Perspective | 70 years of your national park photos

For many travelers, summer trips have meant a visit to some of America’s 63 national parks. Maybe you loaded up the station wagon to drive Glacier National Park’s famous Going-to-the-Sun Road, hiked through Yosemite or took a swamp tour in the Everglades.

By The Way asked for your best memories as The Washington Post launched its new national park podcast, “Field Trip,” and we received hundreds of responses. There were photos of family vacations dating back to the 1950s and memories of trips with loved ones who have since passed away. Here are some of our favorites.

Captions have been edited for length and clarity.

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Kathryn Valdes, Yosemite, 1955

Here I am pictured with my two older brothers and mom; it appears to be before my younger brothers were on the scene.

Lind Aitken, Yellowstone, 2018

A bison faces off against a Volkswagen at Yellowstone.

Brian Munroe, Yosemite, 2007

This photo tells a central story of our family. Our eldest son, Clay, in the wheelchair, joined my wife, Vicky, and I, and his three younger siblings, Sophie, Jackson and Aidan, on this adventure. We were driving on the main road in the valley when we saw cars pulled over and Vicky said: “Pull over. There must be something there.” There was a beautiful stretch of the shallow river surrounded by the majestic mountains of Yosemite, but it was down a steep embankment. We grabbed Clay’s wheelchair, the older siblings grabbed our toddler, and we carried our family down to this paradise. We lost Clay in 2020, and this was a signature memory for our family. Together, no challenge is too great.

Alyssa Roberts, Badlands, 2016

This photo is of my sister, Nina Roberts, at Badlands National Park. I was fortunate enough to travel with her from her home in San Francisco to D.C., where she was taking her sabbatical with the National Parks Conservation Association in 2016. She was a renowned researcher and advocate for diversity in our country’s outdoor spaces, national parks in particular. Our trip left me with a lifetime of memories that I will always cherish, as I would never have imagined losing her a few years later to cancer. I think of her every day and feel her presence most when I am in a park.

Jim Mahaffie, Grand Teton, 2020

We took our dogs, Boomer and Tess, up to Grand Teton just before a dramatic afternoon thunderstorm — the kind that only happen in the mountains. Moments after this photo, it started pouring.

Mike Collodi, Rocky Mountain, 2017

Living in Dallas, we traveled to Colorado to watch our son play in a soccer game. We tried to combine our national park trips with trips to watch him play. The photo at Mills Lake was taken partway on the trail to Black Lake from the Glacier Gorge trailhead. The mountains had already received significant snowfall before our trip, so we prepared for icy conditions. Thanks to microspikes we purchased to go over our hiking boots, we hiked with confidence for 10 miles, not worrying about slipping, and got to visit parts of the park that are rarely accessed during the winter.

Travis Dennis, Lassen Volcanic, 2020

When I moved to California, I started talking to people about how much I loved the parks here, and I had a few tell me that Lassen, which I had never heard of, was their favorite because of its isolation. We planned to visit Lassen two years before this photo, but they canceled our reservation at the last minute because the roads were still snow-covered in July. I was excited to be able to make a reservation when the parks first opened up again after they were closed early in the pandemic. I like this photo because it was the first time our daughter, Sky, was able to do some longer hikes. She found that walking stick and still has it today.

Jami Schell, Dry Tortugas, 2021

In our family, when you turn 10, you get to pick a location and help plan a trip. My younger daughter turned 10 on March 13, 2020, and picked Dry Tortugas National Park. Unfortunately, the pandemic thwarted our plans, but after rescheduling the trip twice, we finally made it there for Christmas 2021. It was not the easiest national park to visit, but certainly the most memorable. We snorkeled, kayaked, explored and watched the most glorious sunrises and sunsets we'd ever seen.

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Alan Hadfield, Rocky Mountain, 1973

My family made three long driving vacations in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were so memorable. The boy on the bike is me at age 16. The photo was taken at our motel in Estes Park, Colo. I rented the bike there so I could ride to Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Jessica Spengler, Grand Canyon, 1976

This is a photo of me and my grandma (Oma) at the Grand Canyon. My parents wanted to see the sun rise over the canyon, so we all got up before dawn to catch it. I was just about to turn 3. I'm not a morning person now, and I was not a morning person then, and I was so grumpy at having been dragged out of bed that I refused to even look at the Grand Canyon and instead stared resolutely into a bush the entire time.

Tonya Gilchrist, Yellowstone, 2022

We took a three-week road trip to see Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Our son, Ben, was 9 at the time, and he was enthralled with geysers and water. He worked on getting his junior ranger badge during the trip. Yellowstone was a special place, and our son asks when we can go back. Being a person with a disability, finding wheelchair-accessible vacation spots is tricky, so the national parks do a good job on accessibility.

