We continuously incentivize our readers to go out and explore the nature that abounds in the great outdoors. Well, Darius Nabors (although not a follower of ours – that we know of) raises our proposition to a whole new level by visiting all fifty-nine National Parks in fifty-nine weeks. In order to begin the pursuit of his goal, Nabors quit his job when he realized that it would take him forty-two years to see the ones he had not yet visited if he only traveled to one park per year. Therefore, he set himself this challenge while he is still young and active and can explore everywhere without worrying about physical limitations.

So far, Nabors and his friend and travel companion Trevor Kemp, who recently finished his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, have visited 34 parks, including Glacier, Gates of the Arctic, Crater Lake, Haleakala and Joshua Tree.

They swam in the Arctic Ocean, rafted down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, and saw Denali on the last day it was Mount McKinley and the first day it was Denali. They’ve also hiked Hawaiian volcanoes and watched the “Bloodmoon” eclipse rise above Mount Rainier.

The inspiration for the trip was Nabors’ father, who was a former park ranger at Olympic National Park. While the two are not doing the trip entirely on their own, financially (they have raised money through crowdfunding and a social media contest, sponsorships through their website), they still live very simply during their travels.

“It’s a lot of peanut butter and jelly, a lot of easy foods, macaroni and cheese, spam,” he said, “Really, our only other expense is gas, camping (and) coffee at coffee shops so we can get wireless. Other than that, it’s really cutting out the extraneous stuff so that we can do this trip on a budget.”

The two hope their trip helps spark interest in country’s national parks and inspires Americans to see these natural wonders.

“That’s the thing about these parks,” Nabors said. “We try to capture some great photographs but if you want to truly see these parks, you have to get out there and visit them yourself.”

Here’s a video of Nabors right before he set out for his final destination, Acadia National Park:

Let’s hope their journey finished successfully and on their expected deadline, August 25th – the Park Service’s Centennial.

Read the original story here.