What do you hope a day in your life looks like for you at 92 years old?
If you’re anything like Grandma Joy, your days may be packed with adventure.
In 2015, Joy Ryan and her grandson Brad had an idea: What if they explored
the United States by visiting every national park? It’s a big task, but these two
adventurers were up for it. It all started when Brad made a surprising discovery:
Grandma Joy was in her 80s and had never been to the mountains. It made sense then that their first stop took them to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, straddling
the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. Joy then climbed her first mountain
at 85 years old.
Fast-forward seven years and the pair have driven more than 50,000 miles
together and flown to visit parks in Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Though they’re now staying in hotels, the two started their journey camping in the parks.
What started as an opportunity for a breath of fresh air has become a gift to both him and his grandmother. He’s learned to prioritize his mental health, set healthy boundaries, and raise awareness of mental health struggles to help others.
What is the final park on this fantastic voyage?
Grandma Joy and Brad will visit American Samoa in 2023 to complete their national park checklist. The duo is on Instagram and Facebook and has a GoFundMe to help cover their American Samoa travel expenses.
92-year-old grandma won over social media with an unusual hobby:
‘I have to continuously pinch myself’ first appeared on The Cool Down.
Brad Ryan, 41, and his 92-year-old grandmother, Joy Ryan, are nearing the finish line
on a goal they once thought was impossible: visiting all 63 U.S. national parks together.
The duo from Duncan Falls, Ohio, kicked off their adventure in October 2015, when Brad was looking for a way to spend a three-day weekend during veterinary school. He said the idea was sparked by a conversation he had with “Grandma Joy” about his past adventures on the Appalachian Trail.
“I felt bad that she was always living vicariously through my stories,” Brad told “GMA.” “And so just knowing that she had never seen deserts and mountains and the ocean and these incredible wild places on Earth, it just felt like a responsibility that I had to her to make sure that she had some memories to take away in her life story as well.”
Brad invited his grandma on a weekend trip to the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, anticipating it would be their only excursion together.
MORE: How to plan a safe summer road trip – Search (bing.com)
“You don’t assume going into that that your 85-year-old grandmother going with you on a camping trip is going to be anything less than challenging,” Brad said. “That was my fault.
That was my misperception of what age means and more importantly, what her spirit would allow her to do.”
“I’ve always tried to be positive in my life and it didn’t hurt to try something once,” Grandma Joy said. “I didn’t want to have to regret the next day that you didn’t do it.”
The final stop on our 2018 east coast road trip was the sacred place.
Where our journey began three years prior:
Great Smoky Mountains National Park. grandma joy road trip
#GrandmaJoysRoadTrip began with the simple goal of me taking my grandmother on
a weekend camping trip so she could see mountains before it was too late. But this land transformed our lives and planted the seed to keep exploring. Coming back here with 28 US National Parks under our belt allowed us to bask in this transformation with complete gratitude.
As we approached the half-way point of our goal, I wondered if visiting every US National Park was too ambitious. Little did I know that our road trip would take a most unexpected turn in 2019.
#GreatSmokyMountainsNationalPark #GreatSmokyMountains #SmokyMountains
#Smokies #SmokyMountainMemories #USNationalParks #GoParks #FindYourPark
#RoadTripUSA #OptOutside @national park service @great smoky nps
magical mystery laur Where did Grandma Joy get her ” I saved a bald eagle’s life” shirt?!
grandma joy road trip @magicalmysterylaur They sell them at The Wildlife Center of Virginia gift shop. I assume @wildlifecenter_va has an online store too. This is a phenomenal organization worthy of your support.
ziggurat
Oh my goodness! This is one of the best life stories I’ve heard in so long. It has made me cry tears of joy for the extraordinary relationship you’ve created with your grandmother. Enjoying nature’s wonder’s & our incredible/beautiful national parks together. What a true gift in both of your lives. May God continue to bless and guide you both.🙏🏼💝
louann pharr
Amazing that’s my goal too
dianakane419
Tears! Your grandma is one lucky woman and you are one special guy.
alli_from_cali_
This is our home! ❤️ I am so grateful to live in this area!
Loved watching your story on the Rachael Ray show this week!
barbaraancillai
You made me dream! I wish I could have done this with my grandmother too, but unfortunately I couldn’t. She had Alzheimer’s and was too delicate. But you have a treasure trove of memories and emotions to treasure you two.🙌❤️👏
northstar teepees
Hope your grandma is doing well and you will be able to finish all of the National Parks!!
