The National Park Travelers Club (NPTC), a diverse group of over 2,500 National Parks enthusiasts representing almost every state and multiple foreign countries, will hold its 17thannual convention from July 18th through 21st, 2019, in Flagstaff, Arizona, with the Flagstaff Area National Monuments (Wupatki, Sunset Crater Volcano & Walnut Canyon) serving as the host parks for the Convention. The DoubleTree Flagstaff to serve as the host hotel and host venue for the Club’s Annual Meeting on Saturday, July 20, 2019. Over the four days the club will hold various group outings to the area National Parks including a ride on the Grand Canyon Railway to the Grand Canyon NP (celebrating its 100th anniversary this year) a bus tour of Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monuments, as well as visits to the Lowell Observatory and a Sunday Ranger program at Walnut Canyon National Monument. They are anticipating nearly 185 members will be in attendance this year.
The NPTC was founded in 2004 to connect and provide fellowship to all those who enjoy visiting the currently 419 units managed by the National Park Service. Following the 2016 year-long Centennial Celebration of the National Park Service, interest in America’s National Park System is higher than ever. Through the Club’s website, www.parkstamps.org, members of the NPTC share park experiences, travel tips, pictures, upcoming events, and other relevant information that promotes park travel and federal protection of historically, environmentally, or culturally significant sites within the United States and its territories. Members typically seek to document their visits via stamp cancellations in the Passport to Your National Parks® program. Passport books for this program are available for purchase in nearly all park visitor centers. The visitor centers provide rubber ink stamps that imprint the name of the park, the city and state of the Park’s location, and the date of the visit. This program was created in 1986 by Eastern National, Inc. (formerly the Eastern National Park and Monument Association).
The 2019 NPTC Convention will recognize two members (Matt Siegfried and R. Scott Jones) with its highest honor, the Platinum Lifetime Achievement Award, given for visiting all units of the National Park System in existence at that time (currently 419). To date only 63 individuals are known to have ever achieved this challenging goal of visiting every National Park Service unit in the country; this includes not only the 61 National Parks but also National Monuments, National Historic Sites, National Battlefields, National Seashores, etc.
Convention speakers include Superintendent Kayci Cook, Park Cultural Resource Program Manger Ian Hough, and NPS Route 66 Corridor Program Manager Kaisa Barthuli.
For more information, please contact NPTC Secretary Craig Bailey at 719-740-0196 or secretary@parkstamps.org for more information.
See also:
The National Park Travelers Club website: http://www.parkstamps.org