How does one possibly describe the beauty of spending nearly three weeks in some of California's national parks?

Local journalist Reed Parsell wrote about it. His travel guide, Fodor's in Focus: Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, was released last month.

After spending 20 days hiking and exploring three of California's national parks last summer, he approached previous pieces written by Fodor's writers, updated them and added his own take on the parks.

Parsell says roughly 70 percent of the book is new material written by him.

"I think it was a good move for Fodor's to focus on these three popular parks in a user-friendly, pocket-size format," he said. "It allowed me to describe things in a level of detail that should give people a good idea of what to expect and how to prioritize their visits. I'm thrilled with how it turned out."

He has a special fondness for the hiking chapters, which was his favorite part of the research process.

"It seemed like a lot of work, but the book feels small in my hands and I am in awe of people who take on larger projects," he said. "Mine was compact and tailored to my interests."

While he has written about many parks and locations across the United States, Parsell's favorite travel destination isn't anywhere close. His favorite place to visit is the southwestern coast of Australia.

"Perth strikes me as what metro L.A. might be like with 13 million fewer people," he said.

Parsell first became involved in the travel genre in the 1990s when he edited the now-defunct Frommer's travel guides. He also had a hand in updating and writing a few chapters in both Fodor's California's 2010 and Fodor's National Parks of the West.

He first got involved with Fodor's when one of his colleagues at The Sacramento Bee, heard that the travel guide company needed writers and suggested that Parsell go for it.

Parsell is an active journalist in Sacramento and has an extensive résumé at various outlets in town. He began as a copy editor and travel writer for The Bee in 1994 and also taught the journalism and ethics course at Sacramento State for three semesters until 2008. Currently, he still works for The Bee and is the "Go Green" columnist as well as a regular contributing writer for Sacramento Magazine.

Copies of his book are available for purchase at select Border and Barnes & Noble bookstores, as well as on on various websites, like Amazon.com.