An Otto couple has wrapped up a journey that started 11 years ago when they set a goal to visit all the National Parks.
Steve Sweimler achieved that milestone when they visited American Samoa in October. Janet still has one park left to visit – Petrified Forest in Arizona. Steve visited that park when he was a kid. They are planning a trip there in January, so Janet can check that one off her list.
“We’ve finished our bucket list now,” Steve said.
To document their journey, they have tons of photos, a map marking all their stops, souvenir T-shirts, and they collect the National Park patches and passport stamps. A couple of years ago for Christmas, Janet gave Steve a jacket with all the patches sewn on it. “I’m a billboard for the National Parks,” Steve said while wearing his T-shirt from Katmai National Park.
The idea to visit all the parks came about when they were on their second trip to Yellowstone National Park, and they saw other visitors with the National Park passport books.
“It became a quest,” Steve said.
There were 59 parks when they started; four more have since been added. They traveled 16,000 miles to reach their final stop. To get there, they flew from Atlanta to Seattle to Honolulu then another six-hour flight onto American Samoa, located in the South Pacific Ocean. While there, a park ranger presented Steve with a certificate for visiting the 63 parks.
Janet said during their travels they have met people from all over the world. “People from other countries love our national parks,” she said. Steve said some people from other countries take six-week holidays visiting the U.S. national parks.
“That’s what really got us thinking 11 years ago, these folks do it, we should do it,” Steve said.
The Sweimlers have visited some parks, such as Yellowstone, Acadia, and their “home park,” Great Smoky Mountains National Park, more than once.
“Of course, we have the greatest park ever,” Steve said, referring to the Smokies. They have been to Smokies probably 40 times or more but didn’t get their passport stamp until a few years ago. “Every time we’d go, we would forget our passport book” he said.
“It’s been an adventure,” Steve said, recalling trips in little single-engine plains, seeing more than 100 glaciers and coming within 10 feet of a grizzly bear at Katmai National Park in Alaska.
“I was very anxious,” Janet said. “These are dangerous animals and it’s their habitat.”
Before venturing out into the park, they had to attend a one-hour bear school. Visitors must wear a pin showing they have completed the school and are instructed to get rid of anything that smells like food.
“You have to share the trail with them. You have to interact with them,” Steve said.
When they arrived at the viewing platform over the river, there were 27 grizzlies at the falls catching salmon.
They returned to the lodge, had lunch, and then decided to go for a walk. “We were walking around the lake and suddenly this grizzly bear starts to follow us,” Steve said. During bear school they had been instructed not to run if they encountered a bear, not to turn their backs to the animal and to make themselves big. “But it’s so hard to fight that urge to run,” Steve said.
Steve said suddenly a park ranger appeared and stood between them and the bear, waving her arms and yelling. The bear turned around and walked off.
“We continued our walk and suddenly the bear was following us again. That’s when we sort of got nervous,” Steve said.
The ranger said the bear seemed “curious about you two” and asked them to return to the lodge.
“It was a great adventure,” Janet said. “We would not have gone there if we hadn’t said, ‘it’s on the list, you gotta go.’ It was one of our more memorable trips.”
The Sweimlers have nothing but good things to say about the rangers they met throughout the park system.
“The rangers are so dedicated; they’re knowledgeable and helpful,” Janet said.
Steve added, “They’re accommodating. We did not meet a single ranger that we thought was rude.”
The Sweimlers also suggest taking time to visit the national historical sites and monuments. “They are absolutely excellent,” Janet said. “We actually like some of the historical sites and national monuments better because they’re aimed at education.”
While they have wrapped up their tour of the national parks, there are more than 400 properties in the National Park Service. “We won’t run out of things to do,” Janet said.
The Sweimlers said it’s difficult to pick a favorite park because they are all unique in their own way.
“We just fell in love with Yellowstone,” Janet said. Although they’ve been there three times, she said there are still sections of the park they haven’t explored.
Steve said he really liked the parks in Utah. They did the “grand loop” including Zion, Canyonlands, Bryce, Arches, and the western part of the Grand Canyon. “Those are spectacular,” he said.
They enjoyed learning the history of Mesa Verde in Colorado. “That was amazing. We learned more history at that park,” Steve said. For more than 700 years, the Ancestral Pueblo people built communities on the mesas and in the cliffs of Mesa Verde. “It was awe-inspiring that people did that. Of course, then you look at the Grand Canyon and think, ‘Wow, Mother Nature did that,’” Steve said.
Another memorable site was while eating dinner one night at Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. They were seated at a table in front of a picture window and as the lights were turned off in the restaurant, they could see the glow of lava spewing up from the volcano.
At some of the parks, Steve didn’t get to experience the views first-hand because of his fear of heights. “I’m afraid of edges,” he said. When they were at some of the overlooks, he would give the camera to Janet to take pictures to share with him, while he stood back a comfortable distance. “Getting close to an edge makes me nervous,” he said.
Steve’s fear of heights, and his driving skills, got put to the test as they were traveling the scenic Highway 12 in Utah. Steve said the twisting road had a sheer drop off with no guardrails. The speed limit was 25 but he drove 10 mph, white-knuckled the whole way. Janet told him, “You and your lead foot aren’t so leaded now.” “It was the slowest I’ve ever seen him drive,” she said.
For planning trips, the Sweimlers recommend using the National Park Service app. One handy feature of the app is you can download the maps and park information, so you still have access to them when you are in remote areas without internet access.
Janet said if anyone is planning a national park trip, they are willing to share their travel tips, suggestions for lodging, and sites to see.
This month they’ll be packing their bags again to head out west so Janet can collect her certificate at Petrified Forest.