The Bright Angel Trail is one of the Grand Canyon’s most popular and accessible hiking routes, historically created by the Havasupai people and later co-opted by the National Park Service. In A Walk in the Park, the trail represents both the accessibility of the Grand Canyon for casual visitors and the layered history of Indigenous displacement. The trail serves as a focal point for discussions about tourism, commercialization, and the balance between preservation and access.

The Confluence refers to the meeting point of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers, a site of immense cultural and spiritual significance for Indigenous tribes. In the book, the Confluence becomes a battleground between developers advocating for a tramway project and activists fighting to preserve the area’s sanctity. Fedarko uses this term to highlight the tension between economic interests and cultural heritage, framing it as a microcosm of the canyon’s larger struggles.

The Esplanade is a vast, flat sandstone terrace within the Grand Canyon, known for its beauty and challenging terrain. Fedarko’s descriptions of this landscape emphasize its role as a place of transformation and reflection, where the silence and isolation allow for personal insight. The Esplanade serves as a backdrop for some of the book’s most memorable moments, illustrating the canyon’s duality as both a physical and spiritual journey.