2023 Roaming Monk National Park Visit Results
Our second year of focused National Park Service visits is now completed and while we did not exceed last year’s total, we did achieve a lot! Our travels brought us across 4 regions, and we collected stamps at 23 new units. The largest section was during our big Go West summer vacation to Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota, but we had a solid number from a family reunion earlier in the year. I did mention last year that our visit to DC was a huge windfall, and would not be easily maintained, but I think we did pretty good. As usual, a big thank you to the National Park Travelers Club, as their club was an amazing help and resource for me as I started out on this journey!
With the 23-unit visits in 2023 we ended the year with 84 total units. This was a steady increase from last year where we were sitting at 61. The NPS added 4 new units so we have a little more ground to make up in the overall total. Still, we have visited 20% over the units so far.
We expanded our state map coverage by visiting new locations our west. Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana. We also kept up the local visits in the Southeast in SC, NC and Virginia. The one visit to the North Atlantic was made available due to a work trip. Unfortunately, I did not have any additional opportunities beyond that in 2023.
The big spike in August was the large Go West summer vacation. We also had solid effort in June for the family reunion and Spring Break in April. We still have open locations around DC so we will look for opportunities in 2024 to finalize those (I am talking to you Frederick Douglass NHP!)
Again, no surprise on the region totals given the spread of states on our vacations. Certainly need to expand into Midwest, South West and PNW in 2024 and 2025.
Looking specifically at National Parks, we made a solid contribution to visiting these 63 units this year and will add to this with our Florida trip planned in January of 2024.
2023 Picture Collage
While on these trips and visits, it is very hard to not take pictures! All pictures, (and actually all the pictures on this site) are taken by the Roaming Monk. Please enjoy some of the images from the past year and click through to the associated trip reports.
Looking forward to looking back
As we move into 2024, I am already excited to put more memories in the books and share our travels. Next step is to set goals and plan it out for 2024. As they say, a goal without a plan is just a wish! Stay Tuned!
Check out original photos in the Roaming Monk gallery!
hey
cool blog 🙂 will give it a follow and a like !
Thanks! Absolutely appreciate it!