Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!
Happy New Year! After a slow couple of travel years, in 2022 I managed to see 22 new (to me) National Park Service units. This brought me to the Bronze Lifetime Achievement level in the National Park Traveler’s Club. Since I also started a new job in 2022, I’ve fallen behind in getting the posts written and published. Below are the highlights. Eventually they will all make it to the blog.
Alaskan cruise➢
At the end of May, my husband and I flew to Vancouver. From there, we boarded the Norwegian Jewel and sailed up the Inside Passage for a tour of Southeast Alaska. We toured the historic buildings at Klondike Gold Rush in Skagway, viewed glaciers from the comfort of the ship in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and Wrangel-St. Elias and walked to the Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. We also visited a few of the US Forest Service sites in Juneau, Ketchikan and on the way to Anchorage.
- Klondike Gold Rush NHP
- Glacier Bay NP&PRES
- Wrangell-St. Elias NP&PRES
- Kenai Fjords National Park
20th Annual NPTC Convention➢
In July, I attended my first convention with the National Park Traveler’s Club. They held it in St. Louis and organized a few days of special activities. We toured three of the nearby units, rode a steamboat on the Mississippi River and attended presentations given by the Arch and Grant park superintendents. Before the start of the convention, I drove up to Springfield and the Land of Lincoln to see the National Historic Site.
- Lincoln Home NHS
- Gateway Arch National Park
- Ste. Genevive NHP
- Ulysses S. Grant NHS
Cleveland➢
My sister and I had to drive out to Cleveland for a cousin’s funeral in April. On our way back out of town, we stopped by Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We took the short trail to the falls and went to the visitor center.
- Cuyahoga Valley National Park
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 August. I chose to attend the Mid-Atlantic meetup at Harper’s Ferry. Our group began with a hike on the Virginius Island/Appalachian Trail loop. Next we attended a ranger program at the visitor center and explored Lower Town. After lunch at the Rabbit Hole, our group dispersed. I walked across the bridge and took the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail for a little bit. This stretch also includes part of the C&O Canal National Historic Park.
- Chesapeake & Ohio Canal NHP
- Harpers Ferry NHP
- Potomac Heritage NST
- Appalachian Trail (revisit)
New York Road Trip➢
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you will remember the Lighthouse Challenge road trip with my friend Patty from 2021. This year, we had two long weekends so we planned two road trips. The first was originally supposed to be to Rhode Island to visit another friend, but she had a family emergency. So we diverted last-minute to a Western New York State itinerary. Our first stop, Harriet Tubman National Historic Park, was my hundredth unit visited….bronze level for the NPTC. In addition to the National Park sites, we also visited Niagara Falls, a couple of other state parks and the Corning Glass Museum.
- Harriet Tubman NHP
- Women’s Rights NHP
- Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural NHS
Pennsylvania Road Trip➢
Two weeks after the New York trip, Patty and I did the Western Pennsylvania circuit. In addition to the NPS units, we visited a couple of state parks and Fallingwater.
- Friendship Hill NHS
- Fort Necessity NB
- Flight 93 NMEM
- Johnstown Flood NMEM
- Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS
- Delaware Water Gap NRA (revisit)
