Hi! My name is Parkmaster Piper and I’m excited to meet you! I’ve had the pleasure of traveling to many of our National Parks, which has inspired the community vision for The Highlands, and I will be sharing some of my favorite trips, tips, and tricks.
I love exploring the great outdoors and all the wonders Mother Nature holds and I hope you get the chance to explore these parks yourself. To start, I’ll be sharing some fun facts about our National Park system.
NATIONAL PARKS FUN FACTS
- The US is home to 63 National Parks
- There are 423 sites within the National Park System that include Historic Sites, Preserves, Monuments, and much more – truly something for everyone!
- The very first park was created in 1872 when Yellowstone was designated as a National Park
- Our most recent park was named in 2020 when New River Gorge received the National Park designation
- There is some speculation that the next National Park will be Delaware Water Gap which is currently a National Recreation Area or Chiricahua in Arizona. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
- We have 63 parks, but only 30 states contain a park, and some have more than one
- California has the most parks with 9 total
- Here in Texas, we have two, Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe National Park in West Texas
- The most visited park is the Great Smoky Mountain National Park located in Tennessee and North Carolina
- It is one of several parks that span multiple states like Yellowstone which is in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana
- Our National Parks offer everything from historical sites like the Hot Springs, to geographical rock formations such as the Arches, to beautiful landscapes seen in the Grand Canyon and beyond
Check out the National Park Services website to explore more details about all of our parks and to help narrow down any you’d like to visit. If you are anything like me, once you begin exploring, you won’t be able to stop!
Next time, I will share tips for traveling to National Parks, and eventually, we will get into tips and important information for each park.
Until next time… Happy hiking!!!
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