Leave Only Footprints by Conor Knighton
Leave Only Footprints by Conor Knighton
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 2021
Purchase @ Penguin Random House
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 2021
Purchase @ Penguin Random House
Conor Knighton learns lessons from the oldest lifeforms on earth
Review by Erin Olds.
We all know that familiar feeling, the loneliness and depression that ensues after a serious relationship ends. Conor Knighton was a TV journalist for CBS’s Sunday Morning when his fiancé broke off their engagement. The loss left him feeling lifeless and directionless until a friend recommended that he do a Sunday Morning special on national parks. After CBS sent him to Acadia to complete the first segment, he decided to make it a goal to visit all the parks in the United States.
The national parks are not discussed in the order he visited them, nor are they grouped by region. Rather, parks are categorized by their characteristics: trees, wild animals, volcanoes, water, etc. As a result of these groupings, parks that may not have interacted with each other previously are juxtaposed. For example, the Florida Everglades and California’s not widely known Pinnacles, are listed in the same chapter to discuss their wild alligators and condors. In “Water,” Knighton takes readers through underwater trails in the only national park that is 95% water (Biscayne), then to our country’s most urban national park, in which concrete bathes bubble in Hot Springs, Arkansas (Hot Springs).
Knighton also discusses diversity in park visitors and important questions regarding the parks’ accessibility. While some cities are close to lands at the highest level of highest federal protection, there are several states that do not have any national parks. Moreover, some parks require a steep admission fee. About half of the parks are free, but they are often flooded with pricy tourist activities that are necessary to enjoy the park’s natural features. For instance, Biscayne National Park is located just outside Miami, Florida, and although it is free to enter the gates, unless visitors are able to pay for a $100 snorkeling trip, the majority of the wildlife is not accessible to them.
The expedition through national parks leads to some interesting revelations with God, as well as many mysterious sightings. Perhaps the most important personal development is his decision to look for love again while on the trail. He compares some relationships to that of a “state park,” while he is looking for a “national park” connection. The parks helped him to understand his relationship with his ex-fiancé, and his revelation sheds some insight on readers’ experiences as well. While exploring Acadia, he watched the first sunrise of the year and realized why many people are so interested in the year’s first sunrise, rather than its last sunset. He says, “our beginnings always seem more important than our endings. In life, we can often control how things start. Endings are elusive and amorphous and uncertain.” Similar to life, Leave Only Footprints leads readers down a path whose ending is unique and unexpected.
Review by Erin Olds.
We all know that familiar feeling, the loneliness and depression that ensues after a serious relationship ends. Conor Knighton was a TV journalist for CBS’s Sunday Morning when his fiancé broke off their engagement. The loss left him feeling lifeless and directionless until a friend recommended that he do a Sunday Morning special on national parks. After CBS sent him to Acadia to complete the first segment, he decided to make it a goal to visit all the parks in the United States.
The national parks are not discussed in the order he visited them, nor are they grouped by region. Rather, parks are categorized by their characteristics: trees, wild animals, volcanoes, water, etc. As a result of these groupings, parks that may not have interacted with each other previously are juxtaposed. For example, the Florida Everglades and California’s not widely known Pinnacles, are listed in the same chapter to discuss their wild alligators and condors. In “Water,” Knighton takes readers through underwater trails in the only national park that is 95% water (Biscayne), then to our country’s most urban national park, in which concrete bathes bubble in Hot Springs, Arkansas (Hot Springs).
Knighton also discusses diversity in park visitors and important questions regarding the parks’ accessibility. While some cities are close to lands at the highest level of highest federal protection, there are several states that do not have any national parks. Moreover, some parks require a steep admission fee. About half of the parks are free, but they are often flooded with pricy tourist activities that are necessary to enjoy the park’s natural features. For instance, Biscayne National Park is located just outside Miami, Florida, and although it is free to enter the gates, unless visitors are able to pay for a $100 snorkeling trip, the majority of the wildlife is not accessible to them.
The expedition through national parks leads to some interesting revelations with God, as well as many mysterious sightings. Perhaps the most important personal development is his decision to look for love again while on the trail. He compares some relationships to that of a “state park,” while he is looking for a “national park” connection. The parks helped him to understand his relationship with his ex-fiancé, and his revelation sheds some insight on readers’ experiences as well. While exploring Acadia, he watched the first sunrise of the year and realized why many people are so interested in the year’s first sunrise, rather than its last sunset. He says, “our beginnings always seem more important than our endings. In life, we can often control how things start. Endings are elusive and amorphous and uncertain.” Similar to life, Leave Only Footprints leads readers down a path whose ending is unique and unexpected.
Erin Olds is from Cleveland, Ohio, but also claims a few places she has lived since Cleveland as home. Currently an MFA candidate at the University of South Florida, Erin is working on an essay collection reflecting on lessons she has learned while being a twenty-first century vagabond and poetry collection about different species of trees. Erin has released an album, American Dream, in 2020, and an EP called The Quarantine EP in the same year. She served as a member of the 2019 Central California Slam Poetry Team. In 2022, she was the recipient of the First Year Writing Excellence in Teaching Award. When not writing, Erin can be found observing public art and gorgeous forests.