Michael Morad-McCoy, Grand Canyon, 1998

In September 1998, my wife Lisa and I were married at Shoshone Point in the Grand Canyon. We spent our first two married nights at El Tovar Hotel, then spent our honeymoon on the Colorado River, including a trip up Havasu Creek. We got engaged 15 months before at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon.

Sven Herrmann, Sequoia, 2021

My wife, Lorenza, is a yoga instructor and found Sequoia National Park perfect for her morning practice.

Susan Meyer, Death Valley, 2004

After visiting some national parks in 2004, Susan Meyer, right, decided to visit every park in the continental U.S. She says: I’ll be at 40 in August, after I go to Teddy Roosevelt.

Michele Webb, Glacier, 1977

This photo was taken — probably by my dad — in the summer of 1977. My parents were teachers, and we loved to take summer trips. That summer we drove from Houston to national parks in the western United States. Glacier became one of my favorite places in the world. Seeing snow in the summer — I couldn't imagine a more magical place.

Helen Crary Stassen, Arches, 2023

My husband Jay and I thoroughly enjoyed having the parks almost to ourselves on our winter visit to Southern Utah. It was a glorious time to visit for crowd-free wandering, a trip we will repeat.

Patty Lynch, Glacier, 2021

My children, from left, Megan, Will and Katie, and I took a unplanned hike to Cracker Lake, and it was a hidden gem. It was a spectacular 13 mile out-and-back hike. It was one of the best things I have ever done with our children. It was eight hours of no communication with the outside world and just talking, laughing, seeing the beauty of our land and even some silence. My heart was full after this adventure.

Roger Mezger, Great Smoky Mountains, 1993

This photo is from a family vacation to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1993, the first serious hiking experience for our sons Nicholas, left, and Matthew. Exhibits like this one at Newfound Gap also made it an educational experience for them.

Kathryn Valdes, Yosemite, 1961

When my grandmother came to visit us in Southern California from Ontario, Canada, we all hopped into Henrietta, the big yellow station wagon, and went to Yosemite. My baby brother was a few months old, and he and my mother and grandmother stayed in a luxurious tent cabin, which made me pea green with envy. My father (the photographer), my three other brothers and I stayed in a tent; it was so cold at night that the tent cabin looked like the Ritz compared to our accommodations.

Claire Daniel, Great Smoky Mountains, 1959

This photo of Mary Daniel, my mother, was taken at Clingmans Dome in the summer of 1959 in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were frequent visitors at Fontana Village in North Carolina and must have taken a day trip to see the sights, as my family were not hikers. I remember looking at the Appalachian Trail with awe and my 10-year-old brain thought, “Oh, what rugged men must hike these trails." Twenty or so years later, I passed through this overlook with my husband while thru-hiking from Georgia to Virginia.

Annette Lorraine, Mesa Verde, 1961

Between car camping and backpacking, our family averaged a national park per year. I’m the “varmint-critter” (so-called by my dad) in the wooden backpack he cobbled together. These trips instilled a love of the outdoors: hiking, geology, botany, fishing and so much more.

Amanda Brown, Haleakala, 2021

My husband, Jeff, and I visited Haleakala National Park in September 2021. It was our first time in the beautiful state of Hawaii and our first vacation since covid. We took the trip to celebrate our first anniversary; being at the top of a volcano crater is hard to top!

Andy Allison, Mesa Verde, 1999

I've had my stuffed walrus since college in the 1990s. The walrus is semiretired nowadays, but he used to be my constant travel companion. Here he is in Mesa Verde National Park with ranger Bob Richardson.

Laura Arntson, Mount Rainier, 1961

This was taken at Mount Rainier National Park on a summer road trip. Our big brother Paul (with the binoculars) took us up one of the trails. Daddy set a turnaround time, and we were probably running up the path to get as far as we could before we had to turn around and run back.

Ray Skowronski, Isle Royale, 2022

This was on a five-day backpacking trip with my lifelong friend Ron Beacom, at right. Unspoiled wilderness!

Barbara Parker, Yosemite, 2005

We've always had the travel bug (I was a flight attendant for 10 years), and it didn't stop when we had kids. National parks have always been on the bucket list; we have visited 28 of them, not to mention at least 50 national monuments. Our children learned so much about this country and as Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice."

PeggyYen, Badlands, 1964

My dad was a huge fan of national parks. He took three weeks vacation in July 1964 to drive — with two boy-crazy teenage girls (me and my cousin Peg Riorden) and my little brother (Ken Kloster) — from Wilmington, Del. We camped all the way through the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Bryce Canyon, Zion and Grand Canyon — ending in Mesa Verde before returning to Delaware. You can tell from our cheerful expressions that we were thrilled to have our photo taken at every stop, along with our starring role in his 16mm movies.

Michael Gallagher, on the road to many national parks, 1967

In mid-June 1967, after living in the Philippines for five years, our family flew into San Francisco as my father started his two-month leave period that was granted when moving to or from overseas with the Foreign Service. One of the most memorable road trips had to be this trip from California to Virginia.

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