12 National Parks in One Year (So Far)

Growing up, I never visited any national parks. Matt, my husband, didn’t either.

We both went on plenty of vacations with our families. Our parents chose places like Disney World, other well populated cities, and the Caribbean for a dose of nature and relaxation.

When talking to my mother now about the reasons we didn’t visit national parks, she says it didn’t really cross her mind. She never really felt like the national parks were for us. She also admitted our family has a traumatic history with the wilderness, and she’s always felt safer in other cities than in wilderness spaces.

I’m grateful for my childhood and the places I was able to visit. Traveling with my family was one of my favorite things in the world to do.

Our goal

Now that I’m a mom myself, I really want to visit the national parks and take my children to visit them. My relationship with nature started as a child and was reignited during a stressful time in my young adult years. I really feel like seeing more of our national parks will help deepen this relationship with nature for me and the kids. I want them to feel at home in nature. I want them to understand that they belong.

This year, our goal is to visit 22 national parks. So far, we’ve visited 12 out of 22, and we are in love!

When I first started this journey, some of the parks only made the list because they were en route to larger, more well known parks. But every single park we’ve been to so far has left us in awe.

The parks we have visited

Here are the national parks we’ve been to so far:

Yellowstone
Grand Teton
Rocky Mountains
Great Sand Dunes
Arches
Black Canyon of Gunnison
Canyonlands
Capitol Reef
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Grand Canyon
Joshua Tree

We live in Colorado and road tripped to all of the parks on this list.

Pros of visiting a lot of parks in one trip
When I came up with this idea, I thought it sounded great. I was excited about how much fun we were going to have. But as we got closer to leaving, I started to panic and wondered if we were trying to do too much.

As we started visiting park after park, I knew this was right for us. It was so inspiring to see so many different landscapes of nature and so many amazing views back to back. It’s like my mind didn’t have time to recover in between each park so I stayed in this state of inspired wonder throughout the trip. Every time I thought I had seen the most beautiful trail or view I’d ever seen, there was another one.

The biggest pro is that nature takes over and you get to really enjoy just how vast nature really is.

Cons of visiting a lot of parks in one trip
I think the biggest con to visiting so many parks in one trip is that you can’t just spend several days exploring one park. You have to choose 2-3 things to do in each park so there’s time to fit everything in. Now, of course this is determined by the length of your trip.

Another con is the price. We have a military pass because Matt is a veteran. If you do not have a pass, and you’re not visiting on one of the free days the parks offer throughout the year, a typical car pass is $30. Without the military pass, we would have spent $324 to visit the parks listed above. This cost is a lot lower than some other vacations, but it’s still something to consider.

Overall, I’m grateful we decided to dive into the national parks by visiting 22 this year. We still have more to go, and we can’t wait to add to this list.

Coming soon to the blog will be national park itineraries and what we loved and didn’t love in each park.

Did you visit the national parks as kids? What about your kids?