Access to Adventure: Accessibility in National Parks

We hear “the outdoors are for everyone” a lot, and while that is true, accessibility to the outdoors is not always created equal. Today’s episode is dedicated to two remarkable stories of people with disabilities reaching for history in National Parks. A group of paraplegic hikers who set out to climb Guadalupe Peak in wheelchairs and two kayakers who paddled through the Grand Canyon—facing some of the hardest whitewater in the world—completely blind. Documentaries: Assault on the Mountain, The Weight of Water, Blink, Wampler’s Ascent Books: No Barriers: A Blind Man's Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon by Buddy Levy and Erik Weihenmayer ​​Touch the Top of the World by Erik Weihenmayer Podcasts: No Barriers For a full list of our sources, visit the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more,

You can listen to Access to Adventure: Accessibility in National Parks online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Access to Adventure: Accessibility in National Parks is an episode from National Park After Dark.

This episode is 73:34 long.

This episode was published on Feb 9, 2026.

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