Every year the National Park Service hosts a week where entry into the National Parks is FREE. This year, National Park Week is April 16-24. They host entertaining events with special guests and activities. Volunteer Day is April 16th. The Junior Ranger programs are a fantastic way to learn about each park. Junior Ranger Day is April 23rd. Find a National Park near you or try one you haven’t visited yet and explore!

Bryce, Jasper, and McKinley

I know not everyone has named their children after a national park like we have and not everyone makes it their life’s ambition to visit all 394 parks, but the parks are an amazing place to visit and explore. We always learn something about our nation’s history or another culture when we visit the national parks.

On our recent trip to Florida to see the Discovery Shuttle launch, we decided to finish visiting the Forts up the Florida coast that we weren’t able to visit when we were there in 2009. We took a red-eye flight and got in at some ridiculously early hour, like 5 am, so we had plenty of time to drive before anything would be open. We chose to drive past Jacksonville up  to Savannah, Georgia and see Fort Pulaski. We then worked our way down the Coast to visit Fort Frederica, Fort Caroline, and the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve.

The National Parks are an amazing asset and we are lucky that we all own a part of it! Near us – there is a celebration of John Muir’s Birthday on April 21. If you want to test your knowledge of our National Parks, take this quiz to find out how knowledgable you are about our National Parks (a hint for one of the answers is contained in one of my posts from our summer trip). Take time the week of April 16-24 to go see a National Park near you!

Please leave a comment about your favorite National Park and why!