On July twentieth, Texas resident Brad Sailer and his epilepsy alert canine Ranger accomplished their quest to travel to all 63 national parks on July 20, 2023 in an effort to lift consciousness round accessibility within the outdoor—making historical past within the course of. Pet dogs usually are not allowed inside all nationwide parks, so Ranger (whose entry is allowed by the Americans with Disabilities Act) grew to become the primary canine to go to each park within the National Park Service’s system. Along the best way, they confronted bears, flipped vehicles, and odd run-ins with locals, but in addition a permanent sense that our public lands are really for everybody, no matter capability. Sailer talked with Outside’s Emily Pennington the night time earlier than ending his journey.
Going to all of the parks is one thing that I’ve at all times wished to do. I had a lifelong dream of being a park ranger, and I labored in EMS and catastrophe response for a few years, however once I acquired hit with late-onset epilepsy in my early thirties, my complete profession stopped. A couple of years after that, this quest to go to all 63 parks started.
I loaded the whole lot into my Ford Explorer on August 15th, 2022, together with Ranger and my girlfriend, Halie, and we headed in the direction of Petrified Forest for our first park. I solely had a tough map drawn out of the place I wished to go, however I realized in a short time that it takes a bit extra planning and looking out into the longer term to nail down issues like tenting and lodging. We automotive camped at lots of KOAs and on BLM land, solely tenting within the nationwide parks each every so often.
After Petrified Forest, we drove west to Joshua Tree, which actually stood out to me, as a result of it was the off season, so no one was there. We put up our hammocks and simply camped underneath the celebs. There had been coyotes howling and stars all over the place. It was completely stunning and peaceable, like the entire world belonged to us. We continued all the best way up the West Coast, hitting parks alongside the best way.
Ranger, who’s half Australian Kelpie and half Malamute, is an epilepsy alert canine. He’ll give me some hints if I’m going to have a seizure, which hasn’t occurred for a very long time, however his predominant job is to alert different people who I’m having a seizure. If I’m going down, I would like somebody to flip me on my facet and make it possible for I’m secure, so I don’t choke by myself vomit. People can die after they have a seizure on their again and there’s nobody there to flip them over.
Not everyone understands the Americans with Disabilities Act or service animals on the whole and the way these legal guidelines work. There’s additionally lots of recent controversy with emotional help animals that actually cranked up lots of anger in our nation. It’s an additional wrestle for folks with unseen disabilities.
I’ve even seen indicators popping up in locations that say “only seeing eye dogs allowed,” which is technically unlawful. Lots of people, after they consider service animals, they consider blind folks. They don’t take into consideration folks with epilepsy, or folks with PTSD or anxiousness. There are so many various disabilities that you just simply can’t see, and I believe that that brings lots of judgment. I’ve had some actually nasty interactions with folks due to that.
The worst incident that occurred was truly in Yosemite. Ranger and I had been tenting within the valley, and normally, no dogs are allowed within the walk-in campground we had been staying at. But, as I mentioned, he’s an ADA service animal, which are utterly welcome in any campground. It was round 11:30 at night time, I used to be cooking dinner by my campfire, and a park ranger responded to a home dispute that was taking place about three campsites down from us. He came visiting to ask us if we had heard something, and when he appeared over at Ranger, he mentioned, “You can’t have your dog here.” I defined that he’s a service animal and he responded by saying, “That is not a service animal. I know a service animal when I see one.”
And I needed to argue with him. He was not very good about it. Eventually, he left us alone and mentioned we needed to get out of there within the morning. And your entire time, Ranger was sporting an figuring out vest and a collar with tags.
My final service animal handed away just a few years in the past, and when he did, I unfold his ashes at Redwoods National Park. Revisiting that web site was actually significant to me. Crater Lake stood out quite a bit, too, as a result of that was the park I had most wished to go to once I first fell in love with parks at age 13. Seeing it in individual was mind-blowing. It was raining once I arrived, so we stayed within the camper within the pouring rain for a few days, and we nonetheless had a blast, as a result of the lake nonetheless appeared so stunning. Then, in a coincidence, on the final day, the clouds broke as we had been pulling out, and the solar got here out and hit the lake, and I acquired to see it in full bloom. Actually attending to see that that good blue made me assume, “Thank you, universe.”
