Explore Better.

Welcome!

Each year, 325 million people visit America's National Parks and 90% of them will follow identical itineraries. You get to be different.

You're in on the secret now.

After visiting 20 National Parks, we started noticing that we doing the same things each park in order to get the most out of our visits. Most information available on the parks, while interesting, stops short of being useful when trying to plan a trip. Nearly every website and book will tell you what there is to see, but our goal is to help tell you how. Explore our site for the tips, tricks, and realities that come with visiting our National Parks. They’re some of the most wonderful places on Earth, and it’s only right that you should be able to enjoy them to the fullest.

Take a look around. We will continually be adding material to help you on your next National Park (or outdoor) adventure.

About Stephen Mather

About Stephen T. Mather

Stephen T. Mather was the first director of the National Park Service. During his tenure (1917-1929), he protected and expanded national parks, monuments, and wild places throughout America. His foresight made these wondrous places accessible to all.

From his time as Assistant Secretary of the Interior until a stroke forced him to retire 14 years later, Mather helped foster the creation of 10 parks. He created the iconic park ranger look and developed the park service's contradictory mission: to preserve America's remaining wild places while makeing them accessible to all. Under his guidance, millions of Americans began discovering the wonders of our national parks. Their enduring popularity plays an important role in their perpetual protection.

Mather died in 1930, but his impact remains. In each park is a

plaque that asserts, "There will never come an end to the good that he has done."

We agree.