Couple achieves goal of visiting all 430 US national parks

Darryl and Kathleen Toupkin, a husband and wife team from Arizona, have officially visited all 430 national park units—a journey they inadvertently began decades ago. The Toupkins recently checked off the very last unit from their list by visiting the St. Croix Island International Historic Site.

The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) manages not only national parks, but also national monuments, national historic sites, national recreation areas, national lakeshores, and national hiking trails. There are national parks in all 50 states, as well as Washington DC, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“We didn’t set out to visit every national park,” the Toupkins wrote on their blog documenting their adventures. “We just visited them because we enjoyed them. I’m sure you can relate… you hear so much about places like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the Smokey Mountains, Death Valley… it’s only natural to include them in your vacation plans!”

Eventually, they decided to make it an official goal to visit every national park in the United States. They hung a giant map on the wall and put a pin at each NPS site they checked off their list.

Here is a short local news story about the Toupkins and their plan to visit all 430 national parks: