national parks goal of visiting all

[dmdw50 1]

I recently retired.  One of my goals is to visit all the USA national parks.  I want to keep notes and info in evernotes rather than a travel book or national park passport.  Please give me your ideas about how best to do this.  Are there any formats already in existence for this?  thanks.

[DTLow 5,745]

I know of no existing templates.  You have a free canvas.

I would use a template so that your notes are a standard format.
Here's a sample of a template I use

I'd also advise using separate notes instead of one long note.

Although Evernote is not a real photo catalog, I include photos in my notes.
I use the table feature to control the photo sizes and placement

[gazumped 12,072]

Hi.  One of Evernote's benefits is that it doesn't try to impose a format or a given process on its users - you have a blank slate onto which you can add and edit any form of information.  Sadly that's also its main drawback.  As @DTLow said,  there's no template that I'm aware of to help you get started.

Having said which:  you could certainly use Evernote to list the details of each one of the sites you want to visit,  and add photos and commentary after your visit.  Since (Google tells me) there are 58 parks,  you could set up a notebook for each one (max 250 notebooks in one account) and add much more detail and pictures later.

Evernote doesn't play too well with long notes,  so I'd suggest you keep them short.  There's no limit to how many you can add (actually there is,  and it's 100,000 - good luck getting there...)

As (amongst other things) you want to take pictures in a series of locations,  you might look at photographers' use of Evernote - here's a few more links Google provided -

https://shuttermuse.com/evernote-for-photographers/

https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2012/07/19/evernote-for-photography-tips-and-downloadable-presentation/

https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2010/08/16/7-ways-a-professional-photographer-uses-evernote-evernote-creative-series/

and (sorry about this...)

There were 10M + hits to "how do photographers use Evernote",  so there are a few more links available for more ideas if you need them.

Two caveats:

• If you're taking a lot of pictures,  and especially if you want to share them or present them later,  I'd suggest you store the originals elsewhere.  I use Lightroom and an external hard drive (plus backups) for my main storage,  and Flickr / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter for sharing.
• Regard Evernote as your personal organizer to help you make your trips and keep to your budget and timetable.  It's not - unless you spend some time planning how to do it - something you can share with people so they can see what you're doing.

But try it out - see what works for you:  you can always change your approach completely if you find things aren't working out.  Best advice is that everyone is different - find out what feels right for you and stick with it!

Good luck.  When you do start taking pictures,  please share a link back here - we'd be interested to see how you get on. 

[TK0047 422]

I would create a "Table of Contents" or a Master Note where I would list all of them. Wikipedia has a really nice table which inspired me.

 

Then I would create links to individual park notes as I visit them or get close to visiting them since I can put research information there as well, example

As discussed, canvas is blank you can add whatever you want to from receipts to key photos to scanned copy of the admission tickets or how much you spent at each park etc.

Good luck. Would like to see your final solution in the end.

[BrightHomesRE 31]

Nice examples, @gazumped, @DTLow and @TK0047.  I hope you find these examples to be useful, @dmdw50!  I know I have ?Thanks, gentlemen!  

Happy Retirement!

[DaveDava 0]

On 3/10/2018 at 12:30 AM, dmdw50 said:

I recently retired.  One of my goals is to visit all the USA national parks.  I want to keep notes and info in evernotes rather than a travel book or national park passport.  Please give me your ideas about how best to do this.  Are there any formats already in existence for this?  thanks.

Table of contents is the best idea here. Though at first you'll need the list of all national parks in USA which can be easily found in Wikipedia, for example. As an avid hiker, from my experience, I would add that you'll need a lot of planning, I mean not only time to prepare but proper equip,emt like this too.