Stretching from Acadia to American Samoa - from Kobuk Valley to the Virgin Islands, our country's national parks represent a vast assortment of outdoor opportunities for all to enjoy!
Trekking the National Parks the board game is your chance to experience and explore these magnificent landscapes with your friends and family in a fun and spirited way.
Collect stones, claim parks, and earn points as you trek across the map visiting all of these natural treasures!
Components
- 1 Map board
- 5 Trekkers
- 1 Bag
- 45 Stones
- 15 Campsites
- 1 First Player token
- 6 Major Park cards
- 96 Trek cards
- 39 Park cards
- 5 Player Aid cards
- 10 Stone Bonus cards
- 1 Rules booklet
Object of the Game
Welcome to Trekking the National Parks - a friendly competition where you and your friends will race to visit the many American national parks and experience their unique qualities.
To win, you must prove yourself as the most experienced traveler by moving around the map and attempting to score the most Victory Points. This can be accomplished many ways:
The golden arrowhead indicates Victory Points. Collect these wherever you can!
Setup
1 Place the Map board in the center of the table.
2 Put all 45 stones into the bag and mix them thoroughly. For each park location 
on the map, randomly draw one stone out of the bag and place it on that location. Once the bag is empty, return it to the box; it will not be used again.
3 Each player takes 1 Trekker and 3 Campsites in their chosen color. Each player places their Trekker on the START location of the map. Players keep their Campsites in front of them.
4 Shuffle the 6 Major Park cards and randomly pick 3 of them, placing them face up next to the board. Return the remaining 3 Major Parks to the box; they will not be used during play.
5 Shuffle all Park cards and place them face down in a deck near the board. Take the top 3 Park cards from the deck and place them face up next to the Major Parks.
6 Shuffle the Trek cards and deal 2 cards to each player. Cards in a players hand are kept secret from the other players. Place the remaining Trek cards face down near the board as a deck. Then, take the top 5 cards from this deck and place them face up beside the board. Leave space for a discard pile near these cards.
7Place the Most Stones Bonus cards and the 2nd Most Stones Bonus cards near the board. You may stack them as pictured to save space.
For a 2-player game: ONLY use the Most Stones Bonus cards.
Give the First Player token to the person who last visited a national park, they will take the first turn of the game.
8 You are now ready to play Trekking the National Parks!
Game Play
Beginning with the first player and proceeding clockwise around the table, each player takes a turn, one at a time until the game ends. You are granted exactly TWO actions during your turn.
The available actions are:
You may choose to do 2 different actions OR the same action twice. These can be performed in any order you choose.
Examples: You may choose to move and then draw a Trek card. Or, move and then move again. Or, draw 2 Trek cards. Or, move and then claim a Park card.
Trek Cards
Trek cards are the currency of the game, and represent your ability to move across the map and experience the sights at each park. Every Trek card has two different pieces of information:
The number is used to move your Trekker to new parks on the map. The Trek card above can only be used as a tree icon OR to move a distance of 4. It is NOT worth 4 tree icons.
The icon is used to claim Park cards and to occupy Major Parks. Each Trek card has only one type of icon:
Important: The number is NOT the quantity of icons on the card. A Trek card is always worth a single icon. During the game players must decide how they will use their Trek cards: either for its number value to move, or, for its icon to claim a Park card or occupy a Major Park.
Action: Draw a Trek Card
Draw 1 Trek card and add it to your hand. You may take this card from the face-up Trek cards or you may draw the top card from the deck (this is a blind draw).
If you draw a face-up card, immediately replace it by revealing a new card from the top of the deck (there should always be 5 face-up cards visible). If the Trek card deck is fully depleted, re-shuffle all the discarded cards and refresh the deck.
The hand size limit is 12. If you are holding more than 12 Trek cards at the end of your turn you must discard these extra cards.
If at any time, four of the five face-up Trek cards are the same color, all five cards are immediately discarded, and five new cards are turned face up to replace them.
Example: Since four mountain cards are showing, all five face-up Trek cards are immediately discarded and 5 new cards are flipped face up.
Action: Move
You may move your Trekker across one or more trails and land on a new location . Follow these steps to move:
-
Announce the name of the location you are moving to and then indicate which trail (or trails) you will use to make the journey.
The green Trekker wants to use 1 action to move to Lassen Volcanic. He announces which trails he will use (highlighted red) to get to his destination.
-
Reveal one or more Trek cards from your hand with a combined value that EXACTLY equals the number of trails separating you from your destination. Discard these cards.
The green Trekker in the previous example is a distance of 2 away from Lassen Volcanic. To make this trip he can use one '2' Trek card, or combine two '1' Trek cards.
Important: You cannot spend a value that is higher than the distance you are traveling.
-
Move your Trekker to the new location. If there is a stone at the location, collect it and place it in front of you so it is visible to all.
The green Trekker collects the blue stone when he arrives at Lassen Volcanic.
In a single move action, you may pass through several parks while traveling to your desired location (you do not stop at each one). You may ONLY collect the stone at your destination (if available).
In the example above, the green Trekker did not pick up the yellow stone at Redwood when he passed through on his way to Lassen Volcanic.
Always follow these rules when taking a move action:
-
There is no limit to the number of Trek cards you may use when performing a single move action.
