A Plan

For Visiting

The Parks

By taking one week each year and following this simple plan, you can visit all the national parks in just 22 years! Each year, you will visit three or four parks. On Day One you can fly to a (parenthetically suggested) nearby city and on Day Seven you can fly home. In between you can visit (and travel between) the parks. The last seven years have two parks per trip.
  1. Yosemite / Sequoia / Kings Canyon / Pinnacles   (Fresno, California)
  2. Rocky Mountain / Black Canyon Of The Gunnison / Mesa Verde / Great Sand Dunes   (Grand Junction, Colorado)
  3. Glacier / Yellowstone / Grand Teton   (Bozeman, Montana)
  4. Great Basin / Zion / Bryce Canyon   (Las Vegas, Nevada)
  5. Grand Canyon / Petrified Forest / Saguaro   (Phoenix, Arizona)
  6. White Sands / Carlsbad Caverns / Guadalupe Mountains / Big Bend   (El Paso, Texas)
  7. Capitol Reef / Canyonlands / Arches   (Salt Lake City, Utah)
  8. Olympic / Mt Ranier / North Cascades   (Seattle, Washington)
  9. Theodore Roosevelt / Wind Cave / Badlands   (Rapid City, South Dakota)
  10. Crater Lake / Redwood / Lassen Volcanic   (Chico, California)
  11. Channel Islands / Joshua Tree / Death Valley   (Los Angeles, California)
  12. Mammoth Cave / Great Smoky Mountains / Congaree   (Knoxville, Tennessee)
  13. Everglades / Biscayne / Dry Tortugas   (Miami, Florida)
  14. Cuyohoga Valley / Shenandoah / New River Gorge / Acadia   (New York City maybe)
  15. Indiana Dunes / Gateway Arch / Hot Springs   (St. Louis, Missouri)
  16. Kenai Fjords / Denali   (Anchorage, Alaska)
  17. Haleakala / Hawaii Volcanoes   (Honolulu, Hawaii)
  18. Wrangell - St Elias / Glacier Bay   (Anchorage, Alaska; then take day cruises)
  19. Voyageurs / Isle Royale   (Duluth, Minnesota)
  20. Katmai / Lake Clark   (Anchorage, Alaska; then hire a bush pilot)
  21. American Samoa / Virgin Islands   (Pago Pago, American Samoa / Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands)
  22. Kobuk Valley / Gates Of The Arctic   (Nome, Alaska; then hire a bush pilot)

See the "Map of the Parks"!
See the "Ode to the Parks"!
See the "Quiz on the Parks"!
See the "Mythical Parks"!