National parks offer an amazing experience for anyone looking to get out into nature. But they’re also an excellent source of fun, learning, and camaraderie for families, especially those who love to play board games. Here are a few of the best board games that celebrate our nation’s amazing park system.
With its high-quality, chunky wooden hiker meeples, illustrious park art and photographs (many taken by the game designer’s parents), and even a drawstring bag to store your “stones” in, it’s clear from the moment you open this Mensa Select award winner that Trekking the National Parks is a family weight game. And that’s a good thing, as it’s an accessible, surprisingly deceptively strategic game with just the right amount of choice for kids and casual gamers.
The main mechanics here are very similar to modern hits like Ticket to Ride, where players collect colored cards they’ll use to claim certain things. But unlike TTTR, which can feel too luck-driven, Trekking has a nice balance of choice and luck, making it more of a thinking game than a racing game.
Each turn, players will perform two actions: draw a card or move. They’ll use their cards to both travel between parks, spend as resources to visit and occupy parks, and claim Major Parks. They’ll also use their resource tokens to move their little hikers.
When a player’s hiker is on a vista space, they can pay to take a picture with their camera and earn points. They’ll also score points for their occupied parks and the most and second-most stones of each color. Once the stones have all been claimed, players add up their totals and the player with the most points wins.