Visiting Every National Park in One Year with Conor Knighton

Zero To Travel Podcast

Jason Moore

Society & Culture, Business, Entrepreneurship, Places & Travel

4.6 • 866 Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2025

⏱️ 113 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What changes when you give your travels a singular mission? Conor Knighton is an Emmy Award-winning correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and the bestselling author of Leave Only Footprints. After a personal breakup and some professional uncertainty, Conor pitched an idea that turned into a once-in-a-lifetime journey to all 59 national parks - a mission that transformed his life. In this episode, Conor shares how the trip came to be, the people and parks that changed him, and why structure and singularity can create deeper travel experiences. He also offers practical advice for making the most of your national park visits, especially when you want to avoid the crowds. If you’ve ever wanted to build a long-term travel journey around a specific goal, Conor’s story shows how powerful that can be. He opens up about the personal challenges that led to the trip, how he pitched it to CBS, and what it was really like to live on the road for a year. Along the way, he shares travel-tested tips for navigating national parks, connecting with strangers, and building a meaningful solo travel experience. *This is a previously released episode from the archives! Zero To Travel interviews are timeless, offering valuable insight whenever you listen. What’s the most powerful travel experience you’ve had in nature? I'd love to hear what they are, and I hope you’ll share them by sending me an audio message. Tune In To Learn: How Conor transitioned from acting to TV journalism What sparked his idea to visit every U.S. national park in one year Why structure and a mission can elevate your travels How he funded and planned the yearlong journey Advice for navigating national parks without the crowds What to do on “lazy” travel days and why they’re important The best gear and apps for park-based road trips How to balance travel and content creation Stories of the inspiring people he met along the way Reflections on uncertainty, risk, and reinvention And so much more Resources: Sign up for our FREE newsletter ConorKnighton.com Instagram Want More? RV´ing Across America: A Quest To Visit All 50 States w/ Alyssa Padgett Reading a Book from Every Country in the World: A Year-Long Quest of Understanding with Ann Morgan How a Quest Can Improve Your Life (And Travels), Metaphysics, Letting Go of Beliefs That No Longer Serve With Derek Loudermilk Thanks To Our Sponsors: Apple Card - Earn 3% back on the Apple products and services you love with Apple Card. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Did you know, Apple Card is designed to help you pay off your balance faster with smart payment suggestions, and because fees don't help you, Apple Card doesn't have any. So if your credit card isn't Apple Card, maybe it should be.
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0:32.1	I think travel in general, though, it is healing because of the self-reliance that it inspires because of the
0:40.5	conversations at forces you have, because of the broadening of your perspectives, where it's just
0:44.3	you realize that it's not all about you all the time.
0:49.7	You just heard a clip from my interview today with Connor Knighton, who is an Emmy Award
0:54.1	winning correspondent for CBS Sunday morning, who is an Emmy Award-winning correspondent
0:54.9	for CBS Sunday Morning, which is America's number one Sunday morning news program. And he spent
1:00.7	a year of his life traveling to every national park in America. National parks, something I am so
1:08.7	passionate about. I was so excited to have this conversation
1:11.7	with him as he gets into his top travel tips for visiting national parks and how to avoid the
1:17.1	crowd, some of the best off the beaten path, national parks to visit. And we talk about his quest
1:23.2	to go to every park. What are some of the benefits of creating a singular mission around your
1:29.3	travels like he did? He shares a story about how this trip began and how it ended, which
1:35.3	such a beautiful bookend to this quest that he completed. Of course, plenty of stories from the road
1:42.4	and some amazing people that he met along the way.
1:45.1	And if you've ever wondered how somebody ends up on TV getting paid to travel and to talk about travel,
1:53.2	well, you're going to hear how that happened for Connor, all of that happening, and so much more.
1:58.4	Plus, I'm going to share my feelings around the importance of lazy
2:03.0	days out on the road and my personal favorite off the beaten path National Park. It's all happening
2:10.6	in this episode right now. So buckle up, strap in, grab your favorite beverage, relax.
	...

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