My Love for National Parks

My National Park Wall at home, a small part of my Travel Wall.

That the creation of National Parks is one of the best ideas ever germinated in the US, is hardly disputable. Not only it provides abundance of recreational opportunities for mankind, but preserves and maintains nature's most pristine locations, enables groundbreaking scientific research and protects the rich cultural history of civilizations spanning millennia.

And I am no different.  My love for national parks is well known.  More often than not, my compass usually points to a national park or a similar wilderness area.  The magical allure of these parks is something I find extremely difficult to resist.  These parks tell stories; you just need to listen.  These parks, or any wilderness area for that matter, are wonderful detoxification agents; a visit here will surely help cleanse your mind and body.  I feel rejuvenated, resurrected and reborn after a national park visit.  Most importantly, these natural wonders help push your physical, physiological as well as  psychological boundaries; if only you realize it!

Some of my most memorable experiences have been in these parks.  I won over my back injury when I backpacked the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to the South.  I broke my physical barriers when I first attempted Mt. Langley, a fourteen-thousand ft. summit in Sequoia National Park.  I overcame my fear of hiking in the wild Alaskan territories as I climbed 3300 ft in under 4 miles to the mouth of Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.  I was humbled by the towering Redwood giants in the namesake national park.  I was awestruck as I hiked alongside crocodiles in the Everglades (with a wooden fence, in between ;)).  I saw the Earth's fury first-hand as I explored Yellowstone with a sense of doom.  The tranquility of Crater Lake taught me to pause and not to rush through life.

I can go on and on.  And no, these experiences are not to fill out some paragraphs in any random blog post.  This is what I truly encountered.

Now, these are my experiences.  You may say you don't feel this way.  However, before you give up on these parks, let me ask you, how do you really visit a park?

Do you just drive through a park in your comfortable SUV?  Do you just hop off your car at a famous landmark, click some pictures, and hop back on to the next one?  There's one aspect of visiting a park that I cannot emphasize enough: exploration.  Explore the park... not in a car.  I fully understand that our busy schedules may not permit this on a regular basis, but always do so when you can.

All my memorable experiences have been on a road less traveled.  The real beauty of national parks, the rationale of preservation and protection, become abundantly clear when you go off the beaten path.  Away from the human hustle and bustle of vista points, you may befriend a like-minded individual along your path.  You may travel this less explored path on foot, or on a bike or with your equestrian friend.  Enjoy the vast landscape from the top, or marvel at the towering peaks from a valley... you are free to choose your adventure, but I am sure you will always return with a different perspective and a sense of accomplishment.

As for me, I have taken a silent oath never to return from these wilderness areas without exploring it on foot.  So I plan my travels with enough days.  As of now, I have been to 15 national parks out of 59.

National Parks are calling...