Eric and Linda Rauch celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary just a few days after checking the final park off their list.

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Author: Elana Mutnick (WBIR)
Published: 10:25 PM CDT September 3, 2026
Updated: 10:25 PM CDT September 3, 2026

NORRIS, Tenn — For one Tennessee couple, a 1992 family vacation was the beginning of a 34-year adventure.
Eric and Linda Rauch of Norris, Tennessee, got their first taste of the national parks when they traveled with their children more than 30 years ago. It wasn’t until they took a trip Alaska that they realized they might be able to visit all of the United States’ 63 national parks.

“We flew to Anchorage, rented an RV for a couple of weeks, and traveled to four of the national parks — the only four that you can actually get to by land relatively easily,” Eric Rauch said. “After that trip, we thought maybe we could do all 63 of them.”
They kept traveling, one park at a time, building a collection of memories along the way.
Their journey recently came to an end — at least when it comes to reaching all 63 — when they visited National Park of American Samoa on Aug. 9.
Getting there meant traveling roughly 7,000 miles each way through Hawaii. Other adventures took them into the Alaskan wilderness, where they got close to grizzly bears.
“The grizzly bears would just be playing right around us,” Linda Rauch said. “You just can’t even imagine.”

Credit: Linda and Eric Rauch
The pair said the journey was never just about checking parks off a list. They wanted to spend time in the places they visited. Most importantly, they wanted to visit them together.

“It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun by myself,” Eric said.
The couple also hit another milestone in August, celebrating their 53rd wedding anniversary. That was just days after returning from American Samoa, the southernmost territory of the United States.
“Fifty-three years, which seems kind of crazy because that sounds like a long time, but it goes awfully fast if you’re lucky enough to be with somebody that you should be with,” Eric said.
The pair said their national park adventures are nowhere near done. That includes the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, sitting close to their East Tennessee home.
“We will definitely go back to the national parks,” Linda said. “That’s kind of our passion.”