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402

Trekking Miles

27

National Parks

17,200

Road Miles

In 2016 the National Park Service celebrated its 100 anniversary. Most people are aware of the iconic parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. These are just three of the 59 National Parks found throughout the country. Our journey, beginning in March 2017, our travels took us to 27 of the U.S. National Parks, over a 4 1/2 month period. The goal in visiting the national parks, similar to our other journeys, was to focus on the cultural and natural significance of what we see. So we visited many of the more obscure and lesser-known parks. For example, the number of yearly visitors to Isle Royale National Park in Michigan (where we stopped in June) is less than the number that visits Yellowstone in ONE day.

Also true to our travels, we hiked over 400 miles while visiting the parks and took several overnight backpacking trips. Our mode of transportation was our Toyota 4Runner 4×4 SUV. We outfitted the back of our vehicle with a platform that provided storage space underneath a mattress where we slept those nights when we were not backpacking.

Watch a short overview of our adventure:

Read more about our journey below:

How we converted our 4Runner into a Camper

Camping is a main component of our U.S. National Parks journey, as we travel to 27 parks over four-and-a-half months. In fact, we plan to camp over 100 nights while driving round the United States. We decided to simply convert…

A Tale of Two Deserts: Joshua Tree National Park

The focus of our Trekking the Planet NPS journey is to venture to new and lesser known U.S. national parks. However, for our first park we chose a familiar place: Joshua Tree National Park, which is only a one hour…

A Unique Cactus: Saguaro National Park

There are four deserts in North America: the Mojave, Great Basin, Chihuahuan and Sonoran. The Sonoran Desert is the most complex and diverse of its counterparts, with its physical features ranging from mountain ranges to arid plains to grassy plateaus…

A Walk on the Wild Side: Petrified Forest National Park

Although petrified wood can be found in all 50 U.S. States, Petrified Forest National Park has some of the highest concentrations in the world. We spent two days exploring this park as well as taking two overnight backpacking trips in…

Nature’s Windows: Arches National Park

Arches National Park is home to over 2,000 arches etched in Entrada sandstone. It also has the highest density of natural stone arches in the world. We had been to Arches 21 years ago when our daughters were 2 and…

Of Sand and Snow: Great Sand Dunes National Park 

When we researched national parks to include on our Trekking the Planet NPS journey, we were surprised to discover sand dunes in the middle of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Great Sand Dunes contains the highest dune in North America,…

An Underground Journey: Carlsbad Caverns National Park

​Carlsbad Caverns, located in the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico’s Guadalupe Mountains, is the first of three “cave” national parks we plan to visit on our TTP NPS journey (the other two parks are Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and Wind…

The Top of Texas: Guadalupe Mountains National Park 

​Over 200 million years ago, the Guadalupe Mountains were a marine reef under a tropical sea. When the sea evaporated, the Capitan Reef was buried in sediments and mineral salts. Later, an uplift created the mountains that today tower above…

Of Desert, Mountain and River: Big Bend National Park

​We were in the state of Texas for 17 days, and most of our time was spent in one place: Big Bend National Park. Big Bend, established in 1944, is the 15th largest national park by area (801,000 acres). We…

Small but Historic: Hot Springs National Park 

Hot Springs National Park, in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, has the distinction of being America’s smallest national park at just 5,500 acres. Its protected status predates Yellowstone, commonly considered to be the world’s first national park created in 1872….

Exploring Below and Above: Mammoth Cave National Park

With over 400 miles of surveyed passages, Mammoth Cave National Park is famous as the longest known cave system in the world. We not only ventured into the cave on two occasions while visiting, but also had the opportunity to…

Where Alligators and Crocodiles Roam: Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park protects the largest tropical wilderness in the United States. It is a mosaic of marshes, creeks, prairies, and forests, with a abundance of wildlife. And it is the only place in the world where the alligator and…

A Sailing Adventure: Biscayne National Park

Twenty-one miles east of the Everglades and just north of the island of Key Largo lies Biscayne National Park. It is the largest protected marine national park in the United States. With 95% of the park on the water, we…

A Day of Ferry, Fort, and Fish: Dry Tortugas National Park

A high-speed catamaran voyage of 70 miles each way along the Gulf of Mexico, exploration of a massive brick fort complete with a moat around it, and snorkeling underwater among the tropical coral and fish? We spent a day doing…

​A Swampy Forest: Congaree National Park

Congaree is one of America’s newest national parks, becoming the 58th such protected area in 2003. Comprised of 26,276 acres, Congaree protects the largest intact old-growth bottomless hardwood forest in the U.S. We spent two days in the park’s swampy…

​A Hiking Paradise: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

One of the largest protected areas east of the Mississippi River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a hikers paradise lying in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. Within the park boundaries, there about 900 miles of hiking paths, including…

​On the Mountain Top: Shenandoah National Park 

Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park sits on the top of the Appalachian Mountains’ Blue Ridge Range. Skyline Drive runs for 105 miles through the park along the crest of the Blue Ridge, and the views from its 75 overlooks are more…

Anything but Barren: Acadia National Park

In 1604 French explorer Samuel de Champlain sailed along the coast of today’s central Maine and noted an island that he called “Isle des Monts Deserts” because of the barren appearance of its mountains. Today, Mount Desert Island is the…

Urban Nature and History: Cuyahoga Valley National Park 

Ohio’s 85 mile long Cuyahoga River flows between Akron and Cleveland and into Lake Erie. Meaning “crooked river” in the Mohawk language, the river area was home to Native Americans. By the 20th century, the Cuyahoga River became one of…

50 Hours by Foot and Paddle: Voyageurs National Park

In the 18th century, French Canadian adventurers, known as voyageurs, traveled by canoe on today’s boundary waters between the United States and Canada. Today’s Voyageurs National Park, established in 1975, encompasses 56 miles of the former trade route. In order…

Hiking Under the Sea: Badlands National Park

Seventy five million years ago a shallow sea covered today’s Great Plains area. Sea creatures that died sank to the bottom of the sea and became fossils, as well as a gray-black layer of sedimentary rock. This layer is just…

Of Boxwork and Bison: Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave, in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota, was created as America’s eighth national park in 1903 and was the first to protect a cave. During the three days that we visited, we took two tours in the…

The Man and His Legacy: Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Theodore Roosevelt in North Dakota is the only one of America’s 59 national parks to be named after a person. While in the park, we spent time in all three units, united by the Little Missouri River flowing through them.

Cascade Mountain High: Mount Rainier National Park

The Cascade Mountains run from south British Columbia to Northern California. The highest peak in the Cascades is Mount Rainier. At 14,410 feet, it is the fifth tallest mountain in the lower 48 states and the 17th highest in the…

California Crags and Caves: Pinnacles National Park

America’s newest national park is Pinnacles, established in 2013, and located about 80 miles southeast of San Jose, California. During our two days in the park we hiked 17.2 miles, scrambled in two talus caves, and scanned the skies for…

A Coastal Finale: Channel Islands National Park

Off the coast of California, between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, lie the Channel Islands. There are eight islands in the 160 mile archipelago, and five of those comprise Channel Islands National Park. Our visit to the 27th and final…

How We Took the Ultimate US National Park Road Trip

We recently completed an interview, summarizing our favorite parks, challenges we faced, what worked well and our final thoughts from our Trekking the Planet National Parks Roadtrip Adventure. If you missed any of our stories from the parks, you can…

The Best of Trekking the Planet National Parks Wallpaper

Our ‘Best of’ Trekking the Planet wallpaper features 46 of our favorite photos from the national parks, national monuments, national memorials and national seashores we visited on our recent journey. The photos in this theme will automatically be rotated every…