Conor Knighton is an Emmy Award-winning CBS Sunday Morning Correspondent. He's also a Charleston, West Virginia native who spent a year on the road visiting every national park in the country.
Knighton, who wrote a book about his journey titled "Leave Only Footprints," spoke with Eric Douglas about his epic trip and how growing up in West Virginia influenced what he saw.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Douglas: One thing that really intrigued me about this book, Leave Only Footprints, was — probably on the second page — you were talking about your West Virginia roots and comparing that to some of the adventures you were setting out on? How did that play into your excursion out to visit all of the national parks in the country?
Knighton: It's so easy to trace my love of nature back to West Virginia. I grew up with so many different hiking opportunities right out my front door, whether that was Kanawha State Forest or a trip to Watoga, we spent a lot of weekends camping. It's just a beautiful state. And it continues to be a type of landscape that I appreciate — maybe even more now that I've seen so many other places.
Read the entire interview from WV Public Broadcasting.