Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!

Happy New Year! In 2023 I visited 37 National Park Service units. 27 of them were new to me. I took a few road trips, attended the National Park Traveler’s Club annual convention and flew to Wyoming. Below are the highlights. Eventually they will all make it to the blog.

Tom’s Quest➢

Tom, a member of the NPTC, posted his itinerary for his “One Year – One Quest” journey. He aimed to visit all 425 National Park Service units in one year’s time. I decided to meet him in NYC when I saw he’d be visiting Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace on a Saturday, a unit I hadn’t yet been to. Tom did complete his remarkable quest in November. Click here to see his interview on ABC

15. Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace NHS

DC trip➢

Washington, DC possesses the largest concentration of National Park Service units of any metropolitan area. I decided to use one of my long weekends in April to visit DC and check a few units off my list. I toured 15 memorials, monuments and other sites. 9 of them were new to me. The stop at First State in Delaware on the way down was an NPTC meet-up to celebrate two members’ Platinum park visit.

• First State NHP (revisit)
• National Mall (revisit)
• World War II NMEM (revisit)
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial
• Washington Monument (revisit)
• Constitution Gardens
• Pennsylvania Avenue NHS
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial (revisit)
• Lincoln Memorial (revisit)
• The White House
• National World War I Memorial
• Ford’s Theatre NHS
• George Washington Memorial PKWY
• Korean War Veterans Memorial
• Hampton NHS

New England Road Trip➢

Patty and I hit the road again in April 2023. We planned to visit a friend in Rhode Island and attend a meetup of the National Park Travelers Club in Massachusetts. Along the way we hit several other National Park Units and historic sites.

11. Roger Williams NMEM
12. Blackstone River Valley NHP
13. New Bedford Whaling NHP
14. Cape Cod NS
15. Minute Man NHP
16. Springfield Armory NHS

Take a Hike NJ➢

Attended a tour of the raceways with Take a Hike NJ and park volunteer Terry. We viewed the falls, walked the raceways and ended up by the Paterson museum. I’ve taken this tour before, but it had been a while.

12. Paterson Great Falls NHP (revisit)

NPTC Meetup across the US➢

One of the club members had the great idea to sponsor meetups in all 7 of the NPS regions on one day in June. I chose to attend the North-Atlantic meetup at Weir Farm. I arrived early and hiked to the pond. Our group began with a tour of the mansion. Next we explored the grounds and toured the studios. After, we all had lunch at a nearby snack stand.

12. Weir Farm NHP

Annual NPTC Convention➢

In August, Patty and I drove south for the annual convention with the National Park Traveler’s Club. They held it in Asheville, NC and organized a few days of special activities. We hit a few units along the journey, toured five of the nearby units with the club, and visited family.

7. Booker T. Washington NM
8. Guilford Courthouse NMP
9. Blue Ridge PKWY (revisit)
10. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (revisit)
11. Kings Mountain NMP
12. Cowpens NB
13. Carl Sandburg Home NHS
14. Cedar Creek and Belle Grove NHP
15. Antietam NB

Wyoming Trip➢

In September of 2023, my husband and I set out to explore some National Park units in The Equality State. (Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote.) We did a lot of driving through beautiful, lonely landscapes. Wyoming is the least densely populated state with only 500,000 residents. We visited four National Park Service Units

15. Yellowstone National Park (revisit)
16. Grand Teton National Park
17. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial PKWY
18. Bighorn Canyon NRA