National Parks Traveler

Randy Johnson is Travel Editor for National Parks Traveler. He's a widely published photojournalist with many awards from the Society of American Travel Writers and North American Travel Journalists Association (he's a member of each). Until 2009, he was the longtime editor of Hemispheres, the inflight magazine of United Airlines, named “World’s Best Airline Magazine” in 2006.

He's the author of a handful of books including the bestselling Falcon Guides Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway, Best Easy Day Hikes Blue Ridge Parkway, Hiking North Carolina and Southern Snow: The Winter Guide to Dixie. His new book is Best Easy Day Hikes Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Visit Randy at www.randyjohnsonbooks.com and check out his videos of the southern Appalachians, including the Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountains at http://www.youtube.com/user/randyjohnsonbooks.

Randy's experience in parks includes proposing and implementing an innovative trail fee-based backcountry management program that preserved hiker access to Grandfather Mountain in NC (www.grandfather.com). The program helped Grandfather Mountain become the world’s only privately-owned, United Nations-designated Biosphere Reserve and a state park in 2009. During the completion of the final "missing link" of the Blue Ridge Parkway around Grandfather Mountain, Randy helped mesh the mountain’s private trails and Park Service paths into the spectacular hiking network in place today. He lives in the North Carolina mountains near Boone, not far from the Parkway, where he writes widely for magazine newspapers, and websites.