I Visited 18 National Parks Last Year. Here's All of Them
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- Опубліковано 16 січ 2024
- 2023 was my biggest year of parks related travel to date. I visited 18 different NPS sites, and 27 different protected areas (not including those in my home state of South Carolina, which I visit numerous times each year). I want to give you a breakdown of each and every one of the parks I visited, for 2 reasons: one, to showcase the breadth and diversity of parks in America. I visited everything from mountains to beaches, remote wildernesses to city centers, and I think there's a lot of value in seeing just how far and wide our system of protected areas stretches. But also, I want to help you visit these places yourself! So, I'm also including my travel tips for each of these parks, things I learned along my travels last year, to better help you plan your own park-related vacation. Enjoy!
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New River Gorge feels like the first park promotion in 20 years that actually feels worthy of the "big P" Park designation. I'd love to get out there someday!
It was a really wonderful experience. Lots to do, fascinating history, and a great example of the healing power of conservation. I want to head up there for Bridge Day one year, and also do some rafting over on the Gauley, which our guides told us was way gnarlier than the New. I hope you make it out there!
Quite a lot!! Adding Kenai Fjords to my bucket list for sure.
I don't think you'll regret it!
Wow, I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for sharing your travels, it brings back some wonderful memories of my own travels.
Glad you enjoyed it and that I could help bring back some positive memories! Thanks for watching!
Looks like a good year! It was nice seeing friends in the video!
It was! Nothing better than exploring parks with the people you love 😊
what a great motivational video!
Thanks so much! I hope you're able to enjoy your own park adventures this year!
Nice. In 2016 I did 16 parks.
By that measure, you've got a lot of parks to visit this year 😂
Thanks for highlighting some of the smaller and lesser know national park sites on your channel! Last year I visited Bandalier National Monument and Jewel Cave National Monument and it really reminded me to not sleep on the National Monuments. I had a great time at both.
I'm not sure what your 2024 plans have in store, but I'd love to see you research and/or visit some of the Midwest National Park sites! Sleeping Bear Dunes, Pictured Rocks, Apostle Islands -- all great places. And Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail was just designated as a National Scenic Trail. Great win for my home state! 😊
Agreed! I just moved from the Midwest to the Southwest, and I sure will miss places like Sleeping Bear Dunes. Some amazing places around the Great Lakes!
Pretty much every trip I take, I look to see what NPS sites are near there, regardless of designation, and make it a point to visit them! Even in a place like NYC, which has 5 NPS sites in lower Manhattan, you can find some lesser known park sites!
To your point about the Midwest, I would LOVE to visit there. It's by far the biggest blind spot for my travels overall, but especially for my NPS travels. One day I will get there!
Visited New River Gorge in 1990 does that count as a national park?
So many areas I never saw, but it's so nice that you have.. and shared
them!
So much beauty and history.
Cheers,
Rik Spector
They were all a blast - I hope you're able to make it to some yourself! Thanks Rik!
@@NationalParkDiaries Thanks’ Me to, I will be 82 Feb 28 😁LOL
Thanks for all the awesome content and amazing videos!!!
Thanks for watching!
I love the historical and military parks the best, but I enjoyed seeing other parks vicariously through your video. Now I have more ideas for places to visit! :)
I'd definitely recommend visiting Stones River National Battlefield (Murfreesboro, TN). They frequently have great living history programs about different aspects of the battle and the soldiers. Great place to visit and it's definitely my favorite national park.
Being on the East Coast, these are some of the more accessible parks to me and I love learning about lesser known pieces of American history. Plus, crowds are typically smaller and it's usually pretty easy to see the whole park. Love me some historical parks!
Thanks for the summary. I only discovered your website later on in the year and have been a dedicated follower since. Look forward to your posts and this summary just
added to my enjoyment.
So glad to hear it, welcome to the community!
Thank you so much. I love seeing the parks through you. I'm so proud of you. I look forward to 2024. Take care, cam.
