In the opening frames of the film, Burns focuses his lens on Hawaii Volcanoes, Denali, Sequoia, Petrified Forest, and, of course, the classic landscapes of Yosemite and Yellowstone. The narrative begins in 1851, as Native Americans’ presence in Yosemite Valley comes to a violent end with the arrival of a band of Indian fighters determined to take over the land. Meanwhile, in Wyoming, explorers like Nathaniel Langford and Ferdinand Hayden bring back stories of Yellowstone, and art and photography help convince the public of the region’s grandeur.

In an effort to prevent these pristine areas from turning into commercialized sites like Niagara Falls, two parks are created: Abraham Lincoln puts Yosemite under the care of California in 1864, in the midst of the Civil War. Yellowstone becomes the first true national park in 1872, partially due to that fact that Wyoming was not yet a state. The episode introduces key figures including Frederick Law Olmstead and James Mason Hutchings, as well as John Muir, who would become Yosemite’s greatest spokesman.

The second episode reminds us that although these sites were set aside by the federal government, they still require protection. In Yosemite and Yellowstone, the military steps in to protect the parks from vandals, illegal grazing, and poachers who hunt bison, birds, and other wildlife. We learn about the Buffalo Soldiers of Yosemite and General Philip Sheridan, who planned to visit Yellowstone briefly, and stayed for 30 years.

Teddy Roosevelt emerges on the scene—John Muir forms the Sierra Club, and George Bird Grinnell starts the Audubon Society, and the importance of citizen action and advocacy becomes more clear. The Wetherill brothers discover the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, and soon a Scandinavian anthropologist expresses interest in taking samples back to Sweden—a move that sparks his arrest followed by the surprising discovery that he has broken no law. John F. Lacy changes that by leading the effort to pass the Antiquities Act, giving the president the power to create national monuments. Roosevelt invokes the Antiquities Act to create Petrified Forest, Mesa Verde, and the Grand Canyon, among the five national parks, 51 bird sanctuaries, 18 national monuments, and 100 million acres of national forests he leaves as his legacy.

As more parks are created, more sites fill the screen, from Glacier, Rocky Mountain, and Wind Cave to Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Hawaii Volcanoes, Mount McKinley and Zion. This episode addresses the increasing recognition that one agency must manage all of the parks as a system. And even though the national park idea has been around for nearly 50 years at the time, many landscapes are still not yet preserved.

Stephen Mather becomes the first director of the Park Service, and the dominant individual in this episode. A wealthy, gregarious businessman, Mather came to Washington from Chicago in 1915 and successfully championed legislation creating the National Park Service in 1916, after taking a group of businessmen, politicians, and journalists on a two-week excursion through Yosemite, paid for out of his own pocket. Appointed the first NPS director in May 1917, he works closely with a young lawyer named Horace Albright to promote park access, development, and visitation.

This episode also focuses largely on the stories surrounding Glacier (and the Blackfeet) and Hawaii Volcanoes in addition to key individuals who helped set aside Acadia, including the wealthy cottager George Dorr.

Burns focuses his lens on Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde, Yosemite, Lassen Volcanic, Hot Springs, and Great Smoky Mountains, among others, with the help of writings and photographs of a young married couple, Margaret and Ed Gehrke. The residents of Lincoln, Nebraska, took dozens of trips to national parks, beginning in the 1920s—first by train, then in their Buick. Burns uses their story to introduce the automobile to the national parks, a development that Mather saw as full of possibilities for new visitors, but others compared to the serpent in the garden of Eden.

The importance of writing, photography, and art in bringing the visions of parks to the people and gaining support and appreciation is a focal point. We learn the stories of Horace Kephart and George Masa, writer and photographer who brought attention to the Smokies, and helped advocate for the park’s creation. We also meet Masa’s modern-day counterpart, French-born Vietnamese photographer Quang-Tuan Luong, who has visited all 58 of the national parks and feels an emotional tie to these landscapes.

This episode draws attention to the need for park advocacy, relating Mather’s fights to fend off dams in the Grand Canyon, the Rockefellers’ purchase of land that would become Grand Teton, and President Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to commit federal money to the purchase of private land in the Smokies to form the park—the first time federal funds were put toward such a cause.

This episode deals with the many additions to the park system under FDR’s watch, including battlefields, which had once been in the care of the War Department. Roosevelt expands the definition of what a park could be to include broader historical sites like Castillo de San Marcos, Appomattox, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, and the Lincoln Memorial.

The nation is in the grips of the depression, and FDR turns to the parks, inserting the Citizen Conservation Corps (CCC) as part of an economic stimulus package. FDR pumps $218 million in the parks, more money than in the previous decades combined.

George Melendez Wright raises the importance of protecting parks for their wildlife habitat, not simply for park visitors. Wright makes a four year, 11,000-mile journey to study badgers, coyotes, hawks, mountain lions, owls, and wolves, among others. He is concerned that so many predators are unwelcome across the country, viewed as competition for hunters rather than a key part of a complex ecosystem.

Pearl Harbor is bombed. CCC recruits are redirected to fight World War II, and the government faces pressure to open up national parks for their resources, but Interior Secretary Harold Ickes fights these proposals, and eventually hires Ansel Adams to take photos of all the national parks.

The subject of race takes center stage in parts of this episode. Two very touching stories shed light on the Japanese-American Internment camps at Manzanar. The episode ends with African American woman Marian Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial, after the Daughters of the American Revolution denied her the opportunity to sing at Constitution Hall because of her race.

This episode includes Biscayne, Dinosaur National Monument, Isle Royale, North Cascades, Olympic, Redwood, and the creation of Alaska’s parks. Although the film ends in 1980, several recently added historic sites are mentioned, including Andersonville, Little Rock Central High School, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Sand Creek, Manzanar, and Shanksville, PA (the final resting place of Flight 93).

With WWII coming to an end, more than 32 million people visit the parks in 1950. This episode explores the fact that more and more Americans are introducing their kids to parks and the concept of "loving the parks to death" emerges. A majority of this episode is devoted both to Adolph Murie and wolves in Alaska, as well as the battle to conserve huge amounts of land in Alaska. Murie and his study of wolves in Alaska is introduced in this series: “Let us be guardians rather than gardeners." Wolves’ reintroduction to Yellowstone in 1995 is also highlighted here.

Parks are under pressure not only from visitors but from business interests wanting to rebuild the country and exploit water for hydro-electric dams. Echo Park and the push to save Dinosaur National Monument from being drowned by a dam are big highlights as is George Hartzog's tenure as director and his push to change some policies, such as the feeding of bears at garbage dumps in Yellowstone.

The episode ends with a quote by Terry Tempest Williams, who is quoted extensively in the series: "The challenge for the 21st Century is the story of restoration. The national parks are not just a gift, but a covenant with the future. This is what we have now, and it is in your hands."