We did Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, White Sands, and Guadalupe Mountains on the best way again to Texas from Oregon. Once again in Texas, I noticed that I wanted to start out specializing in these parks that had been going to be actually tough to plan for, like Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the whole lot in Alaska.
Halie and I finally broke up, and I took two months off for the vacations to take a seat down and plan the remainder of the journey, as a result of it was actually clear that I wanted to place some thought into completely mapping it out.
I additionally needed to begin doing the piles of paperwork for Ranger to bypass quarantine in Hawaii and American Samoa, which was one of the crucial difficult components, logistically, of the entire journey. He needed to have a separate well being certificates for every entry between completely different Hawaiian islands, then two extra for his entry to and exit from American Samoa. In addition to that, he wanted a specialised rabies blood take a look at that may solely be processed at one in all three labs within the United States–and it normally takes them six months to course of these checks.
I used to be able to fly to American Samoa and Hawaii earlier than I used to be going to get again on the street, and after these, going east could be simple within the spring. I drew a line of essentially the most direct path from Florida, in the direction of Congaree and up the East Coast hitting each park alongside the best way.
Ranger and I mainly did an enormous circle out east, then went throughout the northern a part of the U.S., via Glacier and North Cascades, all the best way to Vancouver. I really feel like my complete final month was spent driving the Alaska-Canadian Highway. It took 11 days every method to drive, which was its personal journey.
The freeway begins at Dawson Creek in British Columbia, and I used to be about 80 miles in once I swerved to overlook a pothole, and my automotive tires caught on its edge, inflicting me to roll and flip 3 times. I utterly crushed my Ford Explorer. It appeared like a tin can. Miraculously, I walked away with what I assumed was only a scratch on my head (I discovered later that I truly cracked just a few ribs). And Ranger was utterly unscathed.
After rolling and flipping my automotive, folks advised me to take a break, and I mentioned, “Hell no.”
You can’t entry all of the Alaska parks by automotive—you need to fly to 5 of them. Ranger solely needed to be crated on the airplane out to Kobuk Valley. When we used Wright Air to go as much as the small Native village of Anaktuvuk Pass in Gates of the Arctic, they only let him journey in my lap. Katmai was the arduous one, as a result of the float planes normally take you in to a spot known as Brooks Camp, however even service animals usually are not allowed at Brooks Camp due to the excessive focus of bears there. I assumed that was going to be a showstopper, and I used to be reaching out to folks in D.C. to strive to determine easy methods to get round it and finally I discovered a float airplane that may take me into a special a part of the park.
It was actually essential to me to not simply go in, get a stamp, and tag a park. The parks every needed to be skilled, or to me, it didn’t rely. I had some pushback from some folks after we had been Katmai and Kobuk Valley, asking why I couldn’t simply get into airspace. But, for my part, boots needed to be on the bottom. Ranger’s paws needed to be within the park. I didn’t wish to reduce corners.
But I additionally wished to be respectful of the setting. Channel Islands is an effective instance. There’s a cause that dogs aren’t allowed on that island: the endangered fox inhabitants there. So even attending to a spot like that, I’ve to be very cognizant of the affect that we’re having whereas we’re there and the place we’re walking. We caught to at least one massive lengthy path that goes straight via the island and frolicked on the seashore. I felt I needed to restrict it to that, ethically. Sometimes folks will take their service animal standing to the max, and actually push it when it’s not vital.
Ranger additionally has a type of parks passports, and he will get he will get his paw print stamp on his passport at each park as properly. Tomorrow after we enter Yellowstone, he’ll get his final paw print stamp, and one of many head rangers within the park goes to satisfy us close to Old Faithful for a photograph op. After that, Ranger and I are simply going to get pleasure from Yellowstone, hold it quiet and relaxed, and pop a bottle of champagne someplace.
When my epilepsy hit, and I misplaced my profession, my license, and my capability to stay what I considered usually, I felt trapped. I believe lots of people with disabilities really feel the identical method. They really feel incapable, or shut off from the world, or like they’re in a special class. My message has been that there isn’t a distinction. If you wish to put your foot out the door and go to all of the nationwide parks, there’s a method to do it. And there’s a method to deliver your service animal. All you need to do is make that first transfer. The solely individual stopping you is you.
