Compiling Our Lists: How Many National Parks We've Visited

During the travels that took our family to all 50 states, we spent a decent amount of time enjoying our nation's national parks. Steve hopes to visit them all someday. My goals are far less lofty; I have no interest in visiting some of the parks. Not because they're subpar; I'm sure they're stunning. But I'll be skipping the parks that are so remote that you have to take a tiny plane to get there and that don't have any services (or even trails!) once you're there. I'm a fan of passable roads, running water, and prompt medical service when I need it. Call me crazy. 

Let me clarify that Steve's wish is to visit each of the 63 national parks, not each of the 431 national park units or 175 related units. I'll discuss those in a future blog post, but for now I want to focus on the 63: Acadia to Zion. 

You can, of course, read about each national park on the NPS website, but for a fantastic summary in a single location, I recommend EarthTrekkers. I printed out their map and list in order to figure out how many parks Steve has visited and how many still remain.  

I started by highlighting the names of the twelve national parks that Steve and I have visited together (in yellow). These include: Acadia, Badlands, Congaree, Cuyahoga Valley, Gateway Arch, Grand Canyon, Hawaii Volcanoes, Hot Springs, Theodore Roosevelt, Wind Cave, Yosemite, and Zion. I visited Glacier Bay before I met Steve (in orange) and my mom reports that I visited Crater Lake and Lassen Volcanic as a kid. That brings my total to 15/63. I think. I might have been to Rocky Mountain in my 20's, but I'm not sure. 

Trevor and Steve took a Scout trip to Pinnacles without me (in green), and Steve and I went to Grand Canyon and Zion before Trevor was born, so Trevor's total would be 12/63.... except I just realized his grandparents took him to Crater Lake in August. So Trevor is at 13/63. 

Steve has been to ten national parks without Trevor or me (in purple): Carlsbad Caverns, Crater Lake, Death Valley, Denali, Great Smoky Mountain, Kings Canyon, Redwood, Sequoia, Shenandoah, and Yellowstone. So his total is 23/63, unless he's missing some from his childhood. That wouldn't surprise me. His parents are avid road-trippers who enjoy camping and hiking. 

It's frustrating seeing our (relatively) low numbers and realizing that they could be higher. We canceled a trip during COVID that would have included Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Bad weather kept Trevor from visiting Grand Canyon with Steve when I was attending Creativation in Phoenix in 2017. Steve and I cut Bryce Canyon from the first trip we took together because I was had horrible stomach pain (later diagnosed as IBS) and had struggled at Grand Canyon and Zion. Even though I was feeling a little better a few days later, I vetoed Death Valley on the same trip. We'd had car trouble at the beginning of our trip and I was paranoid about breaking down in the desert in July. As frustrating as they can be, car trouble, illness, bad weather, and global pandemics can all mess up the best laid plans. All we can do is plan more trips and hope things work out. That's what happened after our trip to nowhere; we made it to Hot Springs NP on our rescheduled trip. 

Update: I forgot about our visit to Virgin Islands NP. Add one to each of our totals! 

How many national parks have you visited? Let me know in the comments and tell me if you have a favorite!