Speaking of National Parks...

[Anonymous]

I've been to 18 without even trying. My life's about half over. I'll probably see another ten more, but I've been to several of them many times, and I'll probably repeat many more times. I'd love to make it to Glacier again as my wife hasn't been. I've been twice so far. I haven't been to many of the California National Parks, and I love California so I'll probably go see those.

[Anonymous]

I love National Parks but visiting all of them just to do it feels more like box checking that being motivated by activities I'd actually enjoy. I'd rather revisit my favorites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Emily Pennington did it and wrote a book about it. I used to follow her dispatches on Outside Online.

https://www.amazon.com/Feral-Losing-Finding-Americas-National/dp/1542039703

Is she a good writer? I would love a Bill Bryson style book about this -- informative, funny, anecdotal, delighting in the odd characters and quirky places. But would be irritated if it's more like that one about hiking the PCT that got made into the movie with Reese.

[Anonymous]

We would like to hit as many as possible, while acknowledging that it just isn’t going to happen for some of the really remote ones.
Our numbers benefited some from the pandemic because rather than get on a plane to go somewhere, we did road trips on the eastern side of the country and hit some of the less popular parks”, like Congaree in SC or Cuyahoga in OH. Those were just parts of other trips, though.

The good part is that you can mark off several at a time out west if you aren’t doing backpacking/camping. The 5 in southern Utah, for example.

[Anonymous]

“It’s odd to have these goals.”

Odd?? I love people who are pursuing these types of goals. I usually find them so interesting and full of zest for life.

[Anonymous]

We have visited many, and plan to visit the rest in retirement (soon).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Emily Pennington did it and wrote a book about it. I used to follow her dispatches on Outside Online.

https://www.amazon.com/Feral-Losing-Finding-Americas-National/dp/1542039703

Is she a good writer? I would love a Bill Bryson style book about this -- informative, funny, anecdotal, delighting in the odd characters and quirky places. But would be irritated if it's more like that one about hiking the PCT that got made into the movie with Reese.

I liked her writing and she’s definitely not annoying like Cheryl Strayed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only want to visit the good ones.

+1. And only in good weather. I’m picky like that.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been to around 30 and would love to visit them all, but it’s unlikely. There are definitely some I’d like to revisit with my kids, though, and some I definitely want to visit sometime in my life. If all goes as planned, we will be adding three new ones this summer.