Trekking the National Parks Board Game
Interested in visiting all the National Parks? In one night? Done and done! Trekking the National Parks is a fun and challenging family board game that is not only exciting, but also actually can teach you a thing or two about the natural wonders we have all over our beautiful country. This game is BOTH educations and entertaining, and challenging enough to keep every family member interested!
Full disclosure: We received this game free as a promotional item, but we are super crazy honest, and this is our totally unbiased review. Ready for it? Here we go!
Brief Overview of Trekking the National Parks Board Game
- This MENSA Award winning!!!!! U.S. National Parks board game is a fun and competitive way to spend a night with your family
- Unique evergreen theme that appeals to a wide range of people: outdoor lovers, board game players and gift givers. One of the top educational board games for families!
- Simple and elegant game rules that children, teens, families, grandparents, and everyone in between can easily grasp.
- Learn the geography of the major national parks from the beautiful game board and enjoy the many educational park facts printed on the game cards.
- Trekking the National Parks brings the fun and challenge of modern family board games to your table. The game was specially designed to be both entertaining and educational!
Quick History of Trekking the National Parks Board Game
Just a quick history (because it’s so cool!) John and Terry Binkele were getting ready to retire and they devised a life plan goal to visit all of the U.S. National Parks! This experience sparked in them a desire to educate and inspire others to explore the National Parks in America! Their son, Charlie, just so happened to be a game designer and artist, and the rest is history!
Interested in having a complete list of the U.S. National Parks? Click below to get your FREE U.S. National Park list, along with a ton of other amazing freebies, in our resource library – the Van Adieu Vault!
FREE NATIONAL PARK LIST!
Dreaming of visiting every National Park? This FREE U.S. National Park list will help you check them off one by one!
You will also get our weekly newsletter, and FULL ACCESS to our resource library called the Van Adieu Vault - full of even more FREE goodies and resources!
Unboxing the Trekking the National Parks Board Game
So let’s get right to it!
Mmmm that fresh out of the box smell! 🙂 
We grabbed the Trekking the National Parks board game eager to set it up! The game is for 2-6 players (ages 8+) and play time is 30-60 minutes. We found this to be SPOT ON!! We played several games right in a row!
We did have a bit of a challenge setting it up and understanding the two different types of cards. But, after some careful reading, we were finally in the swing of things! See below where we give you a video and the actual rules!
The short version of how to play Trekking the National Parks is that you gather trek cards and move across the map and claim the valuable National Park cards. If you are the first to visit a National Park, you get that park’s stone, and get bonus points at the end of the game! There are several tactical decisions that have to be made regarding if you want to be collecting more cards or more stones! 
The board game has a really unique setup that allows the experience to be totally different every single time, so you can replay it endlessly! This was our set up as we played!
Learn to Play Trekking the National Parks Board Game
If you want to print out the rule book, to make sure you know all the rules and have everyone on the same page (literally?) Here you go! The entire list of rules can be found by clicking this link!
But, I’ve found that the best way to learn how to play is from the experts – so I’ll let them explain this for you detail by detail! You’ll be off and running to the National Parks in no time!
FREE NATIONAL PARK LIST!
Dreaming of visiting every National Park? This FREE U.S. National Park list will help you check them off one by one!
You will also get our weekly newsletter, and FULL ACCESS to our resource library called the Van Adieu Vault - full of even more FREE goodies and resources!
MENSA Award Winner
Trekking the National Parks Board Game won the coveted Mensa Select annual award that is given to board games that are original, challenging and well designed!
It really is a perfect gift for anyone who loves the outdoors, (or even those who don’t – because hey, at least you don’t need sunscreen and bug spray to play this game!)
And let’s talk strategy for a moment – this game really is a fantastic game because you can change your strategy every time to try to win. It’s seriously all kinds of awesome in that way!
Updated 2nd Edition!
There is an updated 2nd Edition of Trekking the National Parks Board Game! Some of the changes made include:
-Updated rules, easier to learn than the previous version.
-The distance icons on map trails have been removed. Each trail is worth a distance of 1.
-Major Park cards added, these have special abilities that can help players advance in the game. Players also now start with wooden camp sites to mark the Major parks they visit.
-All Park cards are now over-sized and have park facts printed on them
-Stones now score 1 point each. There are also ‘Second Most Stone color’ bonus cards
-Wooden bear is the cutest first player marker ever!
Conclusion
Get this game! Seriously, get this game. It really is a blast to play, and we had so much fun as a family. We got to find a few National Parks we hadn’t really thought of before, and we even made some plans to go see some of them in the future! It’s a great strategic game as well as wholesome and educational!
Interested in purchasing? You can find it here!
Does playing this game get you excited to visit National Parks? You can find out how to get the best deals on a National Parks Pass here, Incredible Advice on Planning a Trip to A National Park here, Amazing Road Trip Tips here, and a full packing checklist here!
Did you get it? Have you ever played it? Drop us a line on our Facebook page and let us know! We would LOVE to hear about it!
Adieu for now!
One last thing: Did you get your FREE complete list of the U.S. National Parks? Click below to get that FREE U.S. National Park list, so you can plan your next road trip adventure, along with a ton of other amazing freebies, in our resource library – the Van Adieu Vault!
FREE NATIONAL PARK LIST!
Dreaming of visiting every National Park? This FREE U.S. National Park list will help you check them off one by one!
You will also get our weekly newsletter, and FULL ACCESS to our resource library called the Van Adieu Vault - full of even more FREE goodies and resources!
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