Revisit America’s best idea from its first steps through creation of the National Park Service in 1916 to the national park system as we know it today with more than 430 sites. Connections and common themes among the parks illuminate the system’s evolution.

Instructor: David Kroese left a 25-year career in the corporate world to pursue his personal interests, becoming one of fewer than a hundred people known to have visited all 430+ National Park Service (NPS) units. Over the past decade, David has logged over sixteen hundred site visits and five thousand trail miles exploring NPS units across the country. David wrote of his experiences in the first published narrative through all the NPS sites, The Centennial: A Journey through America’s National Park System. David shares his enthusiasm for our park system in speaking engagements across the country.