Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks

Many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America’s national parks. Mark’s most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks.

On the eve of turning fifty and a little burned-out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He’d spend a year visiting the national parks. He planned to take his mother to a park she’d not yet visited and to re-create his childhood trips with his wife and their iPad-generation daughter.

But then the unthinkable happened: his mother was diagnosed with cancer, given just months to live. Mark had initially intended to write a book about the future of the national parks, but Lassoing the Sun grew into something more: a book about family, the parks, the legacies we inherit and the ones we leave behind.

“In this remarkable journey, Mark Woods captures the essence of our National Parks: their serenity and majesty, complexity and vitality—and their power to heal.” —Ken Burns

“Earnest and heartfelt . . . captures how one family handles the joys and sorrows of life, with America’s most beautiful landscapes standing in the background.” —Travel & Leisure

“A meditation on both personal and environmental legacy.” —Entertainment Weekly

“An extraordinary, beautifully crafted memoir that explores not just our national parks, but our places in them, our families, our legacies and the healing power of nature.” —The Mercury News