About Visiting all US National Parks!

Many people ask Tom and me, “How did you come up with your goal to visit all 58 (now 63) National Parks?” Before I answer that question I am compelled to answer the next two questions which are, “Does this include monuments and seashores?” and “Do you have any rules?”

Aurthor and partner with Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains and National Park in the background — Janice and Tom with Puget Sound and Olympic National Park in the distance.

The goal only includes the 58 (now 63) National Parks. The National Park Service manages 425 sites – too many for us to visit. The rules are simple. To count a park, we must spend time in and enjoy the park together - no drive in and out. Tom and I got together as older adults and have both visited parks on our own. So, if we haven’t been to the park together, it does not count. One of us must go again.

Some special visionaries had the foresight, long before enviornmentalism, to save the most unique natural, geological and cultural wonders for all of us to enjoy.

Now back to the original question, “How did we come up with this goal?”. We were both intrigued by The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, a Ken Burns Documentary about the National Parks formation.

It’s incredible to me how our land has changed so much in the last 150 years due to settlement and industrialization. Some special visionaries had the foresight, long before environmentalism, to save the most unique natural, geological and cultural wonders for all of us to continue to enjoy.

We both love the outdoors and nature, so we found ourselves especially drawn to these cherished and preserved wonders!

In addition, Mt Rainer National Park is our “home park”. We get to enjoy this spectacular place often for hiking, wildflowers and cycling. Knowing that there are 57 (now 62) comparable places out there, we just had to go and see them. We began with Yosemite National Park, one of the most historic. We made our goal official during that trip in 2010.

As of December 2023, we have visited 58 parks with six to go! I hope that our visits to all 63 National Parks will inspire and assist you on your National Park travels.

So, we have only five parks remaining! We will visit New River Gorge National Park in fall of 2024. The four remaining Alaska parks are still TBD since we aren’t backcountry or bush plane folks!

Click on the National Parks visits below to join us on our adventure:

Park 58 Visiting American Samoa National Park

Parks 55-57 Denali, Kenai Fjords and Wrangell St Elias National Parks

Park 54 White Sands National Park - the Perfect Day!

Park 53 US Virgin Islands National Park, St John, and Coral Reef National Monument – the Perfect Week!

Parks 51-52 Gateway Arch and Indianna Dunes National Parks - The New Ones

Parks 48-50 Wind Cave, Badlands and Theordore Roosevlt National Parks - Exploring the Dakotas

Parks 44-47 Arches, Capitol Reef and Grand Canyon National Parks - an Adventure!

Park 43 Shenandoah National Park via our Nation’s Capital!

Parks 40-42 Parks Voyaguers, Isle Royale and Cuyahoga Valley National Parks - the Great Lakes and the Great North Woods!

Park 39 Acadia National Park - the Other Coast

Parks 36-38 Biscayne, Everglades and Dry Tortugas Naitonal Parks - the Water Parks of Florida