Generally speaking, I don’t do many interviews about my travels. There are two main reasons for that.
First, the point of my travel isn’t to receive public adulation or building a “following.” Those are terrible reasons, imo.
I travel because I enjoy it for its own rewards. I don’t care if others think what I’ve done is cool, or interesting, or worthwhile, because I’m only doing it for myself. It’s a worthy endeavor even (sometimes even especially) if you never tell anyone about it.
And secondly, nearly every request arises because of my completion of my National Parks quest, or being the first people to visit all the Treasured Places. Now, I definitely want to promote adopting an audaciously large quest goal. Any quest, actually.
But most interviews are framed as “this guy here is special because he did this incredible thing” and not the “hey, you could do this thing too!” message I’d much rather spread. I was especially weary of this when a number of network tv morning shows contacted me after I finished the Treasured Places quest. Luckily, I’m not close to finishing any “epic” quests that are particularly “newsworthy” these days, so hopefully I don’t have to worry as much about this moving forward.
All that said, I do consider every request I get, and have never said no to friends, which means I’ve done a few podcasts and such over the years.
So, preamble aside, here are some notable appearances (starting with the one that surprised me the most):
The…Congressional Record? 😮
Unbeknownst to me until I was sent it weeks later, Rep Raul Grijalva (AZ) read this into the Congressional Record on January 14, 2020:
Expand to read a text-only version of the Congressional Record piece
SCOTT JONES’ QUEST OF ALL 419 NATIONAL PARKS
HON. RAUL M. GRIJALVA
OF ARIZONA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Mr. GRIJALVA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Scott Jones, who last summer completed a quest to see all 419 units of our National Park System, an impressive feat. Apparently, this wasn’t enough for Mr. Jones though, who added all the National Monuments and National Conservation Areas managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management just for good measure. On August 26, 2019, Mr Jones became the first person to visit all 478 of the federal protected lands he calls our nation’s Treasured Places.
The list includes some of our most iconic and inspiring landscapes (such as Grand Canyon and Yellowstone), and places that serve to interpret some of our most important historical lessons (Gettysburg and the Lincoln Memorial). Mr. Jones’ travels took him to both the best of America, and to places that help us remember the turbulent and even unsavory history that is part of our shared national experience. Mr. Jones is quick to admit that each trip was an education and his experiences at many sites were rich opportunities to understand more about himself and about the United States.
For instance, Mr. Jones spoke to local reporters about his moving experience at Topeka’s Brown V. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas, which chronicles the fight to end school segregation. He recalled walking down a hallway lined as video of people yelling racial epithets played around him—mimicking the experience of Linda Brown on her walk to school.
From Topeka to 477 other sites, the Treasured Places quest took almost 15 years and involved a lot of travel. Mr Jones started out just like anyone would, visiting places close to his home in Phoenix, Arizona, but he had to venture a bit further than most, with trips to interior Alaska, the Northern woods, and even the War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam, his farthest trip at over 6,500 miles.
Mr. Jones’ quest was not just a personal whim, he used it as an opportunity to inspire others. Through his blog and social media, he invited anyone interested to follow his adventures. Each of his quests are designed to encourage others to ‘‘just get out more’’ at whatever ability and with whatever time each of us has, whether for just a day trip or an epic adventure. His three slogans: explore eagerly, travel cheaply, and adventure often.
Many of his trips provide examples of how achievable and inexpensive it is to visit some of our nation’s exceptional public lands. He completed this quest while working full-time for conservation nonprofits and made a point of not counting any visits that were made for his job toward completion of the total goal.
But for Mr Jones, adventuring is a constant goal and his thirst for adventures is far from slaked. In 2016, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, he took an epic trip to visit 100 parks in 100 days. He examined every ‘‘World Largest Ball of Twine’’—all three of them—while making his way to every state in the U.S. In the future, he plans to climb to the highest point in every county in Arizona and he plans to visit 50 different countries by the time he turns 50.
A proud graduate of Arizona State University, Mr. Jones is a fanatic supporter of ASU Sun Devil football. Ever the explorer, even this interest has become another quest—Mr Jones has been to 8 of the 12 football stadiums of the PAC–12.
Now that his personal Treasured Places quest is complete, Mr. Jones continues to encourage others to undertake their own quests to visit these places with the help of his website, treasuredplaces.us.
Mr. Jones is an exemplary person, who transformed a personal interest in parks and special places into a quest that he has shared as an inspiring invitation. His efforts truly do encourage all of us to make the time and effort to ‘‘get out there more’’ and enjoy our country’s many treasured places.
Adventure Journal
My online acquaintance Shawnté Salabert was the first to ask if she could write a piece about my national parks quest, so she got the “scoop” so to speak. Not sure if the original piece from 2019 is still online or not (I need to run it down), but here’s a screenshot I took from their socials at the time.
Almost There Adventure podcast – episode 50
For many years, Jeff Hester was best known for running Socal Hiker, one of the most popular hiking blogs on the web. We became friends not long after he ramped up the Six Pack of Peaks Challenges, a series of fun summit quests. I appeared on his Almost There Adventure podcast in 2021.
Wander to the Edge podcast – episode 16
This collaborative podcast, hosted by Zanne from Where Gals Wander and Adam Asher from The Edge Of Adventure, connected with a bevy of my travel friends, so it felt natural to hop on with them, too.
Campfire Stories podcast – Episode 5
Adam Nutting of Wander the Road (you may know him from previous sites: Hiking the Trail, Epic Social Adventures, or Red Baron Overlanding) lived in Arizona for a bit and we’d regularly kayak or camp together.
We chatted on his Campfire Stories podcast. I’m not sure if/where the podcast is still hosted online, but I have the audio file I can upload if I can’t run it down soon.
Twitter chat co-hosting
Back when I still used twitter, regularly scheduled twitter chats were among the best ways to connect with a community on the site. #ParkChat was always a favorite, and I co-hosted a number of times, including on the eve of its 10-year anniversary in March 2024.
I also regularly participated in, and occasionally co-hosted, three other (now defunct) chats: #RoadTripChat, #GearMeOut, and #HikerChat. These were always fun and I’d like to research and list the chats I co-hosted.
Last and definitely least…my own “channel”
I occasionally post something to YouTube, but don’t really consider myself as having a “channel.” You don’t need to go subscribe, and hit the notifications bell like every YouTuber requests at least once a video. At times, however, I’ve considered hosting informal conversations with friends and fellow travelers and posting them there as “Campfire Chats.”
So far, that’s basically meant…well, only two so far. 😜
But perhaps that changes, and I’ll post them on this playlist (and here too):
- A Campfire Chat with Tom Thrash about Quests
- State Border Crossings – A Campfire Chat with Tom Thrash