Eight national parks

My list of national parks that I’ve visited in my adult lifetime is now up to 8:

* Badlands
* Yellowstone
* Yosemite
* Mt Rainier
* Joshua Tree
* Bryce Canyon
* Zion
* Denali

Only 50 more to go, unless Congress makes more and/or I wimp out and unilaterally declare that the National Park of American Samoa and Virgin Islands National Park are not on my itinerary.

I learned in Alaska that it’s next to impossible to get to most of the other national parks up there — you have to hire a floatplane or a multi-day charter boat, and the “season” is only from June to the middle of September. Many of them don’t have campgrounds. Some of them might not even sell refrigerator magnets!

Speaking of refrigerator magnets… I visited Badlands before I started collecting them, so I don’t have one. If any readers of this blog happened to pick one up for me next time they’re at the park, I would be forever grateful .