50 True Tales from Our Great National Parks

Stephanie Pearson is a journalist, a 2023 National Geographic Explorer, and a contributing editor to Outside magazine. She is the author of  “100 Great American Parks,” a beautifully illustrated collection of the nation’s most intriguing landscapes published by National Geographic. After earning her master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Pearson began her career at Outside, where she was on the editorial staff for more than 13 years. Her assignments over three decades have included reporting from Mount Everest Base Camp, meditating with Tibetan Buddhist Scholar Robert Thurman in Bhutan, and producing an online science curriculum while traveling through Australia and Latin America with National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner and his team. Pearson has received four Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation in the categories of Foreign Travel, Environmental and Sustainable Tourism,  Service-Oriented Consumer Work, and Travel Journalist of the Year.  Her work has also been anthologized in “The Best American Travel Writing” series.  Madeline Kloepper is a Canadian artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Major in Illustration from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Although she grew up in the lower mainland of British Columbia amidst a sea of humans and spent a few years in Vancouver. Following the completion of her degree in 2015, Madeline migrated northward and has gratefully settled on the unceded territory of the Lheidli T’enneh. She lives happily in a little old house with her partner, Ben and sweet pup, Heidi. Madeline’s work is inherently narrative and often influenced by childhood, nostalgia and the relationships we forge with nature. Her work has been recognized by Society of Illustrators New York, Society of Illustrators Los Angeles, Creative Quarterly and been featured in 3x3 Magazine, SAD Mag and UPPERCASE magazine. When she is not exploring the vast outdoors of Northern British Columbia and admiring the trees and mountains you can find her sipping coffee, making pottery and dreaming up narratives in her sketchbook

“ . . . rapturous descriptions of natural wonders . . . ”

• IntroductionThe National Parks of the USAThe Amazing Acrobats of Glacier Bay - Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, AlaskaReturn to Paradise - Virgin Islands National Park, U.S. Virgin IslandsThe Solitary Mountain Man - Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, AlaskaThe Big Bears - Katmai National Park and Preserve, AlaskaKeepers of the Light - Isle Royale National Park, MichiganSled Dogs to the Rescue - Denali National Park and Preserve, AlaskaThe Flight of the California Condor - Pinnacles National Park, CaliforniaThe Spectacular Night Sky - Big Bend National Park, TexasThe Bransfords of Mammoth Cave - Mammoth Cave National Park, KentuckyFire! - Acadia National Park, MaineThe Supernatural Powers of the Ancient Redwood - Redwood National Park, CaliforniaThe Slow-Motion Sea Cow - Everglades National Park, FloridaThe Greatest Discovery - Badlands National Park, South DakotaThe Unsung Little Sister - Capitol Reef National Park, UtahWelcome to the Wonderful Watery Underworld - Biscayne National Park, FloridaLight after Dark - Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and TennesseeBat Ballet - Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New MexicoThe Fall of Prometheus - Great Basin National Park, NevadaThe Greatest Climb - Yosemite National Park, CaliforniaA Hazardous Journey - Mount Rainier National Park, WashingtonThe Long Journey of the Leatherback - Dry Tortugas National Park, FloridaThe Pioneering Park Ranger - Grand Canyon National Park, ArizonaSchool of Rock - Arches National Park, UtahWhere the Buffalo Roam - Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North DakotaThe Voyage Home - Channel Islands National Park, CaliforniaLegend of the Hoodoos - Bryce Canyon National Park, UtahMeet an Upside Down Fruit Bat - National Park of American SamoaEscape to the Floodplain Forest - Congaree National Park, South CarolinaThe Best Man in the Party: Juliet Brier - Death Valley National Park, California and NevadaThe Jewels of the Rainforest - Haleakalā National Park, Hawai’iLife on Mars - Lassen Volcanic National Park, CaliforniaA Once Booming Metropolis - Mesa Verde National Park, ColoradoThe First Hawaiians - Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Hawai‘iThe G.O.A.T - North Cascades National Park, WashingtonAncient Social Media - Petrified Forest National Park, ArizonaThe Great Slide - Olympic National Park, WashingtonThe Queen of Colorado’s Fourteeners - Rocky Mountain National Park, ColoradoCharles Young and the General Sherman Tree - Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, CaliforniaWhere the Bears Are - Grand Teton National Park, WyomingRewilding the Appalachians - Shenandoah National Park, VirginiaReturn of the Wolf - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Montana and IdahoFree At Last - Cuyahoga Valley National Park, OhioWhere the Earth “Breathes Inside” - Wind Cave National Park, South DakotaWhiteout! - White Sands National Park, New MexicoNature’s Gifts - Glacier National Park, MontanaWalter’s Wiggles - Zion National Park, UtahSecrets from the Depths - Crater Lake National Park, OregonThe Hearty Voyageurs - Voyageurs National Park, MinnesotaColorado’s Singing Sand Dunes - Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, ColoradoWelcome to Cactus Country - Saguaro National Park, ArizonaThere’s moreGlossary