We’ve always loved National Parks. When a country decides that a particular place is so special, unique, or beautiful that it should be preserved at the federal level, that’s a pretty decent indication that it’s worth visiting. You’re very unlikely to be disappointed no matter which parkland you set your sights on.

National Parks are some of the most affordable places to vacation, too, since their appeal is completely natural. Nobody had to build expensive roller coasters or animatronic mice to attract people to the take in the views of the Grand Canyon or hike along its rim. Also, the costs that do exist are mostly taxpayer-funded, so the price of admission is usually cheap or even free.

If you’ve never been to a National Park before, we’re hoping the resources on this page will convince you to get out there and see some!

Our Trip to Every US National Park

In 2019, we achieved our goal of visiting every National Park in the United States before turning 30. We left our full-time jobs for the seven-month trek and camped in the back of a converted Nissan NV200 cargo van to keep costs low.

In the articles below, you’ll find all the details of that trip and how we made it work:

What to See in the US National Parks

We wrote a six-part illustrated series documenting our experiences in the parks, in the order we visited them on our big trip. You can read through the whole thing, or if you’re looking for one park in particular, here’s a handy list of those articles and which parks are contained in each one:

The obvious question, since we had the opportunity to see them all, is “which ones were the best?” We actually compiled a complete US National Parks list, ranked from best to worst.

National Parks Outside the US

The first National Park in the world was Yellowstone, established by Congress in 1872. But today, there are hundreds of National Parks in countries all around the world. We haven’t really scratched the surface on international parks yet, but they’re definitely on our to-do list.

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