My Newest Travel Goal? Visit Every National Park in the US!

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of going alone?I do understand their concern. There are 63 national parks, many fairly isolated and unpopulated (eight of the parks are in Alaska, half of which are north of the Arctic Circle). Because of that, I won’t be visiting those parks on my own — I’m all for solo travel, but even I draw the line at remote wildernesses full of bears. Additionally, I’ll be leaving some of the most difficult-to-reach parks for closer to the end of my national parks journey so that I have plenty of time to plan and prepare.So what exactly is the plan? I’m hoping to visit every park in the next three years (though if I end up having to extend the timeline that’s fine). I’ve already visited two of the parks as an adult — which I will be writing about soon — so that leaves 61 parks still to visit. I’ll need to average between one and two parks per month. In reality, it will probably mean four or five some months and none other months, because for one thing I’ll be in Europe part of the time (and I won’t be flying back and forth more t

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han absolutely necessary for both financial and environmental reasons).Also, as I’ve started to map out where all the parks are, I’ve noticed that many are concentrated in a relatively small area, which means I can see quite a few over the course of one trip. This is especially true in states like Utah and Colorado.All logistics aside, I’m incredibly excited to get started. I’ve loved hiking and being out in nature since I was a little kid, when my family would go for long hikes in the mountains every free day or weekend. The past few years as I’ve traveled on my own, I’ve concentrated primarily on cities, and while I’ve loved that (and plan to continue visiting my favorite cities around the world) I’m looking forward to going back to spending more time in nature, as well as exploring the states in my country of birth that I haven’t gotten to yet.Any advice would be greatly appreciated — especially if you’ve attempted something like this before yourself. Let me know in the comments!</article></body>

Am I crazy? I guess we’ll find out…

Grand Teton National Park — Photo by Author

In general, I tend not to make travel bucket lists. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of countries and cities that I’d like to visit, but I suppose what I mean is that as much as I admire them, I’m not one of those people whose goal is to see every country in the world (though never say never!). Recently, however, I did come up with a slightly smaller, and arguably somewhat crazy, goal. I’m going to try and visit every national park in the United States.

I announced this to friends and family, and was met with some combination of encouragement and skepticism. It was a nice idea, but had I really thought it through? How was I going to get to the most remote parks? And surely I wasn’t thinking of going alone?

I do understand their concern. There are 63 national parks, many fairly isolated and unpopulated (eight of the parks are in Alaska, half of which are north of the Arctic Circle). Because of that, I won’t be visiting those parks on my own — I’m all for solo travel, but even I draw the line at remote wildernesses full of bears. Additionally, I’ll be leaving some of the most difficult-to-reach parks for closer to the end of my national parks journey so that I have plenty of time to plan and prepare.

So what exactly is the plan? I’m hoping to visit every park in the next three years (though if I end up having to extend the timeline that’s fine). I’ve already visited two of the parks as an adult — which I will be writing about soon — so that leaves 61 parks still to visit. I’ll need to average between one and two parks per month. In reality, it will probably mean four or five some months and none other months, because for one thing I’ll be in Europe part of the time (and I won’t be flying back and forth more than absolutely necessary for both financial and environmental reasons).

Also, as I’ve started to map out where all the parks are, I’ve noticed that many are concentrated in a relatively small area, which means I can see quite a few over the course of one trip. This is especially true in states like Utah and Colorado.

All logistics aside, I’m incredibly excited to get started. I’ve loved hiking and being out in nature since I was a little kid, when my family would go for long hikes in the mountains every free day or weekend. The past few years as I’ve traveled on my own, I’ve concentrated primarily on cities, and while I’ve loved that (and plan to continue visiting my favorite cities around the world) I’m looking forward to going back to spending more time in nature, as well as exploring the states in my country of birth that I haven’t gotten to yet.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated — especially if you’ve attempted something like this before yourself. Let me know in the comments!