Move across the map of U.S. national parks, collect stones, cash in matching trek-card icons to visit parks, and use major-park powers to outscore the rest of the table.

How to Play Trekking the National Parks

Overview

Trekking the National Parks is a route-planning board game where players race around a shared U.S. map collecting stones and visiting parks for victory points. The game is easy to teach because every turn gives you exactly two actions, but the order of your movement, card draws, and park visits matters a lot.

Components That Matter In Play

• Map board with connected park locations

• Trek cards showing one icon suit and one movement value

• Park cards (white border) that can be claimed once

• Major Park tiles (red border) that any player may camp at once for 5 VP plus a power

• Stones placed on map locations at setup; each collected stone is worth 1 VP

• Trekkers and tents

Setup

1. Place the map board in the center.

2. Put one random stone on every park location except START.

3. Shuffle the Trek deck, deal each player 2 Trek cards, and reveal 5 face-up Trek cards.

4. Give each player 1 Trekker on START, 3 matching tents, and a reference card.

5. Shuffle the 6 Major Park tiles and reveal 3 of them for this game.

6. Shuffle the Park-card deck and reveal 3 face-up Park cards.

7. Choose the first player.

Turn Structure

On your turn, take two actions. You may take the same action twice.

1. Draw a Trek Card

Take one of the 5 face-up Trek cards or the top card of the deck.

• If you take a face-up card, refill it immediately.

• Hand limit is 12 at the end of your turn.

• If 4 of the 5 face-up Trek cards are the same color, discard all 5 and reveal 5 new ones.

2. Move

Spend Trek cards for their number values to move exactly that many trails.

• Announce your destination first.

• You may combine multiple Trek cards in one move action.

• You may not overspend movement.

• You may not move through another player's Trekker, though you may land on them and bump them back to START.

• If you end your move on a location with a stone, collect that stone.

3. Explore a Park

If your Trekker is at the location shown on one of the face-up Park cards, you may discard Trek cards whose icons match that Park card. Take the Park card and place it face down in front of you for points. Refill the display so 3 Park cards are always available.

4. Camp at a Major Park

If your Trekker is at one of the current Major Parks, you may discard Trek cards whose icons match that Major Park. Place one of your tents on the Major Park tile, gain 5 VP, and activate that park's special ability. Each player may camp at each major park once, but multiple players may camp at the same major park over the game.

Major Park Powers

The third-edition rulebook includes these six major-park powers:

• Denali: draw 2 Trek cards immediately.

• Everglades: swap one of your stones with one stone from another player.

• Yellowstone: after you explore a normal park, draw 1 Trek card.

• Grand Canyon: your move actions may treat card value as +1 total.

• Hawai'i Volcanoes: after exploring a normal park, move 1 connected location for free.

• Acadia: any 2 Trek cards may be combined as one wildcard icon set for exploring/camping.

End of the Game

The end is triggered when either:

• all stones on the map are collected, or

• a player takes their 5th Park card.

Finish the round so every player has taken the same number of turns, then score.

Score Park cards, 5 VP per Major Park camped, 1 VP per stone, then end-game Most and 2nd-Most bonuses for each stone color. Higher total wins.

Record each player's final total points. Recommended optional stats: park_card_points, major_park_points, stones_collected, and stone_bonus_points.