Nationwide Park Week is April 20-28! This nine-day celebration is a chance to rejoice in the fantastic thing about America’s nationwide parks, defend the setting and all the general public areas we share, and look in the direction of a climate-forward future collectively.
Nationwide parks — of which there are over 400 — are a uniquely particular place for all who go to them.
Whether or not you simply love the outside, have an interest within the shared historical past of those landmarks, or embrace the emotions of journey and discovery, these public parks present an area for us to develop, discover, join, and study.
Nationwide Park Week merely takes the on a regular basis stewardship and appreciation of those locations and turns up the quantity, making manner for an array of occasions, actions, and advocacy.
In fact, those that all the time appear to have a pair of mountaineering boots within the automobile, or have been eagerly awaiting the “tremendous bloom” of wildflowers are already eager on getting out and exploring — however nationwide parks are a spot for everybody.
To spark your park-going ardour and provide you with some further context into Nationwide Park Week, listed here are a couple of enjoyable information to get us began:
5 Details About Nationwide Park Week
- Nationwide Park Week first began in 1991, when George H. W. Bush celebrated the seventy fifth anniversary of the Nationwide Park Service.
- Nationwide Park Week is all the time held in mid-April to coincide with Earth Day.
- Every day of Nationwide Park Week features a completely different celebration or theme, like custom, inspiration, and discovery.
- Park entrance charges are all the time waived on the primary day of Nationwide Park Week — so that you go discover your favourite parks at no cost!
- Nationwide Volunteer Week is the week previous to Nationwide Park Week, celebrating all of the volunteers who take care of our nationwide parks.
Whereas it’s necessary to study extra about and defend our nationwide parks each single day, it’s useful to have someplace to begin. We’ve created a information on learn how to have a good time Nationwide Park Week this 12 months.
By the best way, a few of the hyperlinks on this article (like books!) are affiliate hyperlinks, which implies when you make a purchase order after clicking a hyperlink, we might earn a fee at no further value to you. Thanks!
Actions and Concepts: How To Acknowledge Nationwide Park Week
Study
Watch documentaries about nationwide parks.
Even when you’ve regarded out into the expanse of the Grand Canyon or hiked within the Rocky Mountains, there’s nonetheless no option to see each inch of our stunning nationwide parks.
Documentaries are an effective way to study extra about these lands and landmarks, and the wildlife that inhabits them — and enhance your appreciation for public lands
- “The Nationwide Parks: America’s Finest Concept” (PBS)
- “Our Nice Nationwide Parks” (Netflix)
- “America’s Nationwide Parks” (Disney+)
- “Into The Grand Canyon” (Disney+)
- “The Nice Yellowstone Thaw” (PBS)
- “Massive Sur: Wild California” (Nationwide Geographic)
In search of extra particularly climate-related documentaries? We’ve bought a complete checklist of these, too!
Learn books about nationwide parks.
An effective way to have a good time Nationwide Park Week is to curate your library with extra books about these huge, curious landmarks.
Sorry to interrupt it to you, however we’re including extra sensible reads to your endless TBR checklist.
- “Atlas of the Nationwide Parks” by Jon Waterman (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “Signal My Title to Freedom” by Betty Reid Soskin (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “Campfire Tales: Tales from America’s Nationwide Parks” by Dave Kyu & Ilyssa Kyu (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “Depart Solely Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey By Each Nationwide Park” by Conor Knighton (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “The Energy of Surroundings: Frederick Legislation Olmsted and the Origin of Nationwide Parks” by Dennis Drabelle (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “Engineering Eden: A Violent Demise, a Federal Trial, and the Battle to Restore Nature in Our Nationwide Parks” by Jordan Fisher Smith (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “Lassoing the Solar: A 12 months in America’s Nationwide Parks” by Mark Woods (Bookshop) (Amazon)
Hearken to podcasts about nationwide parks.
There’s nothing like an emotional help podcast that educates us and journeys with us to the gymnasium, grocery retailer, or each day commute. Bonus factors if it by no means makes you wish to take off your headphones!
Listed here are a couple of podcasts to tune into throughout Nationwide Park Week:
Study extra in regards to the historical past of the Nationwide Park Service.
It was 1916 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created the Nationwide Park Service (NPS).
The NPS would grow to be the federal bureau within the Division of the Inside accountable for the safety and administration of the nation’s established nationwide parks and monuments. Within the century following, a wealthy historical past has been constructed.
