What do an erupting volcano, a flooded forest, and a 250-year-old revolution all have in common?

They were all part of our 2025 adventures in the national parks.

From witnessing the raw power of Pele at Kilauea, to paddling through Congaree's wild backwaters,

to walking Boston's Freedom Trail ahead of America's 250th anniversary. These were the experiences

that reminded us why the parks matter so much. Come relive our top three favorite National

Park moments of the year and maybe get a few ideas for your 2026 bucket list. This is the

Exploring the National Parks podcast with Dirt in My Shoes.

My Name is Ash and I'm a former park ranger and the founder of Dirt in My Shoes.

I think that the parks are best seen from the trail and I'm here to make National Park

trip planning easy.

And I'm John.

I carry the kids on the trails, I tell stories, and notice all the things

that Ash doesn't care about much, like rocks. Join us as we show you around America's

spectacular national parks. We're sharing our favorite places, fun facts, adventures, and

misadventures. And we'll even throw in a little trip planning. Let's start exploring.

Well, it's been a year. I can't believe it. I know. It's almost over. Come and gone. Sheesh. What a year or two.

And honestly, in a lot of ways, a sad year for the national parks. It was a rough year for the national parks.

Yeah, but this is a fun podcast, so we're not talking about that.

We're talking about fun things that happened in the national parks this year, specifically to us.

Yes, exactly.

And there was one national park in particular that had a very good year.

Really? Which one would that? Oh, that's our number one. Okay. I was like, where are we going with that? Okay. Yes. So we are just, we like to recap at the end of the year, tell you kind of our top three favorite experiences that we had so that you can maybe add them to your own bucket

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