healthykids
“It’s so cool to get close to a big
animal,” says Peyton, recalling when she and Mom were sea kayaking Alaska’s Glacier Bay near a hump- back whale. “I thought we were going to end up in the whale’s mouth,” she laughs. The family agrees that their longest expedition—eight Alaskan parks in three weeks—was extraordinary. “We had to fly into the Arctic Circle on a float plane and walk the ice using crampons,” Pey- ton notes about their visit to the remote Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley, among America’s least-visited parks, in contrast to the most-visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park, straddling Ten- nessee and North Carolina. Whether witnessing Kodiak Island
Exploring America’s National Treasures by S. Alison Chabonais
PARK IT HERE T
he Kent family, of Amherst, New Hampshire, has faced many “Can I really do this?” moments while
adventuring in America’s national parks. So far they’ve visited 57, and with Pinnacles just named a full park in January, they’ll likely be headed for California again. American Somoa, in the South Pacific, potentially the last and most remote destination of their 11-year odyssey, is under serious consideration. Along the way, father Scott, mother Lisa and (now) 18-year-old Tanner and 16-year-old Peyton each grew increasingly self-confident in testing their skills at everything from spe- lunking, subtropical snorkeling and para- gliding to ice trek- king and kayaking subarctic waters. “If they offered it, we tried it,” says Lisa. “Our family regu- larly debates our favorite memories.” While they
hiked and explored 42 Collier/Lee Counties
natural rock formations at every op- portunity—including New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns, Kentucky’s Mam- moth Cave, South Dakota’s Wind Cave and California’s Yosemite—the gals also liked to ride horses while the guys fly fished. “One of my favorite moments was when Tanner and I hiked a Colo- rado trail to a pristine lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, where he caught his first trout,” recalls Scott. “I never give the same answer as to the best experience or best park,” adds Tanner, citing Yellowstone, in Wyoming, and Wrangell-St. Elias, in Alaska, as par- ticularly spectacu- lar, partly for their distinctive wildlife. His favorite anec- dote? “When I was little, I stared down a barracuda in the Dry Tortugas, off the coast of South Flori- da, wildly pointing it out to Dad, who was calmly photograph- ing itty-bitty fish and never saw it.”
swfl.NaturalAwakeningsMag.com
bears, Hawaiian volcanoes or Ever- glades’ alligators, their overarching mission was to visit every major park before Tanner embarked for college. The family’s National Park Service Passport already has 57 stamps secured during school holidays and summer vaca- tions, timed to prime park seasons and complemented by destination photos. “It’s easy to talk about the big
moments, but you can have a memo- rable time in any park,” says Lisa, from appreciating the beauty of a boardwalk to boarding a ferry for an island picnic. “Getting back to basics has been really good for our family, part of the glue that binds us together.” She says her growing children
learned to be brave and patient, help fel- low travelers and be happy without cell phones. “We moved away from immedi- ate gratification to focusing on a greater good,” remarks Lisa. “We enjoy interact- ing and doing simple things together.” The family assesses its national parks tour as affordable, accessible and affecting how they experience life as a software engineer (Scott), physical edu- cation teacher (Lisa) and student athletes (Tanner and Peyton). They are pleased to be counted among the innumerable national park visitors that have ben- efited since the inception of what Ken Burns’ video series characterizes as America’s Best Idea. Lisa sums it up: “You don’t have to do it as big as we did to get big out of it.”
S. Alison Chabonais is the national editor of Natural Awakenings.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64