My girlhood pen pal, Ana Maria Delgado of El Paso, Texas, and I met during the summer of 1975 when our families had cabins near one another at Zion National Park. We were both ten-years old and whiled away the afternoons in the shadows of breathtaking sandstone monoliths like The Court of the Patriarchs and The Great White Throne. A fast friendship was formed. The vacation ended with us exchanging addresses. We wrote back and forth for a few years, eventually losing touch. What I didn’t lose was the love of the outdoors and the national park experience that was engrained in me from a very young age.
The only vacations I remember from my childhood are those when we visited national parks. My father particularly loved Zion and as a traveling salesman, I think this time in nature soothed his quota driven soul. My young adult life continued with ongoing “national parking”. Early in our dating days, my husband Ken and I camped in Redwood National Park, where I saw a massive yellow banana slug for the first time and was dazzled by the towering trees. My first visit to Yosemite was with his family where we climbed over 600 stairs hiking the aptly named Mist Trail, to Vernal and Nevada falls. As our family grew, it was only natural to continue traveling the path of “national parking”.
Living in Chico, we have the gift of proximity to Lassen Volcanic National Park which can be done as a day trip. Our first camping trip with our two kids was to Summit Lake campground and we’ve visited this park regularly over the years. Did you know that it’s the only park that is home to all four types of volcanoes (shield, cinder cone, composite and plug dome), and that Mount Lassen is the largest plug dome volcano in the world? How cool is it that? We can drive for less than 90 minutes and find ourselves hiking on the winding boardwalks of Bumpass Hell. The colorful geothermal pools ooze with minerals and scalding water on either side of this amazing trail with the bonus of an unmistakable scent! This park is a gem.
Beyond Lassen Park, over the years, our family has waded through the watery Narrows of Zion, hiked amongst the totem-like hoodoo’s in Bryce, had an epic rafting trip down the lower Grand Canyon, biked the White Rim trail in Canyonlands, and reached the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. Our parents clearly knew the priceless value of these experiences and we have heartily passed down the love of the parks. Our adult children camp, hike, raft, paddle, climb, and explore whenever they can. The outdoor life and love of the parks is in their heritage.
The feeling of exhilaration, awe and wonder at the beauty of these places can and has brought me to tears. Not long ago, we snowshoed to Dewey Point in Yosemite, and when we reached the overlook, I was overwhelmed with emotion by the sweeping view of El Capitan, the valley floor, Half Dome, and the waterfalls in the distance. I felt awash with gratitude to be in the presence of such magnificence, and thankful that my body could bring me to such a place.
As of today, there are 63 officially designated national parks. The list continues to grow, with the most recent addition in 2020 of New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. There are seven on the list of possible new parks to be added in the coming years. This dynamic makes it tricky for people like us who have decided to attempt to visit all of them. Nevertheless, this feels like a noble challenge, and we’ve been chipping away.
Our count sits at 36/63. We have been to most of the 42 western parks but only two of eight in Alaska. We have a friendly competition with our friends the Meuters, who are working on the same goal. We just learned they are national parking in Alaska this summer and thus feel pressure to step up our visit schedule, in a good natured, we-don’t-want-to-be-beat, kind of way.
A trip to Florida last year took us to Everglades and Biscayne Parks but sadly, our seaplane to Dry Tortugas was cancelled due to bad weather, so that one is lingering. Quite painful to have been all the way out at the southern tip in Key West and get turned away for this hard-to-reach park. There are a pair of very remote parks in American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands which will be expensive and require lots of planning to visit eventually.
I look forward to all our future park visits. Connecting with one another in nature forces us to slow down, just as it did for my dad more than fifty years ago. This feeling is most certainly timeless and experiencing it with family is precious. I wonder if my pen pal grew up loving the National Parks like me? I googled her name the other day and there is an Ana Maria Delgado in El Paso, Texas, exactly my age. Could it be her? Maybe I’ll write a letter and ask.
Rear View | Reflections on Life's Adventures 