Celebrating 2021!

2021 started with the end of my cancer immunotherapy treatments and some other great post-cancer milestones that took me across my finish line. I have now been declared cancer-free! However, I am still healing from a challenging diagnosis of lymphoma. Each week, I go to physical therapy to work on reducing the swelling, and on improving the flow of my lymph nodes. After 9 months, I am finally seeing big results! I will continue this into 2022 and every week. I am feeling better and working my way back to health.

At the end 2021, I have explored a total of 62 units thus far (22 National Parks and 40 NPS units! 

This year … 

I visited four (new to me) National Parks …

  1. Crater Lake

  2. Glacier

  3. Grand Canyon

  4. Death Valley

I visited six (new to me) NPS units …

  1. Point Reyes National Seashore

  2. Golden Gate National Recreation Area

  3. Whitman Mission National Historical Site

  4. John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway

  5. Craters of the Moon National Monument

  6. San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

  7. Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument

  8. Lake Mead National Recreational Area

And I secured several NPS official stamps from places I visited before that I explored again this year …

  1. Grand Teton National Park

  2. Yellowstone National Park

  3. Muir Woods National Monument

  4. Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park

  5. Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park

That’s officially 17 units visited in 2021, with 12 new! 

I mostly explored with friends and family as a celebration to reunite after COVID … which we naively thought was reaching its completion.

I consider these adventures in nature an accomplishment as I only started in late-August … and had a lot of fun field trips in-between. I am now at 16% of my goal. Next year, I plan on visiting NPS Units each month with friends, family, and some solo. In January, I will go to Arizona with Ryder. In February, I will go to Southern California with my college roommate Annie. In March … if the world is still shut down due to Omicron, Portugal will have to wait … and we’ll take a family trip to Florida to do the entire Florida circuit, plus a couple in Georgia. In April, I am off to Tennessee with my sister Kelly. And then I need to start planning for May onward. 

I am so excited to explore more of our beautiful National Parks, learn about our indigenous peoples, and enjoy time continuing my healing in nature!

Dana Bach JohnsonComment