens by Steve Olson
72. from Sand Creek by Simon J. Ortiz
73. A Weird and Wild Beauty: The Story of Yellowstone, the World’s First National Park by Erin Peabody
74. Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Inheritance and Tells Why Every American Should Care by Audrey Peterman
75. Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
76. Lost Canyon by Nina Revoyr
77. Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail by Suzanne Roberts
78. Who Pooped in the Park? Acadia National Park: Scat and Tracks for Kids by Gary D. Robson
79. The Camping Trip that Changed America by Barb Rosenstock
80. Homegirls and Handgrenades by Sonia Sanchez
81. Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape by Kirk Savage
82. Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy
83. Engineering Eden: The True Story of a Violent Death, a Trial, and the Fight over Controlling Nature by Jordan Fisher Smith
84. Nature Noir: A Park Ranger’s Patrol in the Sierra by Jordan Fisher Smith
85. Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks by Mark David Spence
86. Ansel Adams in the National Parks: Photographs from America’s Wild Places edited by Andrea G. Stillman
87. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
88. Ecology II: Throat Song from the Everglades by Anne McCrary Sullivan
89. The Arrival by Shaun Tan
90. Bachelor Father by Vicki Lewis Thompson
91. The National Parks Coloring Book by Sophie Tivona
92. Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class by Larry Tye
93. Poaching Daisies (Yellowstone Mystery) by Carole Thayne Warburton
94. Women in Wonderland: Lives, Legends, and Legacies of Yellowstone National Park by Elizabeth A Watry
95. In Velvet by Burt Weissbourd
96. Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping by Dan White
97. The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams
98. The Chief Ranger by Rebecca Winters
99. Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America’s National Parks
    by Mark Woods
100. 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.