Jason Barnette is a writer and photographer, but most importantly, he’s a road trip expert. Barnette spends between eight and nine months of the year on the road, touring the United States at a slow pace. And like every solo road tripper worth their salt, Barnette likes a good map. That’s why he created a map of all 429 National Park sites —and made it accessible to anyone.
Map: Jason Barnette
This Road Trip Expert’s Free Map of 429 National Park Sites Will Vastly Improve Your US Travels
Barnette is the man behind Road Trips & Coffee, a blog for all who, like him, think that driving is the best way to get an up close and personal view of the US. Whether that’s the mountains, the people, the beaches, the cities, the historic sites, or the remote roadside gas stations, Barnette wants to see it all on four wheels, and he wants to inspire others to do the same.
Barnette created the of map of all 429 National Park sites in 2022, when his plan was to drive to every state capital in the continental US in the span of eight months. His idea was to use the map so he could fill the days in between destinations by visiting nearby National Park sites. While his Capitals Road Trip never happened — he spent six months exploring South Carolina’s nook and crannies by car instead — he’s kept the map and has even made some changes to it so it’s more user friendly and up to date.
Out of the 429 National Park sites in the US, Barnette has only visited 46 so far (he went to the first one, Blue Ridge Parkway, in 2011). But bumping his National Park sites numbers isn’t Barnette’s goal. He doesn’t count countries obsessively, and he certainly has no interest in rushing to see every National Park site.
“I want to stay in every National Park site I visit long enough to experience it and write about it,” he tells Matador in a phone interview.
Barnette is actually the model slow traveler. Not only does he spend no more than 100 miles per day on the road, but his main road trip rule is to not use any interstate highways during his drives. While honorable and a lot of fun, this self-inflicted limitation has its downsides — his future Alaska road trip, for one. While not planned just yet, it’s Barnette’s ambition to ride as many of the routes as possible on the 3,5000-mile Alaska Marine Highways.
Photo: Jason Barnette
Barnette’s used to spending a very long time on the road. In 2017, he drove the path of the solar eclipse from Charleston, South Carolina, to Paducah, Kentucky, and it took him three months to complete the 1,000-mile trip. In 2018, he spent 30 days driving the 441-mile Natchez Trace Parkway. In 2021, he spent another 30 days on the road driving everywhere from the mountains to the beaches in North Carolina.
While Barnette’s health unfortunately forces him to stay put for most of 2024, he’s got big plans for 2025. He’ll return to the road with a series of road trips across the eastern half of the US, visiting every Revolutionary War site in the country. Along the way, he’ll write road trip itineraries, destination guides, and inspiration for how people can explore the country’s 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution that begins on April 19, 2025.
No matter where he goes from now on, he’ll have his map of all 429 National Park sites handy, so he won’t miss a thing. And neither will you. 