93-Year-Old Grandma and Grandson Explore Every U.S. National Park Together

Now, they’re looking to hit all seven continents.

Brad Ryan and his 93-year-old grandmother, Joy Ryan, accomplished their goal to visit all 63 U.S. national parks — but they’re far from done.

The pair, who completed their years-long epic adventure earlier this month with a stop in the National Park of American Samoa, are now looking further afield with a new goal to hit all seven continents, Brad told iBestTravel.

“It weighed heavily on my mind when [Joy] told me she had never seen a mountain or an ocean when she was 80 years old,” Brad told iBestTravel, adding “She’s a spitfire and very, very full of life [and] adventure… She wanted to see the great outdoors, she never dreamed of going overseas… We’re starting a new era of international Joy.”

The grandmother/grandson duo first set out on their 7-year-long journey with a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee in 2015. To get to their final park, they had to first fly to Hawaii, where they spent a couple days, before heading on to Pago Pago in American Samoa.

After achieving the remarkable milestone, they were presented with certificates and a commemorative quarter celebrating the national park in American Samoa.

“This is just like Christmas,” the elder Ryan said in a video on an Instagram account, @grandmajoysroadtrip, used to track their journey.

Now that they’ve visited all 63 national parks, they can expand beyond. In fact, grandma Joy, as she’s affectionately known, just got her first passport at 92 years old.

“Everybody is always cheerful… and wanting to show you things you can’t buy,” Joy Ryan told iBestTravel about her adventure. “It’s really nice. It gives me something to talk about later on.”

For his part, Brad Ryan said traveling with his older grandmother has taught him to slow down a bit.

“We hardly ever plan anymore,” Ryan said. “We usually just go to a place and open ourselves up to any possibilities. We enjoy getting lost on purpose and it always works out.

“That’s one of the advantages to intergenerational travel,” Ryan added. “There really are advantages to slowing down and absorbing that wisdom and perspective… doing the grandma Joy version of travel, I think, will serve me better in life.”