Following the spectacular Centennial year of the National Park Service in the United States, Canada is celebrating its 150th Birthday by making all of its national parks completely free!

That’s right, our neighbors to the north have a collection of natural wonders that rival any the world over, and are letting you see them for free for the entire year. You can even have a free park pass delivered to you by Parks Canada, the agency that oversees the countries national parks and historical sites.

Click here to get your free Canada National Parks pass for 2017!

Canada’s offering of national parks is a welcoming contrast to those in the United States, with many of these parks located in remote northern areas, some require more than just packing up the station wagon and hitting the road, but for those that are looking to get the auto-tour experience, they have that too.

Parks like Banff National Park and Jasper National Park in Alberta provide stunning vistas in the Canadian Rockies. In the northeast, Fundy National Park, Prince Edward Island National Park, and Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site can be reached by car when crossing the border from Maine into Canada; even Cape Breton National Park is accessible, if you’re not afraid of a serious road trip.

On the west coast, Pacific Rim National Park and Nahanni National Park Reserve of Canada give contrasting tastes of the Canadian Pacific region and the Yukon Territory.

If you’re planning a visit north of the border, be sure to start with the Banff National Park app by Chimani, available for iOS and Android.

Source: Pocono Record

In the waning days of his presidency, one in which he cemented his legacy as the president whom has protected the largest amount of public land, President Barack Obama has signed the final documents to create the Harriet Tubman National Historic Park in Auburn, NY.

The new National Park Service unit will protect the site of Harriet Tubman’s former home in Auburn, as well as properties in the city of Auburn and town of Fleming in Cayuga County.

According to the Pocono Record, Congress approved the national park in December 2014 to honor Tubman, a former slave who became a leader of the Underground Railroad and led others on a path to freedom.

It is expected that US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will sign the final document, making the designation official, prior to President Obama leaving office.

“As a New Yorker and an American, I’m deeply proud to see Tubman Park finally become a reality,”U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said. “The Tubman Historic Park in Auburn will be a magnet for visitors that will tell the amazing story of Harriet Tubman’s life, an extraordinary American, and her story deserves to be shared with our children and grandchildren. This park will serve that solemn purpose and preserve her legacy for countless generations to come.”

Chimani has been featured in the National Park Conservation Association’s Southwest Winter Newsletter. The article, written by Chimani Marketing Manager Tom Tash, reflects on the significant impact an 8-day trip to 13 national parks had on him last summer.

The piece is titled “TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF THE PARK EXPERIENCE: An App Developer’s Journey through the Southwest” and goes on to say:

“Growing up outside of Acadia National Park, the significance of unspoiled landscapes, humbling vastness, and the everlasting struggle to protect these most basic natural elements was not lost on me.

As the Marketing Manager for national park app developer Chimani, I’m always considering how we can use technology to educate and inspire new national park enthusiasts. But in order to truly understand how to connect people to “America’s best idea,” I had to head West.

In June, I was sent to the Southwest to research 13 national parks in eight days. I was enthralled by the beauty of Joshua Tree and Death Valley, and the stunning red rock of Utah’s “Mighty Five.” I looked back in time at Grand Canyon, Petri ed Forest and Saguaro in Arizona. It was thrilling and exhausting, and would forever change my outlook on the urgency of protecting these brilliant places.

While my mission was to learn how to develop technology for addressing the future of visitation to the parks, it became clear to me that without increased efforts to educate the public on the issues that NPCA fights for every day, that the future of these places could never be guaranteed. I returned home feeling, as we all should, greater personal responsibility for their care.”

The newsletter can be found here.

Download the free national park apps by Chimani at http://chimani.com

Chimani Launches New App for Banff National Park for Canada’s 150th Birthday

Portland, Maine – Chimani, Inc., announced today the launch of its latest mobile travel app, a guide to Banff National Park, Canada’s most popular national park. The Banff National Park app by Chimani is available for free download on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

This latest app by Chimani comes in time for the kick off to Canada’s 150th Anniversary celebration set to take place in 2017; during which all of Canada’s national parks will be free to visitors. The Banff National Park app by Chimani provides users with the ultimate mobile tool for planning a trip to the popular park in Alberta and enjoying the various attractions in and around the park. The app joins an existing suite of more than 60 free U.S. National Parks, and one UK park app offered by the Portland, Maine-based company.

