“Grandma Joy” Ryan and her grandson, Brad, went viral documenting their travels to all 63 U.S. National Parks. The quest took almost eight years – and required Joy to get her first passport at age 91 – but the traveling twosome were able to tick off all of these majestic sites and, according to CNN Travel, are now setting their sights on visiting all seven continents.
The duo’s adventures began when Brad invited Grandma Joy to tag along on a weekend trip to the Great Smoking Mountains National Park. They visited their final park – the National Park of American Samoa in the South Pacific – last year.
Thinking back on their journey, the article says Grandma Joy was “particularly struck by Old Faithful, one of the almost 500 geysers in Yellowstone, as well as Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.”
It turns out Grandma Joy is quite an adrenaline junkie. She went ziplining at New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia and whitewater rafting at Wrangell St. Elias National Park in Alaska at the age of 91.
The pair have traveled to national parks beyond our borders, visiting Banff National Park in Canada and both Amboseli National Park and Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. The article says their most recent trip was to South America, where they traveled to Ecuador, spending time in the Galapagos Islands, as well as Chile.
Although “still recovering” from their South America trip, Grandma Joy and Brad plan to visit Australia later this year. They told reporters that “while Down Under, they hope to hop over to Asia and possibly visit the national parks of India, or travel to Borneo to see the orangutans.” A trip to Europe is also in their future plans. Grandma Joy says she would “like to end big, and I think Antarctica would be the cherry on top of this adventure.”
Do you have wanderlust like this adventurous grandma? Message The Seniors Trust on Facebook or Twitter and let us know how many National Parks you have seen or how many continents you’ve visited.
