from rscottjones

UPDATE: jump to a listing of what I've seen thus far.
BIG NEWS: hear about the epic encore I'm currently!
EVEN BIGGER NEWS: I'm now visiting 100 Parks in 100 Days

Sorry—much of this post got shredded during some of the recent upgrades and conversions it's been through. It's on my list of things to fix. :(

One hundred years ago this year, the National Park System was established.

Sure, there were already quite a few national parks and monuments, but it was this moment in which they were brought together under a single management philosophy, a single land managing agency, and became a system of protected lands.

National Parks have played an incredibly important role in my life. I’ve only taken a handful of vacations to places other than national parks. And they contain my most favorite places and are home to some of my most cherished memories. I got engaged and married (even, one might argue, divorced) in national parks; needless to say, I care deeply about them.

Last week, the National Park Service concluded its National Park Week. I've decided to take that celebration one step further—and embark on what I'm calling #MyNationalParksMonth.

So #MyNationalParksMonth is an attempt to celebrate this anniversary, while visiting as many of the remaining national park units as possible in my quest to visit all 411.

Basecamping out of the Washington, DC area—and with weekend trips to Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia—I’m planning to visit more than two dozen thirty forty (!!) units of the National Parks System over the next few weeks. It’s a month-long personal celebration of the national parks, spent doing what I enjoy most: visiting new national park units.

Follow along on:

• twitter at @rscottjones (and #mynationalparksmonth)
• snapchat at rscottjones.com for a stream of snaps
• instagram at rscottjones for occasional photos

What I've seen so far

Here are the national parks I've visited thus far on #MyNationalParksMonth (updated May 23). Green pins are parks I've marked off; gray dots are national parks I'm visiting as part of my encore, and blue diamonds are the ones I will have left in the Northeast. As you'll see, I've already far exceeded my goal for the project.

[googlemaps www.google.com/maps/d/u/…

https://twitter.com/rscottjones/status/741934069185839104

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