There are 63 national parks in the United States. Junior Cami Blake has already explored 56 on a journey that has brought her a deep appreciation for the natural world.
Her adventures have taken her everywhere from the waterfalls of Katmai National Park in Alaska to the underground cave systems of Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, contributing to her unique understanding of the American landscape.
Blake’s goal—to visit all U.S. national parks before she turns 18—started as a coincidence when she was 10. Everyone in her class was assigned a national park to study, and she was given Yosemite. That same day, when she got home, her father asked her whether she wanted to go to Yosemite.
“I thought he somehow knew about what we were doing in school, so I burst out laughing,” Blake said. “He asked, ‘What’s so funny?’ I’m like, ‘We’re doing research on Yosemite in school.’ He said, ‘Do you want to go to Yosemite?’ I’m like, ‘Sure, this sounds fun.’”
Blake still looks fondly back at her experiences there, which she credits with sparking a hunger for exploration.
“In my mind, there’s nothing that beats Yosemite,” Blake said. “Watching that sunrise for the first time over Yosemite’s Valley, it was just something else. At that point, I never woke up early enough to see the sunrise, but it was breathtaking. I didn’t realize how beautiful America could be until then.”
Sometimes, though, Blake’s travels have led to harrowing experiences. For example, when she visited Petrified Forest National Park with her father where they encountered rattlesnakes.
“We were coming back from the sunset and I was ahead of my dad, ” Blake said. “The way the trail worked is there was a mountain on one side and really thick shrub on the other. And I hear a hiss and rattle, and I bolted because my natural instinct is to run as quickly as I can to get away from the danger.”
Unfortunately, Blake’s father was unable to get away from the snake in time. Trapped in by a mountain boulder on one side and thick shrubbery on the other, he had no choice but to throw rocks in the vicinity of the rattlesnake to scare it off, but that didn’t work.
“[Then] he just started hitting the rattlesnakes, and it’s legal to do that because rattlesnakes are venomous … but he had good reason to,” Blake said. “Eventually, the rattlesnake backed off, and we ran back to the main trail.”
Despite the occasional dangers that her travel brings, Blake’s journey has reminded others of the importance of nature.
“I used to backpack much more when I was younger, but hearing [Blake’s] stories of enjoying the outdoors with her father resonated with me because they remind me of everything I love about being in the outdoors,” fine arts teacher Michelle Sheppard, who taught Blake Photojournalism, said.
Just like Sheppard, Blake has a deep appreciation for the benefits that national parks bring.
“I feel like in a way, [national parks] help me value my health more, because I want to see these places, so I take better care of myself so that I can,” Blake said. “The only way you can see what there is, is by going there and seeing it with your own eyes. A camera and a lens will never do the beauty justice.”
That sense of appreciation leads Blake to frustration in light of recent firings in the federal Department of the Interior, which oversees the U.S. National Park System.
“I’ve seen the damage that happened during COVID,” Blake said. “People died in national parks during COVID, and since there were not many government workers working there, they didn’t find their bodies for days. Vandalism happened, trails got unsafe…It’s going to be terrible.”
Blake is also concerned about how climate change is wreaking havoc on national parks all across the country.
“In Glacier Bay in Alaska, there’s this exit glacier, and there are these landmarks on the road that read ‘Here was the glacier 100 years ago,’ and ‘Here was a glacier 200 years ago,’” Blake said. “It kept going back and back and back and back and back. And I never really understood what glacier melting meant until I saw this grand, beautiful glacier slowly disappearing, and it was heartbreaking. My message is to just open your eyes and take a look and step outside and realize what you’re hurting.”
Blake, who most recently visited Isle Royale National Park in June, plans to journey to Voyageurs National Park next month. No matter where her journeys take her, Blake values the experience and feels her best in the natural world.
“The feeling of you being around nature, of you being completely engulfed by it, it helps you realize how small you are and how beautiful the outside is,” Blake said. “It’s just this weird feeling I can’t fully describe that makes me feel happy. It makes me feel less stressed because it’s like, ‘Hey, in 100 years, I won’t be here, but this will, and these trees will.’”
