63 by 65, A National Parks Story
Part 1 in my National Parks blog series
Dateline June 2, 2025
When I turned 62 earlier this year, I had an idea. There are 63 national parks in our beautiful country. What if I made it my goal to visit all 63 by the time I turn 63? I did a little research and quickly worked out that I’ve already visited 15. That leaves 48. I found a list of parks on the NPS website, copied that into Word doc, arranged them in geographic clusters, and started to map out what this could look like.
I began to see the high ambition, even audacity, of this goal. I would need to drop most everything else and go full throttle to get it done. Beyond that, I realized I would get into “grabbing peaks” mode at the expense of truly experiencing the wonder of each park. Like my old Tom Tom GPS map used to tell me after a wrong turn, I began “recalculating.” The next age that felt like a good milestone number is 65. OK, I won’t get to say, “I got to all 63 by 63,” but “63 by 65” works for me.
That brings me to my flight to San Franciso. Along with my small backpack with computer and such, I have a medium suitcase packed on one side with slacks, a jacket, a couple of ironed shirts, and black shoes, and the other side with tee-shirts, shorts, hiking pants, layers, and an ultralight 12-liter hydration daypack with various trekking gear. Let me explain.
Caryn and I have a wedding in Los Altos this coming weekend. Then, a couple of days later, I’m leading a public speaking workshop in Santa Clara. So that brings me to California. I opened up my Google Maps and plotted national parks around the Bay Area. I worked out that I could visit three parks the week before the wedding/workshop (Pinnacles, Kings Canyon and Sequoia), and one after, Lassen.
Ever heard of Lassen Volcanic National Park? Me neither. Which is part of the attraction of this idea. The goal of visiting all the national parks, including ones that are off the radar, promises to take me to places and have experiences that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
It’s so easy to draw our cards from the deck of what we know, the familiar, the comfortable. I’m talking about activities but also ways of thinking, of seeing, and of relationships. As I get older, it becomes easier to want to do that. And sure, I feel the need for some level of comfort, security and stability. But I also want to keep reaching, keep expanding, keep moving, keep growing. I find it good medicine for mind, body and spirit. “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” (Olympic runner and devoted Christian in Chariots of Fire)
I planned my flight to arrive in San Francisco early enough for me to drive my rental car to the hotel in Soledad well before the dreaded SF rush hour. I took a slight detour to spend the afternoon in Monterey, a favorite. I’m tempted to write about the wonders of that little coastal paradise, but I’m reminding myself this is a national parks blog.
After a short stop at Trader Joe’s to get fruit, bread, cheese, and trail snacks, I made it into Soledad. Tomorrow, I plan to get to the parking lot at Pinnacles when it opens at 7:00am to secure a spot, then hit some hiking routes I found on the AllTrails app.
The ancient tree giants of Sequoia and Kings Canyon call from a distance. But first, Pinnacles. It begins.