Brant Schmidt in his vest covered with badges from National Parks he has visited and other favorite places. Photo by Theresa-Marie Wilson
By Theresa-Marie Wilson
A
Los Osos resident has encountered bears in Alaska, saw prairie dogs in the Badlands and witnessed hundreds of thousands of bats emerge into the night at Carlsbad Caverns — he’s 10 years old.
At 6-years-old, Brant Schmidt set a goal for himself to visit all 63 national parks and 50 states by the time he hit his first decade.
The idea came to him during a Thanksgiving family trip through Fern Canyon in Redwood National and State Parks. At the time, Brant’s family was already working toward a goal of visiting all 50 states, so his parents, Jamie and Todd Schmidt, embraced the added challenge of seeing all 63 national parks along the way.
“I liked the ones I was going to,” Brant, a fifth grader at Teach Elementary in San Luis Obispo, told Estero Bay News. “So, then I asked if I could go to the others, and my mom said “yeah.” Then she asked by what time? I said 10. So, I gave her four years.”
Brant turned 10 this summer at Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska, completing both goals.
Young child and long-term goals don’t often go together, but Brant has some advice for others.
“Stay with it, and don’t just stop. What’s the point of starting if you stop?”
Jaimie said she spent countless hours planning routes, coordinating travel around school schedules and building a detailed spreadsheet to make the four-year goal possible. The family homeschooled for a year and a half, giving them more flexibility to travel during less-crowded times. They flew standby on many trips and spent long hours in airports, but the family says the effort was worth it.
Beyond the extraordinary landscapes, animal encounters, fascinating people and many memories, life lessons were learned.
“It taught me that kind of every place is unique or has something unexpected,” Brant said sharing about Kobuk Valley National Park in Alaska that is known for its massive arctic sand dunes. “There’s so much sand, and it’s in the middle of Alaska. There can be unusual things in places that you will never expect. For example, you’re at Carl’s Bad Caverns, there’s just millions and millions of bats coming out each night, and Yosemite, it’s crowded, but like some parts of it isn’t — it’s just amazing. So, each park kind of has its own special part about it in a way. Just like each person is special in their own way.”
Why national parks over state parks?
“In my opinion, national parks are a little bit more boldly protected [including federal funding to protect animals and natural landscapes] versus a state park, which is more like a piece of land being protected,” Brant said. “
Brant’s top three parks are the U.S. Virgin Islands, Yosemite in California, and Katmai in Alaska.
To document their travels, the family used a national park passport book to collect stickers and Brant earned various badges by completing educational books for each park. They all took a bear class in Alaska where Brant found a clump of bear fur while hiking that he shared with this reporter.
The importance of his experience goes beyond that, Jamie said.
“I think a lot of what he learned is adaptability, just being able to go new places and be out of his comfort zone,” she said. “He did some hard hikes and other hard things, and he also made a lot of friends along the way. I just feel like no matter what you do in life, whether you travel far or near, just being able to get outside is important. We learn a lot from the world around us, and I think his naturalistic intelligence has developed a lot from being outside.”
Asked if he knows what he wants to be when he is an adult, Brant said, “This is the one thing that everyone asks, but I haven’t really thought of.”
To share his adventures and love of national parks, Brant has an Instagram account at nationalparksforkids and he and Jamie also launched a podcast, “National Parks for Kids,” which has released 46 episodes and received more than 20,000 downloads.
Brant says he doesn’t currently have his next goal in mind.
“The next thing I want to do is probably take a break from doing all that stuff,” he said but quickly added, “Or maybe, ooh, I have an idea, but it would cost a little bit, I could do them all again.”
For now, Brant will continue doing the hobbies he loves including basketball, soccer, karate and making dragons and other creatures on his 3-D printer.