Thanks so much!!
Thanks! for the great review of those parks. It gave me some ideas of where to visit next year.
I'm so glad - enjoy your travels!
I love your enthusiasm of the nature's beauty and your appreciation of learning more about the world. May I suggest that when you are satisfied with all the parks of US, you might want to consider an epic journey to Antarctica. After visiting Alaska I too was captivated by ice. After that it caused me to wonder what the ice in Antarctica was like. And it was nothing less than a religious experience. Nothing like Alaska, which is gorgeous, but the feeling of being in Antarctica give me a whole new appreciation of life. .
Antarctica is _super_ high on my list! One day when I get the funds lol
Great video and summary. Will be in Kenai ourselves in July, based largely on your video - which will make #58 of the 63 NP’s. Will look you up in October for our return trip to Congaree!
Wonderful, I'm sure you're going to love it! Kenai has massively grown on me since I first visited in 2021 and I love everything about that park. Definitely reach out if you're headed to Congaree - I always love a visit out there and October is a great time of year to go!
Didn't know you could walk under the bridge in New River Gorge. Hoping to hit Crater Lake, Lassen, Red Wood, and Pinnacles this year
Yep! It's a guided tour, but it's actually not that expensive, especially compared to the experience your getting. Enjoy your park visits!
Yo- really amazing traveler,ciao! National! ;)
Thanks so much!
Fantastic video! My wife, our toddler and I just got our national parks passport at the end of August. We were on a trip to the Outer Banks and were able to get Cape Hatteras and the wright brothers memorial stamps. Since then we've been to 16 more park sites.
Like you said in the video, we've been to a few sites that we would never have thought to go to but they've become some of our favorite places. New Castle, DE (part of first state national historic Park) is a town we never thought we would visit but ended up falling in love with the historical atmosphere.
We live in between Hopewell furnace National historic site and Valley forge, so if you've never visited either of them I would highly recommend them. Both are very picturesque and are great if you're interested in colonial/revolutionary War history.
Glad to hear it! You really can find some hidden gems just by seeing what NPS locations are nearby. Whenever I plan a trip (that isn't NPS specific), I always make it a point to see what NPS locations are close and make it a point to visit them. I've never been disappointed with this strategy! I also look out for other forms of federal protection, like Wildlife Refuges and National Forests, or state parks too. There's just so many cool park-related places to visit!
I'll have to take your recommendation for Valley Forge one of these days - I've been wanting to visit it!
@@NationalParkDiaries that's exactly what we did recently. We were on a trip to Pittsburgh. We stopped at a state park and flight 93 on the way there, then we stopped at fort necessity National Battlefield on the way home. It's a great way to make the drive to and from your destination more exciting.
I've been to numerous camping/cabin camping events at Catoctin Mountain Park over the years. Our joke has always been don't wander too far in a particular direction or you may run into the Secret Service or teenagers with machine guns (aka United States Marines).
Not even going to lie, driving by Camp David was a bit anxiety inducing. I filmed a segment near there for a video and was fully expecting the Secret Service to come and take me away...
Wow, I didn't get to any National or State Parks last year. Sounds like I need to fix that
I hope you do! I don't think you'll regret it!
This was by far my craziest year for travel and visiting national parks. I visited the park I'm closest to Great Smokey mountains 3 times. In February I visited Cumberland Island national seashore. In April I checked my new favorite GA park cloudland canyon. June I went to Everglades, Biscayne, and Luchayan National park in the Bahamas. Then in June I went to Glacier and Waterton and also Banff, Kootenay, Jasper, and Yoho. In September I did a cross country road trip where I saw Petrified forest, Montizumas Castle NM, and Joshua Tree. In November I went to the eastern sierras. Did not visit, but could see parts of Kings Canyon and Death Valley. Finally in December we drove west to east and saw Valley of Fire State park in Nevada, The Hoover Dam NM, Bryce canyon (a repeat), Capital Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Colorado NM (another repeat), Rocky Mountain, Gateway arch, and land between the lakes NRA. 2023 was amazing and I hope I can make 2024 just as great. Started the year off visiting Parque Nacional Cumbres de Monterrey in Mexico and it was amazing.
