Deborah Ann Cathey and Mel Richards are a power couple when it comes to national-park travel, and those of us who love visiting these outdoor places can only hope to be just like them some day. Why? Because Cathey and Richards recently announced that they have finished visiting all of the U.S. national parks—in the same year they both turned 70 years old.
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Cathey shared the couple’s feat to the Facebook group US National Park Travel, and her post has over 50,000 likes. A similar post to her personal Facebook page shows photos of the pair visiting their final park: Isle Royale.
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“My husband and I just finished all 63 national parks,” Cathey wrote in her post dated July 9. “We have been working on this for about 9 years, really dedicated to it since 2018. We have had an amazing journey, seen places we would have never imagined going to. This year we turned 70, and our last 8 all this year were: Virgin Islands, Maui, American Samoa, badlands, wind cave, voyageurs, and finally today isle royale. When we started we mostly tent camped, driving everywhere including Alaska (from Texas), we flew in many sea planes and boat trips. We hope you have enjoyed our journey. Now on to the next one.”
See the 70-year-old couple that just finished visiting all the U.S. national parks here:
Congratulations to this adventurous couple!
Header stock image of a small island from the coast of Isle Royale National Park by Sanya Kushak/Getty Images
Read more facts about the national parks:
- Great Smoky Mountain National Park
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Isle Royale National Park
- Big Bend National Park
- Zion National Park
- Voyageurs National Park
- Glacier National Park
- Joshua Tree National Park
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Dry Tortugas National Park
- Yosemite National Park
