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Reader Participation Day: How Many National Parks Do You Want To Visit In Your Lifetime?

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Published Date

August 31, 2011

Visiting all, or almost all, of the nearly 400 units of the National Park System is a feat that several dozen people have accomplished or are on the brink of accomplishing.

What drives people to pursue this goal? What are the main benefits and drawbacks?

Is 'bagging all of the national parks' a goal you've set for yourself?   

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Comments

Submitted by admin on August 31, 2011 - 5:56am.

Only 25 I don't have the time to see them all.


Submitted by admin on August 31, 2011 - 7:23am.

my goal is to go to all 52 actual national parks and I am half way there!


Submitted by admin on August 31, 2011 - 8:03am.

I do not think visiting the parks should be a numbers game--trying to get to them all.  National Park visitation should be a quality not a quantity experience.  Spend the time to get to know and experience a part in-depth, spend days exploring and learning if necessary--the rewards will be greater.


Submitted by admin on August 31, 2011 - 8:08am.

 We have visited 29 Nt. Pks. and 12 Nt. Mount. I would love to see all of them, but know that is impossible. They are our favorite places to go for vacations.


Submitted by admin on August 31, 2011 - 8:10am.

We have been to 29 and 13 Nt. Mounments we hope to get to more. Nt. Parks are our favorite places to vacation. We do as much hiking as possible. That is the only way to really see and enjoy the parks


Submitted by admin on August 31, 2011 - 8:36am.

I take the opposite approach of wanting to get to know a few parks in depth. But in finding those few parks, I've probably visited about 40.


Submitted by admin on August 31, 2011 - 9:20am.

My wife and I have a realistic lifetime goal of visting all the actual National Parks and an unrealistic lifetime goal of visiting all of the almost 400 units in the National Park System.


Submitted by admin on August 31, 2011 - 9:59am.

As to visiting all the National Park units....why not? I make a point to at the very least visit the ones near my home(Minnesota) as frequently as possible. And every summer my kids and I plan our vacations with National Parks locations as the destination. This summer it was 2 weeks visiting Acadia and Cape Cod, and when we included a day in Boston and an afternoon at the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, we looked at our National Park passport book and saw all the stamps from all the sites we visited. I realized recently that because of all these Historical Sites and Monuments that I am beginning to see our Country very differently, taking into account all the history I have somehow absorbed along the way.
And, like I tell my kids....the MOST IMPORTANT THING we can do for our National Parks is VISIT them.


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