Take a while throughout Nationwide Park Week to find out about the timeline of the institution of the NPS, discover the collections, maps, and essays of the nationwide parks by the Library of Congress, and study extra about what continues to be completed to protect the historical past of the parks themselves.
Be intersectional in your nationwide park research.
In fact, we should highlight and acknowledge the influence of nationwide parks and public lands on our most marginalized communities. Lengthy earlier than our nationwide parks have been designated protected areas by the federal authorities, they have been the lands of Indigenous communities.
Nationwide parks and historic websites are additionally particular locations to honor Black historical past and girls’s historical past. They inform the story of the USA — considered one of hurt and colonization — in addition to intersectionality and justice. It’s as much as us to protect these tales and uphold the teachings of liberty and justice they train us all.
Go to a digital park.
Whereas there are definitely a lot of state and public parks throughout the nation, we additionally know {that a} very actual nature hole exists in America, conserving entry to nature inaccessible to many communities.
In case you dwell removed from a nationwide park — and even nature typically — an effective way to nonetheless have interaction with these stunning areas is by taking a digital go to to a nationwide park proper out of your laptop.
Learn and share quotes about nationwide parks.
There’s a quote for every little thing. Discover our roundup of one of the best nationwide park quotes from sensible conservationists, environmentalists, and specialists as you have a good time this particular week.
Discover ways to #RecreateResponsibly and Depart No Hint.
The motion behind #RecreateResponsibly invitations individuals to take higher care of the pure setting and one another. Whether or not it’s studying learn how to camp, off-road, or play in water responsibly, there are guides and sources to make your experiences enjoyable and protected for the world round you.
These concepts additionally lead into “Depart No Hint” ideas, which offer a information to having a minimal influence when visiting the outside.
Take Motion
Take excellent care of public lands.
What higher option to follow your nationwide park stewardship than cleansing up the general public lands and waterways closest to you?
Seize a clean-up package and decide up litter, assist unfold the phrase in regards to the significance of accountable park utilization, and even attain out to your native parks division (or NPS) to inquire about improved recycling or waste administration choices.
Donate to organizations that defend nationwide parks and public lands.
With regards to the precise environmental and conservation wants of our nationwide parks and wildlife, we must always depart it to the specialists to do their jobs.
However that doesn’t imply they don’t want help!
Initiatives, nonprofits, and funds of every kind exist to keep up and defend our nationwide parks. Contemplate contributing to a few of them throughout Nationwide Park Week — listed here are just some to bear in mind:
Turn into a member of the Nationwide Parks Basis.
The Nationwide Park Basis is the nonprofit arm of the NPS and works to take care of and safeguard these beloved parks.
With programming in youth schooling, historical past and tradition, sustainability, wildlife conservation, out of doors exploration, and extra, a yearly membership with the Nationwide Parks Basis contributes vastly to the areas and initiatives everyone knows and love.
Urge your elected officers to guard public lands and nationwide parks.
Whereas a lot of impartial organizations preserve and uphold the fantastic thing about our nationwide parks, the federal authorities will all the time want a reminder from us as constituents that these public lands matter and need to be protected.
Contact your representatives to induce them to take motion to guard public lands by resisting the development of oil pipelines, holding firms accountable, establishing sturdy sustainability and conservation legal guidelines, and extra.
You too can merely let your representatives know that you just worth nationwide parks and wish them to work to guard them.
Have a good time
Take the Discover Your Park quiz.
Undecided which nationwide park it is best to go to subsequent? Kiss the choice fatigue goodbye and let the Discover Your Park quiz show you how to decide your subsequent vacation spot.
The quiz will immediate you to consider your journey buddies, the sorts of actions you wish to do, what you prefer to find out about, and extra.
Attend a Nationwide Park Week occasion.
Undecided the way you wish to have a good time? By no means worry; the NPS has occasions deliberate for you all week lengthy!
Take a look at ParkRx Day to study in regards to the well being advantages of nature, have a good time Earth Day at a nationwide park, carry your little ones outdoor to have a good time Nationwide Junior Ranger Day, have a good time younger conservation leaders, and extra.
To seek out extra occasions close to you, go to the NPS web site and peruse April’s occasion calendar.
Mark your calendar for this 12 months’s Free Nationwide Park Days.
Yearly, NPS proclaims quite a lot of “fee-free days” to make sure that our nationwide parks are accessible to everybody. However the excellent news can be that at the very least 310 nationwide park locations are already free!
