When we rolled into Death Valley National Park in February of 2020, we had no idea it was going to be the start of a family adventure that would last five years to the day. We didn’t consider that our boys might be the youngest brothers to complete the Junior Ranger program at all 63 US National Parks or earn a total of 171 Junior Ranger badges across the National Park Service Sites. It also is a significant logistical challenge considering Jennifer and I were both working full time in tech for most of it and were raising 2 young boys who started school. Jennifer planned virtually everything, putting the puzzle together to make it all work. She also had a 3rd child during the adventure. I am in awe.
Jennifer doesn’t love the long Boise winters, and we were just looking for somewhere warm to spend a few days to escape the cold. The otherworldly and razor-sharp salts of Devil’s Golf Course and the never-ending flats of Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level, provided the perfect backdrop for our warm family adventure. We were so naive that when we stopped at the Death Valley National Park sign with the boys—Jeremy (3) and Peter (1) asleep—we let them sleep. Nearly five years later, this oversight required us to rent a 12-passenger van after Christmas to make the 11-hour drive to retake the sign picture. And of course, we explored the park and enjoyed its natural wonders again with the friends we roped into joining us on our winter escape. Since it was on the way, we also made a second stop at Badwater Basin National Park on the way down.
Our next national park was just a month later and was memorable for more than just the stunning beauty of the Joshua trees at sunset, for which the park gets its name, or the cholla cactus that may not jump (despite their “jumping cactus” name) but are surprisingly difficult to keep away from two active young boys. We planned the trip to attend the Indian Wells tennis tournament in hopes of watching Roger Federer play live one more time before he retired. Instead, the day we drove into Joshua Tree National Park and lost all cell service for the day is a day most of us will never forget. We might not remember the date like 9/11, but March 13, 2020, is the day the world shut down due to a rapidly spreading mysterious illness. We cut the trip short and went home.
A couple of weeks later (instead of cruising in the Mediterranean), we road-tripped across Idaho and to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. It was an amazing trip to incredible places and a worthwhile pivot (in masks) given the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since we wanted to learn about the parks as we visited, we always had the boys do the Junior Ranger booklets, with varying requirements based on age. Every national park (and most national park service sites) has a Junior Ranger program, and we have taken advantage of them all. We found that printing them off at home before we left and filling them out on the often long flights or drives to the parks ahead of time helped pass the time, prepared us for what we wanted to see, and allowed for more time to explore while in the parks instead of filling them out on-site. As an adult, it was a great way to learn about the park and salient facts about why the sites were picked to protect and what to look for when we arrived.
After Christmas, we made our least favorite national park stop. I try not to blame Black Canyon of the Gunnison for its cold weather, melting-down kids, and only having one set of snowshoes for two boys who want what the other has. We will return someday to enjoy the stunning rock face with a better attitude. The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde, snow-covered vistas of Canyonlands, and amazing rock formations of Arches more than made up for an off day at the start of the trip.
A year after the world shut down, we finally got on a flight again to Florida to explore the very different landscape of Everglades National Park, a river of grass 60 miles wide and 100 miles long. Having two boys so close to alligators and crocodiles, especially when canoeing in the same waters, kept us alert. Observing a manatee was a highlight. We then took a boat trip through Key Biscayne with snorkeling and topped it off by driving to the southern tip of the Florida Keys and taking a floatplane out to Fort Jefferson in Dry Tortugas National Park. It’s one of the most unique parks, 90 miles off the Keys, built to protect trade coming out of the Gulf in the 1800s. On the way home, we swung by Indiana Dunes National Park on a layover—so new at the time it still had its National Lakeshore signs up.
Later that month, we visited Petrified Forest National Park (along with several other NPS sites in Arizona) to see mineralized trees millions of years old. They were beautiful.
In May, we hiked Pinnacles National Park and were awed by the largest trees in the world at Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, named after Civil War generals like Grant and Sherman. From LA, we took the ferry out to Santa Cruz in the Channel Islands to see the friendly island foxes and hike. My favorite part was taking my boys one at a time to the front of the boat to ride the two-story drops each time we crested a wave. It took all my strength to maintain balance as we got soaked by seawater splashing over the bow on each stomach-flipping drop, but it dried almost instantly with 30+ MPH winds in our faces. It was like a roller coaster that never ended, and I couldn’t stop laughing for joy. Jennifer stayed at the back of the boat, having a different roller-coaster-that-never-ended experience with the others prone to seasickness. We also met another National Park loving military family from Texas while hiking the island, and our boys played at the beach together (if you’re reading this please reach out, a great regret is not waiting at the dock for your later ferry to arrive to ask you to dinner. We had so much fun!).
In August, we headed to Colorado for a cousin’s wedding and were able to to adventure in Rocky Mountain National Park and our first national park moose sighting (but not the last!). We saw it wading through a pond and then running across the valley. Those beautiful animals can move fast! We then sledded on the sands of Great Sand Dunes National Park, which reminded us of Bruneau Sand Dunes in Idaho, a nice day trip from Boise.
