It wasn’t until the release of the book Happiness of Pursuit that I really started to think about the role that quests and goal-seeking had played in my life. Looking back, it’s always been a part of what I’ve done. It probably started with trips to the metro Detroit regional parks with my mom when I was a kid, as we sought refuge and tried to make the most of our annual park pass.
Of course, the most well-known and important of my quests was to visit all (at the time) 419 units of the National Parks System. But that’s not the only one I’m currently pursuing.
Below is a listing of quests currently in progress, as well as ones I’ve already completed. Some of them are “complete” only for awhile, while others are more static. It’s unlikely that we’ll end up with a new county high point, for example, while new breweries in Arizona are opening every month or two. Still others, like the highest points of otherwise flat states, are more about just collecting as many as I can with no final number in mind.
I’ve divided the quests up based on the scale of the objectives involved:
I’ve also listed previous quests that have since been incorporated into larger ones, as well as quests that I’m considering adopting but haven’t committed to yet.
If you like travel quests, check out Go Questing, the online home for all things Questing.
National & Global quests
Statewide quests
Local quests
Completed quests that were later incorporated into larger quests
National Conservation Lands: major areas protected under the BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System (Completed 2019)
[eventually incorporated into the Treasured Places quest]
National Monuments of the US: visiting each of our land-based national monuments (Completed 2019)
[later incorporated into the Treasured Places quest]
PhxBrewQuest: visiting all of metro Phoenix’s breweries (completed 2015)
[later incorporated into AZBeerQuest]
Quests I’m considering adopting
- National Natural & Historic Landmarks of Arizona
- “Culture Pass” locations in metro Phoenix
- Section hiking the Arizona Trail
- An Irish pub in 32 countries
- State capitol buildings
- Utah craft breweries
- Scenic driving All-American Roads, National Byways, and Backcountry Byways of Arizona
- Section driving the Trans-Canada Highway
Other
Craft Breweries: keeping track of how many breweries I can visit since 2014
300/3000: reaching the 300 brewery and 3000 unique beer marks in Untappd by the end of 2019 (completed)
500/5000: reaching the 500 brewery and 5000 unique beer marks in Untappd (completed 2023)