“After the huge success of our first international park app launch with Lake District National Park in the UK last month, we were eager to launch our first Canadian park app in sync with the country’s 150th birthday,” said Kerry Gallivan, Chimani’s CEO. “Banff is a stunning park with lakes and mountains that rival the beauty of any national park in the world. With over 3.2 million visitors in 2015, we expect it to be a top travel destination in 2017.”

The Banff National Park app by Chimani boasts rich, detailed information on the park, including:

•      interactive guides and maps to unique points of interest
  ●      GPS-enabled maps that work without a cell or Wi-Fi connection
  ●      information on lodging, hiking trails, attractions, and other activities
  ●      ability to check-in and save visits to points of interest in the park
  ●      a photo gallery with many high-quality images

“With our own national park system shattering its visitation records this year in its Centennial, it’s very likely that Parks Canada will see similar enthusiasm toward its own parks next year. We hope that our free mobile app guide will help visitors navigate the park safely; reducing congestion, and improving the park experience,” said Gallivan.

About Chimani, Inc.

Chimani, Inc. (www.chimani.com) creates apps for national parks and the outdoors. Chimani’s growing suite of apps includes guides to national parks in the UK, Canada, and all 59 U.S. national parks.

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As the end of 2016 nears, it’s been wonderful to see such amazing support for the national parks throughout the year. With the National Park Service Centennial attracting an estimated 330 million people this year (we’ll see the final totals in early 2017), the excitement around the parks was clearly visible to our team here at Chimani.

Chimani national park mobile app users “checked-in” to over 1 million points of interest in our national parks this year! That’s a lot of hikes, bikes, walks and climbs.

But, more than just a metric, this number represents memories made, milestones reached, bucket list items checked off, and moments captured.

Each time a Chimani user taps that little orange button within one of our more than 60 national park mobile app travel guides, they’ve logged an a unique experience. It’s at this very moment, when the plus sign changes to a badge of honor, that you’ve taken one of the most remarkable natural wonders in the world off your to-do list and conquered something truly special.

The team at Chimani would like to thank you all for making us a part of your national park experience in 2016, and we look forward to making (and logging) more memories with you in 2017!

To begin tracking YOUR visits in our national parks, simply download the free Chimani mobile app travel guide for that park. You can find them all at http://www.chimani.com

Once you’ve installed the free app, head out to your chosen national park. Once you’ve arrived at a point of interest within the park, simply locate the point of interest in the app and press the orange check-in button. The plus sign will change to a badge and “You have earned a verified visit” will appear at the bottom of the app.

Verified Visits are logged when you check in at the location of the point of interest. You can also check in to points of interest that you’ve been in the past, however, these will be listed under “visited” instead of “Verified.”

All of your collected badges can be found under the “My Chimani” section of your app.

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Download the free national park mobile app travel guides by Chimani for iOS and Android on the Apple App Store and Google Play!

What an exciting year to be a national park lover!

For all of us at Chimani, it’s been a whirlwind of excitement celebrating this year’s 100th birthday of the National Park Service. From attending the Centennial season kickoff/Junior Ranger Day at Acadia National Park to launching free individual national park mobile app travel guides for all 59 US national parks.

Yes, we more than doubled the number of national park apps in our collection, and sure, we got to visit dozens of spectacular parks along the way, but it was YOU, our users that made it all possible!

Our team visited Acadia, Arches, Biscayne, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Death Valley, Dry Tortugas, Everglades, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Petrified Forest, Saguaro, and Zion, working with ranger and nonprofits to make our apps as accurate as possible.
We saw the creation of new national park units, including Mojave Trails National Monument, Sand to Snow National Monument, and Castle Mountains National Monument in Southern California, the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in Washington, D.C. , the Stonewall National Monument in NYC, and the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument in Northern Maine.

Visitation was a hot topic this year, as it’s predicted that by year’s end, 330 million people will have visited the national parks this year, beating last year’s record of 307 million.

Yes, it certainly has been a wonderful year for the national parks and we can’t wait to get back out there and do it all again in 2017.

Happy Holidays and New Year from the team at Chimani!

P.S. Don’t forget to start planning your next national park trip with our free national park apps!