Grandma Joy's Road Trip: American Samoa 2023

Joy Ryan, better known as "Grandma Joy," and her grandson Brad Ryan have traveled over 50,000 miles in the past seven years in pursuit of a seemingly impossible goal: to visit every U.S. National Park together.

Their ambitious quest began with a weekend road trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in September 2015. Grandma Joy camped for the first time and climbed her first mountain at age 85, proving there is no age limit on a life of adventure.

Brad started a GoFundMe Page called "Grandma Joy's Road Trip" in 2017 to fund a 28-day camping circuit to 21 U.S. National Parks. In 2020, GoFundMe patrons also made Grandma Joy the first nonagenarian to visit all eight U.S. National Parks in Alaska in two-and-a-half weeks!

This intergenerational duo has visited every U.S. National Park in the lower 48 United States, Hawai'i, Alaska, and the U.S. Virgin Islands by SUV, plane, train, boat, and dogsled. Only one park remains on their 63 U.S. National Parks list: the National Park of American Samoa.

The finish line is so close, and yet so far. One of the most remote places on earth, the National Park of American Samoa is the only U.S. National Park south of the equator. It is located 2,200 miles southwest of Hawai'i and 6,780 miles from Grandma Joy's front porch in southeast Ohio.

Generosity has fueled "Grandma Joy's Road Trip" from the beginning, and with the end in sight, they graciously request your help to reach the final park on their life list. All donations raised through GoFundMe will be used to secure airfare, lodging, and transportation between the islands of Tutuila, Ofu, and Ta‘ū in April 2023.

You can follow "Grandma Joy's Road Trip" at their official Instagram page @grandmajoysroadtrip and learn more about their past adventures from their 2019 interview with Chip Reid on CBS This Morning. A huge thanks to everyone who has supported "Grandma Joy's Road Trip" over the years. This journey belongs to you too.