© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Andy Magee Returns To St. Louis After Visiting All 419 National Parks In 2019

St. Louis Public Radio | By Evie Hemphill
Published January 3, 2020 at 4:34 PM CST
St. Louisan Andy Magee captured this image of the cliffs of Molokai, Hawaii, in December 2019, near the end of his yearlong trip to see all the national parks.
Andy Magee
St. Louisan Andy Magee captured this image of the cliffs of Molokai, Hawaii, in December 2019, near the end of his yearlong trip to see all the national parks.
St. Louisan Andy Magee captured this image of the cliffs of Molokai, Hawaii, in December 2019, near the end of his yearlong trip to see all the national parks.
Credit Andy Magee
St. Louisan Andy Magee captured this image of the cliffs of Molokai, Hawaii, in December 2019, near the end of his yearlong trip to see all the national parks.

A year ago this week, Andy Magee set out on a 365-day quest to visit every single location within the U.S. National Park System. His initial travels happened to coincide with a government shutdown in January 2019 that made access to some parks difficult, but Magee didn’t let those early, unexpected challenges stop him.

Now, after having spent the holidays exploring various parks in Hawaii, the local artist and co-owner of Cioci’s Picture Mart in Kirkwood has brought his journey to a close. On Tuesday, he checked the final site off his to-visit list: the Gateway Arch.

He joined host Sarah Fenske on St. Louis on the Air Friday to look back on the highlights and lessons from his trip.

Listen to the conversation:

“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill and Lara Hamdan. The engineer is Aaron Doerr, and production assistance is provided by Charlie McDonald.

Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org.

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Missouri News
Evie Hemphill
Evie Hemphill joined the St. Louis on the Air team in February 2018. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 2005, she started her career as a reporter for the Westminster Window in Colorado. Several years later she went on to pursue graduate work in creative writing at the University of Wyoming and moved to St. Louis upon earning an MFA in the spring of 2010. She worked as writer and editor for Washington University Libraries until 2014 and then spent several more years in public relations for the University of Missouri–St. Louis before making the shift to St. Louis Public Radio.
See stories by Evie Hemphill