What a special gift for each of you!! Happy traveling!!
scrouthier Listened to your interview with Bill Bradley today.
Outstanding!!! Look forward to following you both!!! 👍🙂
grandma joy road trip
@scrouthier Very cool! Sen. Bradley was wonderful.
k creature comforts
Love the pictures as always! Following for a long time now and living vicariously
through this because I’d have given anything to do this with my grandma❤️
grandma joy road trip
@kcreaturecomforts Thank you for being a part of our journey.
We wish we could meet each and every one of you in person.
dog leash
I wonder if you have any idea how much your posts affect each of us – all in different ways. For those that also say… ‘I’m too old for that’ (you’ve shown you’re not)… or ‘that’s far too ambitious’ ( it’s not)… or ‘who would be interested?’ (We all are!). Or ‘it’s too late to dream that dream’….I could go on and on. The pure dynamics of your relationship to each other… is more than enough.
grandma joy road trip @dogsleash Thank you!!!!
Your words are incredibly moving. We don’t have any immediate plans to slow down,
so I hope the next leg of our journey keeps inspiring those who need it.
Grandma Joy inspires me every day. ❤️
1961ual
I loved all your stops 👍🏻😍🌴🏜🌵
stein5481
The Smokey Mountains are my happy place! A treat for all the senses.
iamerica 19n ❤️❤️❤️ 106w 1 like
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Grandma Joy and Brad Ryan are members of the exclusive “Denali 30% Club,”
the minority of visitors who get to see North America’s tallest mountain in all her glory.
Brad began documenting their adventures on Instagram and Facebook to the account in 2019, and they quickly acquired a large following. Today, they boast nearly 58k followers on Instagram. “We didn’t expect that,” Grandma Joy said. “He just put that on social media so the people back home in Duncan Falls knew what we were doing.”
National Parks Services Chief of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles said in a statement that “Grandma Joy, and her grandson Brad, are an inspiration to us all.”
“National parks are best enjoyed with the people we love, and it is clear to see that Joy and Brad share a special bond, which has been strengthened by their time traveling together,” Anzelmo-Sarles said.
They had visited 29 parks until the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to slow down.
“All we could do was hope that things would change and that those opportunities would still be there and then be grateful for everything that we had been able to do and see up until that point,” Brad said.
In July 2021, Grandma Joy and Brad embarked on one of their wildest adventures yet: visiting the eight National Parks of Alaska, where they went white water rafting down
class three rapids, hiked near glaciers and fjords and crossed a wild animal encounter
off Grandma Joy’s bucket list.
“I always wanted to see the bears get the fish and I finally got to see it.
And it was fun, it really was,” Grandma Joy said.
92-year-old Joy Ryan poses while hiking in Gates of the
Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska.
Brad Ryan, @GrandmaJoysRoadTrip
After years of planning and traveling, Grandma Joy and Brad are almost able to hang
up their hiking boots: the duo has just one national park left to explore, the National Park
of American Samoa which is over 6,700 miles from their home town of Duncan Falls.
While they’re looking forward to the day they visit their final park, Brad said completing their extraordinary feat will be “bittersweet.”
“It’s been a grand adventure, it really has,” Grandma Joy said.
“It’s really been a beautiful, beautiful time. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
As for advice from Brad and Grandma Joy, they encourage everyone to seek out opportunities for exploration.
“We realize that not everybody is going to be able to travel to every U.S. National Park,” Brad said. “But there is some adventure to be found in every corner of of the country and we hope that people will go out and seek that adventure.”
Grandma Joy visiting national parks© Provided by The Cool Down
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As Brad shared in an interview with The Weather Channel,
“I have to continuously pinch myself when I’m watching my grandmother hiking
the Arctic Circle and when I see her whitewater rafting … in class 3 rapids at 91!”
Grandma Joy says the rapids in Alaska were fun, like a roller coaster.
“I love roller coasters,” she told CBS News.
What else have they experienced? Maybe too much to recount.
They saw a whale breaching in front of them while visiting islands off
the coast of California. They were almost run over by a moose, according to Joy.
“That’s a lesson, don’t get too close to the moose,” Brad told The Weather Channel.
They’ve seen countless terrains and animal species and had adventures that have brought them closer together. Traveling with his grandmother has been a gift for Brad, who has learned a lot about his family history, too. Brad is a veterinarian and his grandmother’s stories have shown him that a love of animals runs in the family.
Related video: In 2015, Joy Ryan and her grandson Brad had an idea: – Bing video
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