A week later, we took another trip, caravanning down with my two brothers and their families and my parents to Great Basin National Park to enjoy the unique cave shield formations of the limestone caves and the remarkable 5,000-year-old bristlecone pines, reached after a challenging hike.
That fall, we took another family trip with my parents to Wind Cave, Theodore Roosevelt, and Badlands National Parks, braving the cold to venture underground and enjoy the landscapes and wildlife.
After Christmas, it was time to escape the cold again, so we were off to Hawaii. The Kilauea volcano in Volcanoes National Park had been active, and when we heard there was fresh lava again, we had to see it. It made for a late night with two young boys, but seeing the orange glow at night with rivers of moving lava for the first time in my life was otherworldly and worth the mile hike carrying a sleeping child. Shortly after, in the early morning, we made our reservation time to drive up Puʻu ʻUlaʻula in Haleakalā National Park to see its famous sunrise from 10,000 feet.
In February, we met up with long-time friends at White Sands National Park. The white sand, made from gypsum—the same material as drywall—makes for stunning sunrise and sunset photos. We then drove through Guadalupe Mountains National Park and admired the seashell fossils formed on an ocean bed that was thrust thousands of feet up on our mountain hike. We explored the caves of Carlsbad Caverns. We lucked out in Big Bend National Park, accidentally reserving the most popular cabin in the park with a perfect view of The Window for sunset. We enjoyed the Window Hike the next day and the hot springs along the Rio Grande and the US-Mexico border.
In July, we met up with friends from college to explore Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, boating 67 miles through the series of lakes before taking a floatplane to Isle Royale in the middle of Lake Superior. We understand why it’s one of the least visited parks due to its remote setting, but also why it has the highest percentage of repeat visitors—with stunning beauty and remote tranquility. While hiking, a floatplane coming in for a landing scared a moose up onto the trail between me and the rest of the family, resulting in some excitement, and while canoeing, a moose on shore was a little too close for Jennifer’s liking. On another hike, Jeremy and I ran across wolf scat, with its identity confirmed by a ranger, but we never sighted one of the elusive recent inhabitants of the island, which had crossed an ice bridge just a few decades ago following the moose that had done the same years before.
In July of 2022, we made the drive to the stunning blue Crater Lake. After hiking down the steep trail to the lake, Jeremy (5) even made the jump with me off the rock—25 feet into the water. I drank straight from the lake (one of the few in the US where that’s safe). We continued our loop down to Redwood National Park, home to the tallest trees in the world. I learned that the common belief that the wide white tree rings are from summer and the dark rings are from winter isn’t universally true. The wide and white ring marks the growth season, while the dark ring is when they’re not growing as fast. In the Redwoods, winter is the rainy growth season, so the ring seasons are opposite of most places I’ve known. We loved the Fern Canyon hike, with so much green and kids who encouraged us to get our feet wet (and hike back the way we came as an out-and-back instead of a loop because they loved it so much!). A herd of elk wandering the sandy beach nearby, with the ocean in the background, struck me as odd coming from landlocked Idaho, but I realized it was perfectly natural. On the loop back, we stopped at Lassen Volcanic and hiked through its geothermal features.
In August, we drove through Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road and were inspired by the grand mountains standing tall above the pristine lakes. We fished, hiked, and threw rocks in the lakes. We picked huckleberries (one of our favorite national park activities) and were commended by the ranger for helping with bear control. The bighorn sheep and mountain goats were accustomed to people atop the mountain pass, and we got great pictures with the boys and the landscapes. One of our favorite pictures of our boys was taken in front of Wild Goose Island in St. Mary’s Lake. On the other side of the park, we took a boat ride in Manly Lake and saw moose and grizzly bears. While driving in, we almost hit a black bear that jumped out in front of the car. Coming back the other way, we took a picture of the skid marks.
And then there were five of us. Felicity was born in September of 2022.
In September, we headed back to the caves to visit the largest: Mammoth Cave National Park. What it lacked in the limestone caves that have dripping mineral deposits of stalactites and stalagmites, cave bacon, and unique formations, it made up for in grand caverns and a bottomless pit. We went through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, went on several hikes, and saw snakes, salamanders, and waterfalls. It might be the most visited national park, but that’s primarily because it’s the only option close to many population centers and has the primary travel route on a road through it. We made our way to South Carolina to hike through Congaree National Park. It’s one a single day can cover, with a boardwalk loop hike that afforded views of snakes, swamp, and oxbow lakes formed when a river changes course, full of alligator gar and turtles. My wife and I got separated near the end, and in the confusion, Jeremy turned the wrong way to repeat the loop instead of heading back to the ranger station. By the time I caught up to him, his confidence and lack of fear continuing on the trail meant we hiked an extra mile before the mistake was corrected. It was only appropriate that Felicity then took her first steps at the ranger station.
In October, we visited Indiana Dunes National Park again on a trip to visit friends. This time, the signs had been updated. It was the first national park Felicity hiked for a considerable distance on her own legs.