Wow, you did have a big year!! I'm glad you enjoyed all your park adventures! How was Cumberland Island? I'm looking to go there in the first part of this year sometime
@@NationalParkDiaries It is great. Me and my friends brought the wrong kind of bikes (road bikes) so it made traversing the length of the island a lot harder but it was just a very unique atmosphere. Not super remote, but such a peaceful place. Ill be back in February for my girlfriends birthday. Hope to run into you there lol
@@jar1345 oh good to know! I didn't even think to bring a bike, but I'll add that to my packing list now. I'm thinking it might be a March trip, since February already has a pretty big one planned (Japan!)
@@NationalParkDiaries that seems like an awesome trip. Looking forward to what might come out of that! For the longest there was bike rentals on the island but not anymore. You have to pay $10 to bring a bike on the ferry but it’s worth it.
I knocked out 12.
1. Cuyahoga
2. Great smoky mountains
3. Indiana dunes
4. Badlands
5. Grand teton
6. Yellowstone
7. Olympic
8. Mt. Rainier
9. North cascades
10. Theadore Roosevelt
11. Voyagers
12. Mammoth cave
Honerable mention to the bankhead national forest and the white mountains national forest
Very nice! A wide variety there!
Definitely some great spots! Did you see any gators at the Barataria Preserve at Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve?
Yes! One was right off the boardwalk trail near the Visitor Center
I visited 7 national parks in 2023 and 3 International Dark Skies areas.So far 3 in 2024.
When I retired we discovered the National Park Passbook program and used our America the Beautiful Pass to visit many parks and sites. We have visited all 50 states and 112+ National Parks, Battlefields, Monuments, Historical sites, etc. The Passbook program got us looking for the lesser known sites. As a bonus, the USBLM, USFS, USFWS many have passbook stamps too.
Also use paper maps. Google maps or other phone maps apps don't show how close some of these places are to an interstate and you'll drive right by not knowing it only an hour detour to visit and get back onto the highway.
I have missed too many passport stamps already to try and go back and collect them, but I get my fill by collecting Unigrids now instead! Agreed on paper maps too - I use them whenever I can.
You should make a video about the dabate to remove wild horses from theadore Roosevelt NP
Ah! A very contentious issue. Will definitely be covering it at some point!
Do you think you could touch on the Chiricahua site? I saw a news story saying they're trying to change its designation from National Monument to National Park.
I saw that as well - it would be a good one to cover!
Have you hears about the fossilized eggs that were found in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument?
This is a great example of why we keep investing in preservation & exploration.
Had this area not been part of the national system we ( the public ) might have missed out on this amazing discovery.
I did see that! An amazing discovery, and I couldn't agree with your assessment more!
The evidence of the last 30 years is clear. Park status and NPS itself have become the greatest threats to wild places and authentic communities. The camp followers, "eco-preneuers," buckets listers, digital nomads, corporate hustlers, BNB investors, trust-funders and petite bourgeoisie instantly overwhelm, exploit and diminish the places and people. Every small town near a park turns into a real estate feeding frenzy for the 1%. The working class of the interior West has been run out of the towns they built. Other agencies have proven themselves superior to NPS in preservation and conservation.The graft and corruption inside NPS in the awarding of concessions and contracts, even to firms with a history of organized crime convictions, is contemptible. NPS was born by elitists and still greatly serves them, so now they use the "pricing function" to exploit the overcrowding they created. Morale among the lower NPS ranks is abysmal. Teton, Grand and Coconino counties tell the sad tale. NPS doesn't give a rat's ass about our communities.
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