If you haven't checked out Ken Burns' documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea on PBS yet, now you can actually buy it. The 12-hour series hit DVD and Blu-ray on Oct. 6, and offers a stunning look at our national parks, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, and the Gates of Arctic in Alaska.

When you think about it, it's truly amazing how these natural wonders have become part of our lives, even if we've never been to them. Burns covers 150 years of the parks, starting with the concept in the mid-1800s and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Andy Garcia, Sam Waterston and others.

The cool thing about the DVD / Blu-ray sets is that you get three hours of bonus material, including a making-of featurette, Musical Journeys Through the National Parks, Contemporary Stories and Outtakes.

America's preeminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, the guy that made the Civil War must-see viewing, is hard at work on a new project. PBS will broadcast Ken Burns' The National Parks: America's Best Idea in Fall 2009. In 12-hours, divided over six episodes, Burns will explore the places like Yellowstone, the Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, Mount Rushmore, et al, as well as the people who were instrumental in the creation of these landmarks.

Like who? Start with Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir. In the Ken Burns style, you can be sure to learn things about the parks that you never knew, stuff that were not in the tour books from the AAA.