Both manner, put together for an journey and tuck away your pockets for this 12 months’s free nationwide park days.
Store from manufacturers that help the preservation of Nationwide Parks.
Whether or not you’re purchasing for a commemorative Nationwide Park Week treasure, otherwise you’re available in the market for some new gear to your subsequent journey, there are many completely different manufacturers and firms that donate proceeds to nationwide park and public land preservation.
Take a look at our full reward information for nationwide park lovers to get began!
Learn excellent news about nationwide parks.
A part of the enjoyable of celebrating nationwide parks additionally means celebrating excellent news about nationwide parks.
We’re all about excellent news at Good Good Good — and we even create an Atmosphere Version of our Goodnewspaper yearly!
Plus, we now have a complete library of good nationwide park information tales to encourage you, too.
Share #YourParkStory on social media.
As a part of Nationwide Park Week, NPS is encouraging people to share their “park tales” on social media. Through the use of the hashtag #YourParkStory or #MyParkStory, customers can share their particular connections to nationwide parks in celebration of this week.
Every day of Nationwide Park Week additionally has a theme to make use of when sharing these tales. They embrace:
- Discovery (Saturday, April 20)
- Volunteers (Sunday, April 21)
- Earth Day (Monday, April 22)
- Innovation (Tuesday, April 23)
- Workforce (Wednesday, April 24)
- Youth Engagement (Thursday, April 25)
- Group Connections (Friday, April 26)
- Junior Ranger Day (Saturday, April 27)
- Arts in Parks (Sunday, April 28)
Contemplate the distinctive pure beauties of various parks.
Not solely does Nationwide Park Week coincide with Earth Day; it additionally coincides with quite a lot of seasonal transitions in nature.
Use this as an excuse to discover nationwide parks which might be particularly thrilling throughout fowl migration, waterfall, and wildflower tremendous bloom season.
Go to a nationwide park.
Final, however definitely not least: Pay a go to to a nationwide park!
In honor of Nationwide Park Week, Google unveiled some new updates to Google Maps which is able to show you how to determine the entire finest “must-visit sights” at every park, show you how to discover and navigate total trails (not simply monitor down the trailhead), and obtain a complete park space in case there’s no cell service.
Whether or not you go to a nationwide park in your state otherwise you determine to trek distant, the Nationwide Park Service has sources to assist guarantee you may have a fantastic journey.
Ceaselessly Requested Questions
What’s Nationwide Park Week?
Nationwide Park Week is an annual nine-day celebration of nationwide parks, what they imply to us, and the way we are able to defend them. This week of celebration provides us all a possibility to discover, join, and uncover these public lands collectively.
When is Nationwide Park Week?
In 2024, Nationwide Park Week takes place April 20-28. Nationwide Park Week is held in mid-April yearly to coincide with Earth Day.
When did Nationwide Park Week begin?
Nationwide Park Week was began by George H. W. Bush in 1991 to have a good time the seventy fifth anniversary of the Nationwide Park Service. Since then, the celebration has continued to incorporate annual occasions, fee-free days, and expanded advocacy and conservation efforts.
What’s the 2024 theme of Nationwide Park Week?
In 2024, there’s not a set theme for Nationwide Park Week. As a substitute, the NPS is internet hosting theme days all through the week, highlighting issues like arts within the parks, youth engagement, the superb nationwide park workforce, and extra.
What was the 2023 theme of Nationwide Park Week?
In 2023, the theme of Nationwide Park Week was #YourParkStory, which inspired individuals to share their tales of connection and tradition by their experiences at nationwide parks. Social media customers shared their nationwide park tales on-line utilizing the hashtag #MyParkStory.
Which president made the primary Nationwide Park?
President Ulysses S. Grant established Yellowstone Nationwide Park as the primary nationwide park in 1872. Nevertheless, it wasn’t till 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson created the Nationwide Park Service, and subsequently paved the best way for the event of all different nationwide parks.
Who owns the U.S. nationwide parks?
All nationwide parks are owned by the federal authorities, and the Nationwide Park Service is an company of the federal authorities (inside the Division of the Inside) that manages all 400+ nationwide parks.
When is Nationwide Public Lands Day?
Nationwide Public Lands Day is well known on September 23 within the U.S. This vacation is devoted to reveling within the splendor of nature, safeguarding our cherished pure parks, and championing a greener tomorrow. By volunteer work, particular occasions, or ongoing studying, this consciousness day celebrates and cares for our public lands.