In January 2024, we made a stop at Virgin Islands National Park while on a cruise with Jennifer’s parents, again escaping the cold winter after Christmas. In March, we made our way to Saguaro National Park to enjoy the hikes among the towering, iconic cacti. Although Jennifer, Jeremy, and I had visited in 2018, Peter and Felicity needed to see the cacti too!
At the end of June, we began the longest of our national park trips. Planning began in December of 2021 when we entered the lottery for Brooks Lodge in Katmai National Park for the summer of 2023. We didn’t get it for any of our desired dates with any of our entries. A year later, I was surprised by an email saying, “Congratulations, you won the lottery for the summer of 2024.” Jennifer had entered me again on a whim without my knowledge. We initially planned to visit four of the eight parks, then five, and then six. When we realized American Samoa does a little ceremony if it’s your 63rd and final national park, we realized we’d better visit all eight instead of making Gates of the Arctic our last, since we’d be the only ones there.
We then made it to Wrangell-St. Elias. Our flightseeing tour was canceled due to weather, but we made the best of it with a hike through mosquitoes so thick it was hard not to breathe them in. It’s safe to say we saw the lowest percentage of this national park, as it’s the largest in the country. We then flew to Kotzebue on the northwest coast of Alaska to wait for a weather window to take our chartered flight into the two most remote and undeveloped national parks. When we arrived on our commercial Alaska Airlines flight, it was overcast, windy, and raining. No flights had left in five days, and there was a backcountry hiking group that had been stranded for that time, down to their last Jolly Rancher. They were picked up on the first flight when the weather cleared, and we got the call letting us know we’d be on the next. We enjoyed the sprawling landscapes of our five-seat aircraft, with mountains, fields, clouds, and meandering rivers visible in every direction. We landed on the sand dunes of Kobuk Valley after a couple of hours of flying and frolicked, explored, found moose antlers, and held up the sign we brought with us in the plane to identify the park picture. We were wheels up half an hour later, and before landing in Gates of the Arctic on a riverbank, we circled a lone moose at the edge of the park. We flipped our sign for the pictures on the river island and threw rocks into the water before making our way back to Kotzebue, weaving between the mountains and the clouds.
We made our way to Kenai Fjords and threw rocks into the melt of Exit Glacier. One afternoon at naptime, I took a solo trip up Exit Glacier. The sign said to allow all day to hike up to see the 700-square-mile Harding Ice Field that feeds 40 different glaciers, but I was on a time crunch. I ran up the rocky steps and snow-covered fields, making it to the emergency shelter in a little over an hour and back down just slightly faster. I carried with me no water and only a single bag of fruit snacks, my phone, and bear spray. I don’t think the rangers at the station at the bottom believed me when I got back.
Brown bears are naturally solitary creatures that only gather together and tolerate each other when the salmon are running. I asked the park ranger at the platform how many bears gather at a time. He said that the year before, twenty-six were once seen at once. I scanned the river and counted forty-three bears visible at once. I was giddy.
We were playing on the beach when a juvenile came right at us. I got the kids back just seconds before it was right where we were. Felicity was held in arms or within arms reach at virtually all times we weren’t indoors or on the boardwalk.
In August, we made a trip to the Grand Canyon to visit one of the most popular parks in the country. We spent time at the South Rim, hiking down the Bright Angel Trailhead a mile or so. Jeremy had visited the Grand Canyon as a baby, but hadn’t completed the junior ranger program. We had to catch Peter up too!
After Christmas, we made the 11-hour winter-avoiding drive back to Death Valley to get the family sign picture, with a stop at Great Basin on the way to enjoy the caves.
We made it to American Samoa on February 18—five years to the day since we were first in Death Valley National Park. We started with an eight-hour private tour. Since it’s not a super popular tourist location, the guides are all part-time and live there full-time, offering an authentic perspective. The ranger printed off certificates for Jennifer, Jeremy, Peter, and me, commemorating our 63rd national park visit. Felicity held my sheet for several pictures so she didn’t feel left out (we’ll see how she feels in a few years when she realizes she was late to the party). We got our family sign pictures, and I put my last sticker on my National Parks water bottle.
We took multiple hikes to view the ocean and the jungle forest. We got rained on with warm rain and soaked up the joy of visiting all the national parks. We got to experience the local culture, drink coconut water, eat coconut, and drink coconut milk. We watched the local teams play cricket, saw the unique landscape, and heard about its history.
When we visited our first national park 5 years ago as a family, we didn’t imagine we’d make it to all of them, let alone in just 5 years. But the joy it brought us and our family, and the joy that the national parks bring with over 300 million visitors per year, justify them as America’s Best Idea.
Jeremy (8) and Peter (6) are the youngest brothers to complete the Junior Ranger program at all 63 US National Parks we believe and have taken the Junior Ranger Pledge at over 170 NPS sites promising to protect and preserve the natural and cultural resources of public lands, and to share what is learned with others. This isn’t the end of their journey or ours; it’s just the start.
