NATIONAL PARKS CHECKLIST + 18 Easy Tips for Visiting US National Parks

US National Parks are more popular than ever. If you’re planning to visit one of these treasures, here’s a handy National Parks checklist with tips for making the most out of your experience.

Historian Wallace Steiner called America’s national parks “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”

Our parks are open to everyone. Can you imagine if places like Joshua Tree or Zion had been sold to developers, or to private parties? Instead, you and I can experience their beauty for ourselves, and they’re preserved for future generations.

The first federally protected land was in Arkansas. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Hot Springs Reservation in what was then the Arkansas Territory. The area had become increasingly popular and the locals were concerned that it would become overdeveloped.

The next step in our national parks evolution was when President Abraham Lincoln ceded the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove to California in 1864. This prohibited private ownership and answered the question: does the government have the right to create parks?

Yes, yes it does.

The first national park in the United States was also the first national park in the world.

On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed legislation creating Yellowstone National…