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“Visiting those parks was a great source of joy for me. Successfully hiking many strenuous trails was also an achievement for me, and there's nothing like the feeling I got when I finished a long and difficult trail; a feeling of being capable of anything, of being invincible, a real euphoria. Obviously, it was also taxing, both financially and mentally, but the latter mostly in a good way. I have so much more confidence in my abilities. I did it by myself, I paid my own way, I traveled my own way, I successfully dealt with the complications and unexpected issues that arose, I overcame the burnout that often comes with living on the road, and I achieved my dream.”

“So I guess it makes sense that my visit to my last National Park, which happened to be Mammoth Cave, was somewhat bittersweet. I waited for that moment for a significant amount of years, and I was truly excited on my drive there that morning. I told one of the park rangers about it being my last park, and he was quite enthusiastic about it. I was elated, but a few minutes later it suddenly dawned on me that it was over. One of my major drives for a decade was suddenly gone, and I turned a bit solemn.”

“In January of 2020, I packed my entire life into an old Ford Transit minivan, kissed my partner goodbye, and set off to visit every national park in the United States. Along the way, I penned a series of dispatches for Outside and wrote a book about all my wild experiences. Like the time an enormous black bear approached my picnic table in Kings Canyon, California; panicked, I waved my arms overhead like a lunatic and tap-danced on the wooden surface until it finally turned and sauntered into the woods. Or the time I came down with scarlet fever in the Alaskan bush and lolled around in my tent with a high fever for two days, until my bush plane’s return. Or the four days I spent trapped in a Tacoma motel room, waiting out the smoke of the worst wildfire season in U.S. history, before visiting North Cascades. My year exploring the parks was never boring. In fact, it’s been the biggest adventure of my life.”