Earlier this week I visited the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. This photo is taken from “Decision Point,” where Lewis and Clark made a critically important decision on which riverway to follow during their expedition westward.
The Breaks was the final place I needed to complete an incredible public lands journeyâone that involved visiting all 419 National Park units, plus all 124 National Monuments, plus all 17 National Conservation Areas in the United States. After accounting for overlap, that’s a total 478 protected public lands areas (managed by many agencies) that represent what I call our “Treasured Places.” While I’m the first known person to complete this mega quest, my goal is get as many people as possible to adopt this quest of visiting our Treasured Places. Whether or not you might or might not finish the quest isn’t the pointâit’s simply about visiting more of our special public lands, especially the places that don’t include the iconic words “National Park” in their official name. America is fortunate to have sooooo many amazing places, and I hope you make the effort to visit as many of them as you possibly can.
To this end, I’ve set up a (still somewhat draft) website at TreasuredPlaces.us to inspire and help people in this endeavor. Soon I’ll add a tool for keeping track of your visits, and we’ll have stickers and other merch that can help you spread the word.
So please, adopt the TREASURED PLACES quest. I promise you that you’ll have an amazing time visiting these incredible places!
#GoQuesting #TreasuredPlaces #OptOutside #FindYourPark #MonumentsForAll #PublicLands
