63

My name is Brandon, and I just visited all the national parks in the United States! The 63 parks are spread throughout the entire country making this a tough accomplishment. My love of national parks began when I was 13 years old. I went on a family trip to Hawaii in July of 2006. Here I visited my first national park–Hawaii Volcanoes National Park! We did a sunset hike out on the lava field to see the red glow. I was mesmerized at this astonishing phenomenon. That was the moment I started to appreciate national parks. In high school I was going through my grandparents things that they were getting rid of, and I found a book on the national parks published in 1985. I then learned that my grandma had actually worked in Yellowstone when she was in high school which sparked my interest even more. After graduating college I visited my second national park–Zion! Hiking to Angels Landing blew me away with its beauty. This was the moment that set my national park journey in motion. As a Christian, Zion was especially intriguing to me for all the biblical references throughout the park such as the three sandstone peaks named Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For the next few years I made it a point to visit a few more national parks each year. Then in 2022, I decided to buy a van and convert it into a campervan to use for visiting the parks. It took me a year to fully convert the van while working full time. I then decided to take a year off of work to accomplish my goal of visiting all the national parks. I had saved up money and was making some rental income to support myself for the year. I wanted this experience of getting to hike the parks while I had the physical capabilities of doing everything I wanted to instead of waiting until I retire. Having completed my goal of visiting all 63 parks, I am beyond grateful for the time I was able to spend admiring God's beautiful creation.