Top 10 Reasons to Visit a National Park on your Family Vacation!

1. To leave the bounds of normalcy and have an epic adventure.

Wander through misty Redwood National Park and imagine you are on another planet when you see otherworldly creatures like the Banana Slug. Hike the dunes of Great Sand Dunes National Park and feel Sahara Desert movie scenes come to life. These things cannot be replicated at amusement parks. They are pure and true adventures that will be unique to you, because they are found in the wild.

Redwood National Park

2. To learn about your American Heritage.

There is an abundance of history poured into each national park. They tell the legacy of things we have valued as a nation; and how we determined to preserve these treasures collectively. Your children should know the names of John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt. They should understand the struggles and the work that countless individuals undertook to preserve these places for us.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

3. To get outside!

We need more outside time! Children are especially in need of time in an unfettered natural environment. It soothes the soul and calms the mind. Get away from mechanization and human creation, and explore nature. It stimulates creativity and spurs the desire to use your mind and body to go beyond.

4. To pass on the importance of preservation.

National parks must have our support! If we do not value them as a nation, then the financial incentive to preserve these places will dwindle. We must pass on a love of wild spaces to our children, only then can we secure national park preservation for future generations.

Badlands National Park

5. To experience the sheer beauty – together.

Don’t wait for retirement before you go and enjoy these spectacular places. In sharing our national park experience with others, all too often we hear them express a plan to visit when they retire. Why wait? The magnificence is too intense not to share with your children. Stand in awe TOGETHER!!

Bryce National Park

6. To make exceptional memories.

Sure, you can make memories on a cruise, on a tropical island resort, or an amusement park but they are managed and manicured. National park memories include things like fly fishing with an elk in Yellowstone! During one trip, my husband was fly fishing and a cow elk walked up behind him and was drinking and eating for a long time before he realized she was there! People were driving by snapping pictures of the delicate scene.

7. To establish shared experiences.

Do you want to have something to talk about with your children? Shared national park experiences are unique in every way. We relive our backpacking adventure in Canyonlands National Park frequently. We laugh and cringe at the slick rock path we skirted around. We share in wonderment the memory of the juvenile wolf we witnessed walking through our campground in Yellowstone National Park.

8. To live STEAM.

With so much talk about Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math education in the school setting, why not go live it! National park visitor centers are replete with science. With exceptional Junior Ranger programs, children can do STEAM in the field. Many parks offer “backpacks” with unique supplies that make the park a true learning experience. Most importantly, children are surrounded by YOU and NATURE and the unique experience enhances their memory and inquisitiveness.

Mesa Verde National Park

9. To be docent for people from other nations.

People from all over the world come to the United States to witness the splendor of our national parks. Interactions are inevitable. One favorite experience is when are our children shared smore supplies with a family visiting from Germany. The father wasn’t particularly impressed with the unique campfire cuisine, but his kids were thrilled!! The second was helping a European family with their rental RV slide-out. My husband directed them to the fuse box and helped them with a quick fix, so they could be on their way to the next stop in their tight schedule. They were so grateful. Extending hospitality one to one is how we grow global cooperation.

10. To have fun!!

One family with whom we shared our national park love thought their children wouldn’t know what to do on such a trip. They preferred roller coasters. My kids love a good roller coaster too, but they will be the first to tell you national parks are anything but boring. They have snorkeled; sand surfed; splashed in hot spring fed streams; stood in completely black caverns hundreds of feet underground; and climbed hundred-foot ladders against sand stone cliffs within the park boundaries! Outside park boundaries, entrepreneurs offer even more adventures like rope courses, snow mobile riding, and sailing. Great, and unique fun will find you at any national park!

 

Biscayne National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Utah – Visited March 2016

A Poignant Exercise of Existentialism

There were people here before you and people here before them, and on and on until it was only the first human to have come to these canyons. But, unlike other places on this planet, the chain of people is particularly short in this remote, difficult to access, astoundingly barren but intensely beautiful landscape. The connection is there, and you ponder what these individuals were like who left their hand prints on the sandstone cliffs. Take your hand and hold it into the air and compare it (don’t touch it!) to the white hand print painted there hundreds of years ago. It is breathtaking and timeless. This was an individual, a soul, a human being. They felt cold, hunger, fear, and as they were human, making equally a remnant of their existence, surely they felt love. You will feel removed from yourself and question your very own existence, the absurdity of your everyday cares. You will be transfixed to the most basic human necessity by pondering the basic human needs: shelter, food, water…and human connection.

2016 JJB Family Vac 065

Take risk here, backpack in and stay in the wild under the stars. Feel your humanity, because in the end that is why we go to these places. We don’t go to simply experience nature; we go there to reflect upon our own existence removed from all the conundrums that we have created for ourselves.

Live dangerously, let your children live dangerously in this place and know that there are risks. Our path was Peekaboo Trail. There will be moments of fear, that I take with me forever, of my little girl with her enormous backpack saddling along the sandstone path with a hundred plus foot drop looming against any slip, and nothing to stop her perilous fall. This is life, there are no guard rails. I will have the vision of me holding onto the straps of her pack in case she should slip and then reluctantly letting go knowing if I held too tight, it could be me that caused her descent and that is how life will be and her growing will be. When she goes to college, marries, has a home and children of her own, it will be that image and feeling of letting go that I will always take with me. Look upon their smiling faces of satisfaction and pride at the end of that trail. The confidence and resiliency will seep among the cracks of their entire lives filling in the gaps of insecurity in the least expectant moments. They didn’t die on Peekaboo Trail. They won’t die from taking that science final, or not making the basketball team, or losing a job.

2016 JJB Family Vac 117

After visiting this place, children will understand the great circle of life too, that humans have existed on nothing but their wits and ingenuity for millennia. Their ancestors survived insurmountable odds. They will survive, as well, with cleverness and perseverance. When they leave their mark upon the world, I will hope and pray that it will be as indelible, but just as sweet and spiritual-bound as the hand prints upon the sandstone cliffs.

Extra Tip – Day Hikes Be prepared with the “Ten Essentials”

You have children with you and you are in an extremely remote location where day hikes are the adventure of choice. If you venture out, for even a short day hike, you absolutely need to be prepared for a minimum 24-hour window in the event of an emergency. Remember that you may be as far as 75 miles from the nearest medical facility, and in a location where cellular phone service is poor to non-existent. Water is an absolute essential in this location. For a day hike, you should plan to bring a minimum of two liters/person. Try not to rely on filtration systems for water sources you may find on the trail. Water in this ecosystem is precarious at best, and animal and plant life rely solely upon what is available in a changing climate. Wildlife critters do not have the opportunity to grab a water bottle at the local gas station!

Having the proper equipment with you helps you, your loved ones, and your potential rescue personnel. Various websites provide a list of the “Ten Essentials” you should always have in your day pack. My favorite list is the REI “Updated Ten Essential ‘Systems’” available at https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/ten-essentials.html.

Ten Essentials List

  •     Navigation (map and compass)
  •     Sun protection (sunglasses and sunscreen)
  •     Insulation (extra clothing)
  •     Illumination (headlamp/flashlight)
  •     First-aid supplies
  •     Fire (waterproof matches/lighter/candles)
  •     Repair kit and tools (think pocket knife with attachments)
  •     Nutrition (extra food)
  •     Hydration (extra water)
  •     Emergency shelter

Junior Ranger Badge:

  • Erosion
  • Cryptobiotic Soils
  • Stratigraphy
  • Ancestral Puebloans
  • Create Poetry

When to Stay:

The first weekend BEFORE spring break season