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