Example: You may spend '1 '2', '2', and '3' Trek cards all together to move a distance of 8 trails. This counts as one action.
-
You may NOT use a single trail more than once in a move action.
-
You may NOT pass through or land on the location you started from in a single move action.
-
You may NOT move through a location occupied by another player; they block the route. The START location is the exception to this. Multiple players can occupy the START location and do not block movement.
The red Trekker cannot get to Isle Royale using this route because he is blocked by the blue Trekker.
-
You MAY end your move on a location occupied by another player. If you do, the other player is bumped off and must return their Trekker to the START location.
The red Trekker moves to Joshua Tree, bumping the blue Trekker back to the START location.
-
While the START location is not a park, it does act as an intersection for trails in the same way all park locations do.
-
Action: Claim a Park Card
To claim one of the face-up Park cards, your Trekker must be at that park location on the map, and you must reveal Trek cards from your hand with icons that match the icons shown on the Park card.
Discard these Trek cards, and then take the Park card and keep it in front of you (face down). After claiming a Park card, immediately replace it with a new card from the top of the Park deck. There should always be 3 face-up Park cards visible and these are the only Park cards available to claim at any time.
Example: The green Trekker is on Lassen Volcanic. On his turn he takes the Claim a Park Card action and plays a blue canoe, purple mountain and red boot card from his hand. He now gets to claim the Lassen Volcanic Park card and places it face down in front of him.
Action: Occupy a Major Park
To occupy one of the three Major Parks, your Trekker must be at the Major Park location 
on the map, and you must reveal Trek cards from your hand with icons that match the icons shown on the Major Park.
Discard these Trek cards, and then take one of your Campsites and place it on the Major Park card to show that you have occupied it. You may only occupy each Major Park once.
Note: The three Major Parks established at the beginning of the game stay in play for the duration of the game. These cards are never taken by players or discarded. All players are free to occupy any Major Park in play, even if it has already been occupied by another player.
Each Major Park card also grants a unique ability to players who occupy them:
-
Acadia
For the remainder of the game, you may use any 2 Trek cards as if they were 1 wild card. This wild card can be used as any icon to claim a Park or occupy a Major Park.
Hint: Use this ability to get better use from any unwanted Trek cards in your hand.
-
Denali
Immediately draw 2 Trek cards from the top of the deck. This is a one-time ability that triggers when you occupy Denali.
Hint: It may be best to occupy this park later in the game so you can quickly refill your hand with new cards.
-
Everglades
You may immediately swap one stone you have collected with any one stone another player has collected. This is a one- time ability that triggers when you occupy Everglades. If no other player has collected a stone, no swap is made.
Hint: This is helpful later in the game for gaining a majority of a stone color to win its bonus card.
-
Grand Canyon
For the remainder of the game, whenever you take a move action, you may modify the total value of the cards you play by +1.
Example: You may use a '2' Trek card to move a distance of 3.
-
Hawai'i Volcanoes
For the remainder of the game, whenever you claim a Park card, you may immediately move your Trekker to a connected Park location that is a distance of 1 away from your current location.
Hint: This is helpful for gaining more stones or for positioning your Trekker closer to the next destination you are planning to visit.
-
Yellowstone
For the remainder of the game, whenever you claim a Park card, immediately draw 1 Trek card from the top of the deck.
Hint: Occupy this park early in the game to earn several additional card draws.
End of the Game
The end of the game can be triggered in two different ways:
- All stones on the map are collected.
- A player claims their 5th Park card. Major Parks do not count for this.
When one of these two things happen, keep playing until the player to the right of the first player finishes their turn. This ensures that each player has an equal number of turns during the game.
Example 1: Terry (player 1) holds the First Player token. On her turn, she collects the last stone available on the map. All other players get one more turn and then the game will end.
Example 2: John (player 4) is sitting to the right of the first player. On his turn, he claims his 5th Park card. The game ends at the end of his turn.
Stone Bonus Cards
Before tallying all the final scores, all of the Stone Bonus cards are awarded to players in the following manner:
Award the MOST Stones Bonus cards: The player who has collected more of a stone color than any other player is awarded the Most Stones Bonus card for that color.
Award the 2nd MOST Stones Bonus cards: The player who has collected the second most amount of a stone color is awarded the 2nd Most Bonus card for that color.
Ties
If two or more players have collected an equal number of stones and would both win a Most Stones Bonus card, it cancels the award and no one receives it! This is also the case for players who are tied to win a 2nd Most Bonus card.
Note: The small number in the bottom right of all Stone Bonus cards tells how many stones of that color are available at the start of the game.
If a Most Stones Bonus card is canceled due to a tie, the player with the second most stones in that color is still eligible to win the 2nd Most Stones Bonus card.
Final Scoring
Players tally up all the Victory Points they have acquired from:
- Stone Bonus cards
- Stones collected (I Victory Point per stone)
- Major Parks Occupied (5 Victory Points each)
- Claimed Park Cards
The player with the most Victory Points is declared the winner!
If there is a tie, the player who has scored the most points from Park cards and Major Parks is the winner. If this also creates a tie, the player who has collected the most stones wins. In the rare event that players are tied in both ways, they all share the victory!
Continue Reading
