David Kroese is a true National Park fanatic. He has visited over 1500 parks and his attempt to visit all 400+ sites in 2016, the NPS Centennial year, led him to write The Centennial: A Journey Through America’s National Park System. In this episode, he describes what motivates him to visit the parks, particularly what fueled his desire to visit all of them in 2016. He offers tips on how to get the most out of a park visit, the important role of the National Park Travelers Club, and how there is no “right” way to visit a park. He is currently at work on his second book which focuses on hidden gems of the NPS.

Highlights:

2:33 Introduction of David Kroese
3:50 National Park Travelers Club
7:18 What motivated him to write The Centennial
10:30 Why he undertook Centennial Journey
11:34 Vast pre-Centennial Journey experience
12:52 Outdoor Org Feature: Black Kids Adventures
13:46 How the NPS system is layered in terms of discovery
16:46 No “right” way to visit a park
19:30 Tips on NPS Travel
21:02 Value of the entire NPS
22:01 Preview of his next book
26:22 Uniqueness of Channel Islands National Park

More information on The Centennial: A Journey Through America’s National Park System

Website: www.centennialjourney.com

Facebook page: (4) The Centennial: A Journey Through America’s National Park System | Facebook

The book is available via Amazon, the book website, and by direct order through the author. For those who want a personalized copy, please use the Contact author feature at the bottom of the page on www.centennialjourney.com .

More information on Black Kids Adventures: bit.ly/BKAdventures

NB As of December 2020, with the addition of Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, there are 423 NPS sites. The interview and other parts of the episode mentioning specific numbers of NPS sites were correct at the time of recording.

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