Great Gear for National Parks Fans
With the specter of budget cuts, climate change, and the removal of wildlife protections looming overhead, America's great public spaces are in peril, and there couldn’t be a better time to show your support. Whether you're on the road or in nesting mode, we found plenty of good stuff that benefits our National Parks, from pins, posters, and personal attire to books, games, and even candles.
1. Put a Pin on It
(Courtesy National Dry Goods)
For parks enthusiasts who prefer to advertise their allegiance with a whisper, not a shout, these antiqued-brass pins from National Dry Goods make an understated point. The company’s designs range from a pair of binoculars and an adorable pink flamingo–adorned vintage camper to a roll of film and a Canon AE1, but we're big fans of the National Park series, which includes conservationists Teddy Roosevelt (above center) and John Muir as well parks like Acadia, Yellowstone, and the Rockies. The pins are sold individually, but we recommend the four-piece set, which includes the Grand Canyon, the Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, and Yellowstone—perfect for those whose appetite for exploration is as wide-ranging as the natural wonders themselves.
4-Piece Parks Series gift set, $40; natdrygoods.com.
2. Let Your Imagination Run Wild
(The Quarto Group)
Stoke the wanderlust of young (and young at heart) travelers with this captivating, info-packed tome. Engagingly written by Kate Siber and charmingly illustrated by Chris Turnham, the book is organized by region—east, central, Rocky Mountains, southwest, west, Alaska, and the Tropics—and full of engrossing details that allow you to easily imagine, say, paddling through the thick, humid air of the Everglades, spotting plate-sized turtles and listening for the bellows of crocodiles, or trekking through Death Valley at 134 degrees in the shade, searching for animal tracks in the sand dunes and crunching across the salt-crusted surface of the lowest point in America. It's a playful, educational look at our country’s protected lands.
National Parks of the U.S.A., $19.50; amazon.com.
3. Bring the Outdoors In
(Courtesy Good + Well Supply Co. and UncommonGoods.com)
Whether you’re a tree-deprived city dweller or an outdoor adventurer eagerly awaiting your next excursion, there’s nothing like an aroma to evoke powerful memories. Trigger that sense of nostalgia with a scent that reminds you of your favorite park. Packaged in sturdy pint or half-pint tins, the small-batch soy candles from the Seattle-based Good + Well Supply Co. are a rugged option, perfect for tossing in a suitcase to make a generic hotel room feel like home without worrying about breakage—and they’re created sans animal testing, petroleum, lead, phthalates, and GMOs to boot. Fragrance preferences are highly personal, but we fell for the Great Smokies and its subtle blend of sandalwood, laurel, and red maple; Zion is another delicate option, with notes of lavender and sage. For something a bit more bold, Big Bend conjures the magic of a campfire with a smoky combination of charred wood, embers, amber, and spice.
On the more genteel end of the scale, maker Laura Reid visited Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Redwoods to nail down the blend of essential oils (think bay laurel, wild strawberry, and thermal moss) that would best conjure a sense of place, and her hand-poured, coconut-wax candles come in glass jars, with packaging emblazoned with a watercolor rendition of each park. Redolent with granite, cedar, and black sage, her interpretation of Yosemite is our favorite of the three.
National Park candles, from $24; goodandwellsupplyco.com. Great Outdoors National Parks candles, $40; uncommongoods.com.
4. Dress the Part
(Courtesy Parks Project)
Sure, cutting a check is an effective way to give back, but you can lend even more bang to your buck by placing your purchasing power with a company that’s actively engaged with the organization it benefits. As an official partner of the National Parks Foundation, the Parks Project directly funds initiatives that support things like habitat restoration, youth education, and wildlife conservation, so your dollars go where they’re needed the most—and their stuff is really cute too. From beanies and sweatshirts to jewelry and accessories, you could outfit yourself in head-to-toe (non-embarrassing!) NPS regalia if you really wanted to. In addition to a wide selection of t-shirts and knickknacks like key chains and sticker sets, we highly recommend the enamel mugs, both for camping trips and for cold, pre-dawn workday mornings when we’d rather be camping.
Joshua Tree Out There tee, $36; National Parks Are For Lovers enamel mug, $18; parksproject.us.
5. Deck Your Walls
(Courtesy Fifty-Nine Parks)
There are plenty of vintage-looking replicas of classic WPA-era posters floating around, but for something more contemporary, the Austin-based Fifty-Nine Parks offers a unique, high-quality alternative. A project of the National Poster Retrospecticus, a traveling show that highlights the artistry of the hand-printed broadside, the parks series celebrates our public lands in sublime, full-color fashion, with timed releases of large-scale limited editions as well as smaller, more affordable 18” by 24” prints. With the goal of getting “poster fans into the parks and parks fans into posters,” the series features the work of a different artist for each park, from Dan Mumford’s fiery, sunset-hued Haleakalā to Elle Michalka’s more subdued, five-color rendering of North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park. They're all fantastic, so it's tough to narrow it down to one, but we particularly love Glenn Thomas's sweeping, light-filled Sequoia edition. Really, though, you can’t go wrong with any of them: Each poster is screen-printed here on domestic shores, and the organization donates 5 percent of purchases directly to the National Parks Service, raising $10,000 in its first two years alone.
Sequoia National Park poster, $40; 59parks.net.
6. Plan Your Next Adventure
(Courtesy Lonely Planet)
A more straightforward take on the National Parks Service’s roster, this book from Lonely Planet (Budget Travel's parent company) documents the bounty of our country’s park system in all its glory. With vivid photography, suggested itineraries and accommodations, tips on how get around, and notes on what wildlife to look for where, it’s a one-stop trip-planning shop.
National Parks of America: Experience America's 59 National Parks, $30; amazon.com.
7. Test Your Knowledge
(Courtesy USAopoly)
Quick, what’s the name of the world’s tallest granite monolith? How many species of bees were discovered in national parks by 2014? And which notorious island was once known for being home to the first lighthouse on the West Coast? Find the answers to these questions—and 597 more—with Trivial Pursuit: National Parks, a travel edition with categories including Natural Wonders, Battlefields and Historic Sites, Cultural Heritage, and Wildlife. It even comes with a six-sided die and a hard-plastic carrying case, complete with carabiner, for playing on the go.
USAopoly Trivial Pursuit: National Parks Edition, $20; amazon.com.