--

This is part of the Explorers Club newsletter. Sign up here for 10% off and a free map next month!

Happy June! This month, we're writing about National Parks. 

The Map: Popular National Parks

National parks play a major role in American culture. 149 years after the first park—Yellowstone—was established, in 1872, there are now 63 national parks in the U.S. and 423 park sites, which protect more than 84 million acres. The National Park Service (NPS) was officially established in 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created the service as a new federal bureau. In 1916, the service protected 35 national parks and monuments, and then added 56 sites in 1933, when the NPS adopted sites from the Forest Service and War Department. This was “a major step in the development of today’s truly national system of parks,” according to the NPS website. 
 
National Parks serve as vacation destinations, places of work (more than 20,000 people are employed by the NPS), historic land markers, and they fuel our escapism in that they preserve some of the most striking and historically important landscapes in the country. Last year, 237 million people visited national parks.
 
Below, download your free map of 15 parks in the U.S.!

Buying maps for your roadtrips? Use the code "exploremore" for 10% off Atlases and Gazetteers! 

The Game: National Park Checklist 

Are you visiting national parks this year? Check them off on this map! Once you’ve been to a park, color in the circle next to it.  

This is part of the Explorers Club newsletter. Sign up here for 10% off and a free map next month!

Read more posts about National Parks

Explore National Park Maps

Yosemite National Park, $10.95

Rocky Mountain National Park Map Pack, $17.95