He said he had been on the road for 65 days straight promoting his work. He knows Telluride very well and has been coming to film festivals here for 21 years. As soon as he drove in from Denver, he even hiked the Jud Wiebe Trail. Ken joked that he could just lock the doors of the Palm and show all six episodes, which would have taken roughly until 7:15 a.m.

This film took 10 years to make and is split into 6 two-hour episodes covering the years of 1851 to 1980. There are many recognizable names that had a big part in creating the national parks such as John Muir, President Teddy Roosevelt, Steve Mather and John D. Rockefeller. There are also many regular people mentioned that help form the history of the parks, particularly in Episode Four.  A couple named Edward and Margaret Gerkhe were my favorite. They lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, and took many trips to national parks. Margaret wrote in her journal and Edward took 5,000 photos over the years of their travels, an amazing achievement in the 1920's and 1930's. It is the stories like this one that bring this series down to a very personal level, sometimes evening bringing tears to my eyes.The scenery is breathtaking in all of the episodes, and the music was beautifully done. 

Also included are some of the photographs taken by Quang-Tuan Luong who has photographed all of the national parks.  He accompanied Ken in the Question and Answer sessions, as did park rangers Shelton Johnson, Gerard Baker and Nevada Barr, and writer Bill McKibben was onstage at the Palm after the first episode. 

The National Parks: America's Best Idea will begin airing on PBS September 27, 2009 and will be released on DVD.

Lisa Wilson is a local Telluride blogger and photographer. You can see more of her work at Mountains Rule & Telluride Daily Photo and follow her on Twitter @TellurideLisa.