96-year-old ‘Grandma Joy’ and her grandson are bringing their viral National Parks story to Tattered Cover in Denver
Aug 18, 2026, 8:18 AM
Joy Ryan didn’t get her first passport until she was 91. She’d never seen a mountain until she was 85. Now she’s 96 years old, she’s visited every single U.S. national park, she’s been to five continents, and this Thursday (Aug. 20) she’s coming to Tattered Cover in Denver to tell you about it.
Joy, better known to the internet as “Grandma Joy,” and her grandson Brad Ryan will appear at Tattered Cover Book Store & Cafe on Thursday, Aug. 20, at 6 p.m. to discuss their new memoir, “Grandma Joy and Me: A Journey of Healing, One National Park at a Time,” published by Simon & Schuster in June. The book chronicles the duo’s seven-year, 100,000-mile journey to all 63 U.S. national parks, a trip that started in 2015 when Brad took his then-85-year-old grandmother camping in the Smoky Mountains and ended in 2023 when Joy became the oldest person to begin and finish visiting every national park in America.
But this was never just about checking boxes on a bucket list. Brad, a wildlife veterinarian from Ohio, originally planned the trip as a way to reconnect with his grandmother after years of family estrangement. What started as a single weekend in the Smokies turned into a decade of conversation, healing and discovery that went viral, earning Grandma Joy millions of fans online and a memoir that Publishers Weekly called “a heartfelt tribute to nature and intergenerational healing.”
And they’re not done. Just weeks after the Denver appearance, Brad and Joy are heading to Thailand and Australia with Road Scholar to visit their sixth and seventh continents, because apparently visiting 63 national parks by age 93 wasn’t enough for a woman who spent most of her life in southeastern Ohio and had never seen an ocean.
Here’s what you need to know:
- What: Brad Ryan and Grandma Joy book event for “Grandma Joy and Me”
- When: Thursday, Aug. 20, at 6 p.m.
- Where: Tattered Cover Book Store & Cafe, Denver
- Cost: Tickets start at $7.25 (available on Eventbrite)
The duo will also appear at Trident Booksellers & Cafe in Boulder on Tuesday, Aug. 18, at 6:30 p.m.
