This past June marked the conclusion of an epic journey of discovery and exploration as my wife and I have completed exploring all 63 US National Parks.
This took just under eight years to complete, and it was a great way to see the country we call home but the journey meant much more than just tourism to us. It was life-changing in many ways and so I am now beginning a project to document and share our experiences with an essay + video series starting this month.
I will also produce each essay and video in my wife’s native language of Chinese because this journey is as much hers to share as it is mine. I also believe she might be the first Chinese woman to visit every US National Park (to be confirmed, correct me if I’m wrong). If it’s true (and even if it’s not) I think that’s pretty special so I want to make sure our content is fit for a Chinese audience.
This epic adventure deepened our faith, strengthened our marriage, and refreshed our souls at every step. It wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows and each trip had its own set of highs and lows, it’s own series of sunrises and sunsets. The good (yet painful) news is that we have tens of thousands of photos and videos to manage and sort through. So each park video and essay will be hard fought.
Everyone also keeps asking me, “So what’s next?” I usually just say, “Not sure, maybe Canada?” But the truth is the next step is doing nothing. My goal is to pause and reflect before designing any future travel plans. Until we can properly close this eight year chapter, I don’t want to start another one. Like Bilbo writing at his desk for a season to think through his adventures and treasures, it’s time to hit pause.
The end goal is an in-depth 63 US National Park travel documentary series produced in English and Chinese, shared in this newsletter with an embedded YouTube video. The audience-impact might be small, might be massive, I’m fine with either direction. I’m packing everything we learned not only about geography, but also about life, into each video.
There are also much better videographers than me out there, so I want to focus less on sharing 8k drone footage and more on the stories that brought us there, the narratives of the parks (imagine if a park could talk, what would it say?), and the highly random facts we learned that you won’t find anywhere else. And I will be taking advantage of AI tools like Grok Imagine to fill some gaps or create visually appealing maps for you to reference. I want the videos to be useful with a solid mix of practical experience, logistical value, and natural beauty.
So please stay tuned and join the ride. I hope that within the next year or two, all 63 videos will be produced and published. But let me start with just one first.
Photo Background: The below picture is just minutes from after we landed in northern Lake Superior in Michigan onto a dock that marked the milestone of reaching our 63rd park—Isle Royale National Park. When I met documentary filmmaker Ken Burns in person he corrected me after I expressed my appreciation for his The National Parks: America’s Best Idea documentary. I was convinced that Isle Royale was pronounced “Isle Roy-AL”. He then pronounced it “Isle Royal” as in “Royalty.” I will include all kinds of stories like this from our travels, and I’m very thankful we took so many pictures and videos because my memory is certainly not getting any better as I get older :).
Stay tuned for the first essay and video which I hope to publish by late August. I will produce the videos in the chronological order based on when we visited. For this reason, our first video will be focused on the first park we visited—Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This park is one of my favorites until this day because it’s the only park that includes a trout on it’s poster and it’s located in my favorite part of Colorado (our home state).
Excited to kick this off…
More to share soon!
Dane
我们走遍了全部63个美国国家公园（用时不到8年）
今年六月，我和妻子完成了走遍美国全部63个国家公园的史诗般探索与发现之旅，正式画上句号。
整个旅程只用了不到八年时间。这是了解我们称之为家的这片土地的绝佳方式，但对我们来说，它远不止是旅游那么简单。它在很多方面彻底改变了我们的生活，因此我现在开始一个项目，用随笔+视频系列记录并分享我们的经历，本月正式启动。
我也会用妻子的母语中文同步制作每篇随笔和视频，因为这段旅程属于她，也属于我。我还相信她可能是第一位走遍所有美国国家公园的中国女性（有待确认，如果错了请纠正我）。如果这是真的（即使不是），我觉得这件事非常特别，所以希望我们的内容也能适合中文读者。
这段史诗般的冒险加深了我们的信仰，巩固了我们的婚姻，也在每一步中滋养了我们的灵魂。它并不总是阳光灿烂、彩虹满天。每一次出行都有自己的高潮与低谷，有属于它的日出与日落。好消息（也让人头疼的消息）是，我们留下了数以万计的照片和视频需要整理。因此，每一支公园视频和每一篇随笔都将是辛苦打磨出来的成果。
大家也总是问我：“那下一步是什么？”我通常只是说：“不确定，也许加拿大？”但真相是，下一步是什么都不做。我的目标是先暂停下来好好反思，再规划未来的旅行。在我们真正结束这八年篇章之前，我不想开启下一段。就像比尔博安静地坐在书桌前，花一个季节思考自己的冒险与宝藏一样，现在是时候按下暂停键了。最终目标是制作一部深入的63个美国国家公园旅行纪录片，同时以英文和中文呈现，并在这份通讯中分享，嵌入YouTube视频。受众影响可能很小，也可能很大，我都可以接受。我会把我们学到的一切——不仅是关于地理，更是关于人生——都装进每一支视频里。
世界上有比我优秀得多的摄像师，所以我更想少分享8K无人机航拍，而多聚焦公园的叙事、把我们带到那里的故事、公园本身的故事（想象一下，如果公园会说话，它会说什么？），以及我们学到的那些你在别处找不到的高度随机的趣闻。我也会借助Grok Imagine等AI工具来补充一些画面，或制作好看的参考地图。我希望视频既实用，又融合实用经验、后勤价值和自然美景。所以请持续关注，一起上路。我希望在未来一两年内，全部63支视频都能制作并发布完成。但让我先从一支开始。照片背景：下面这张照片是我们刚降落在密歇根州苏必利尔湖北部，踏上标志着第63个公园——罗亚尔岛国家公园（Isle Royale National Park）的码头后几分钟拍摄的。当我当面见到纪录片导演肯·伯恩斯时，他纠正了我对这个公园名称的发音。
我原本按他的纪录片《国家公园：美国最伟大的创意》表达了欣赏，并坚信这个名字应念作“Isle Roy-AL”。他却念成了“Isle Royal”（像“Royalty”里的发音一样）。我之后会分享更多类似旅途中的故事。非常感谢我们拍下了这么多照片和视频，因为随着年龄增长，我的记忆力确实越来越不靠谱了 ：）。
请期待第一篇随笔和视频，我希望在八月下旬发布。我会按照我们实际到访的时间顺序制作视频。因此，第一支视频将聚焦我们去的第一个公园——甘尼森黑峡谷国家公园（Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park）。直到今天，它仍是我最爱的公园之一：它是唯一海报上有鳟鱼的国家公园，而且位于我们家乡科罗拉多州我最喜欢的那片区域。
很兴奋能正式开启这个项目……
更多内容即将分享！
Dane (大丁大）