See the 11 answer words debuted by Kathy Matheson.
S | A | A | B | S | R | I | V | A | L | A | V | A | S | T | ||||||
A | N | N | U | L | E | T | E | R | I | T | U | G | R | I | L | L | E | S | ||
B | E | A | S | T | I | E | S | K | I | F | F | L | I | P | L | O | C | K | ||
D | E | C | L | A | P | H | O | E | C | H | I | |||||||||
U | Z | I | S | Y | E | L | L | O | W | S | T | O | N | E | R | U | N | E | ||
L | E | N | A | E | X | P | E | D | I | T | I | O | N | S | A | M | O | S | ||
F | D | A | N | I | L | L | A | C | D | C | ||||||||||
P | A | L | E | O | C | E | D | E | O | F | F | S | R | E | B | U | S | |||
A | A | A | M | O | O | R | E | D | R | A | M | A | I | R | E | |||||
P | H | D | E | D | M | O | N | D | S | L | A | V | I | C | O | N | E | |||
Y | O | S | E | M | I | T | E | H | O | M | E | L | O | A | N | |||||
A | P | U | D | O | C | S | P | A | E | M | O | N | I | H | ||||||
N | A | T | I | O | N | A | L | P | A | R | K | S | E | R | V | I | C | E | ||
S | O | L | E | M | N | I | O | N | I | A | D | E | M | E | A | N | ||||
U | S | M | A | P | M | E | T | G | A | L | A | G | A | Y | L | E | ||||
B | E | S | T | R | O | N | G | N | E | P | A | L | E | S | E | |||||
E | V | E | R | S | O | W | B | O | S | O | N | |||||||||
H | O | L | Y | C | O | W | A | R | M | E | Y | P | E | D | A | N | T | S | ||
T | R | E | V | I | M | I | N | D | C | A | N | D | Y | I | N | A | W | E | ||
M | E | T | E | S | E | N | D | E | A | V | O | R | S | E | N | D | I | T | ||
L | O | O | S | E | N | P | R | N | E | W | S | T | E | A | T | S |
Okay, so this one was backbreaking. I was really glad to have Kathy as a collaborator speaking her mind, as I was ready to make pretty big compromises at many points during the construction process. Coming up with the various individual elements wasn't that hard — we both really liked MIND CANDY hiding the GRAND CANYON, and OLD FAITHFUL going up through YELLOWSTONE, etc. — but putting all the pieces together in a 140-word grid made for a rough go. It was even tougher when we decided to locate all the parks roughly where they are on a US MAP.
Okay, ARCHES is a little off. Ahem. We had ACADIA there for a while, but we decided having both ACADIA and DENALI was duplicative. (Plus, ACADIA isn't actually the name of the mountain.)
Some of the odd stuff I tried to pass off as acceptable, before Kathy reined me in:
I really enjoyed working with Kathy on this. My threshold of what's an acceptable trade-off tends to dip after I get 50 or more grid skeletons in, so it was great to have her kindly telling me at many a point that what I proposed as reasonable trade-offs were actually (cough cough) not.
I admit it, sometimes on these really complicated projects, I stick my head in the sand and go into Denali. Er, denial.
P.S. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" — our alternate title for the puzzle — is one of my favorite books ever. (Buy it here.)