Only In America: On the Road to Our National Parks

Jack Kerouac published On the Road in 1957. Kerouac’s book was a hymn to the Beat Generation with its jazz and drugs. Only in America’s goal isn’t to capture the voices of the counterculture. It’s to explore the national parks of the continental United States.

I’ve left many states out of this fictional narrative.. But those states too have beauty. Their starkness makes us appreciate even more the treasures of our parks. Of all the parks, I’m especially fond of the parks of Utah, especially Zion and Bryce. At the top of my list, also, are Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier National Park, and the Blue Ridge.

Only in America is my tip of the hat to the one hundredth anniversary of our national parks. “Nothing behind me,” Kerouac says in On the Road “Everything ahead of me, as is ever on the road”.

May this book inspire you to visit these parks. You’ll get an appreciation of America as a land of the adventure and beauty.

I drew all of the sketches. All maps are in the public domain.

Here’s how our adventure starts.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona


January 2nd

As we awoke, rain was splattering against the window. The puddles were jumping. On the television, the news was bad. A bus accident, a kidnapping, a political scandal, and a dropping Dow made for a grim newscast.
“I guess we can’t travel in a bubble,” I said .
“But we’ll make this fun,” Nancy said “Let’s bundle up and roll”.
After breakfast, we started our four hour trip to the Grand Canyon National Park We drove up the I-17 through Flagstaff, Prescott, and Williams.
I gasped when I first time I saw the canyon, for it was night, perhaps about ten PM A full moon etched the mesas, temples, and buttes in silver but the bottomless chasm was ink The Grand Canyon at any time of the day or night is breathtaking and defies both words and pictures You cannot imagine the scale unless you experience it in person.
The Grand Canyon is a mile deep, up to 18 miles wide, and about three hundred miles long It overwhelms our senses with its voids and colors .
Every season has its beauty The shorter days and a dusting of snow made the Bright Angel Trail quieter and the scenic drives less busy. Soaring above the canyon rim, we saw bald eagles and California condors. Squirrels, with fur tassels in their ears, quarreled in the pines. Elks also made their presence known.
We viewed the panorama from the Yavapai Museum as we sipped hot chocolate. We then drove the South Rim. We saw on the North Rim streaks and blankets of white, a glistening, frosty wonderland.