Collaborating Artist Completes Quest to Visit all 63 National Parks!
Anderson Design Group loves to celebrate the art of adventure, and we are honored to work with so many artists who share the same vision.
We hand-render a wide variety of poster art and illustrations at our Nashville art studio, but one of our most popular themes by far is our “Decorate with Adventure” art, the travel poster art that our customers use to create conversation pieces about the places they've been, and the memories they cherish.
Below: Ken Crane and ADG Staff Writer Ren Brabenec touch down in Kobuk Valley National Park.
Speaking of the places we’ve been and the memories we cherish, so many of the artists we work with are themselves avid travelers. One of our collaborating artists, Kenneth Crane, just finished his more than five-year quest to explore all 63 U.S. National Parks, and we met with him recently to discuss the accomplishment.
We have been so thrilled to follow Ken’s quest, because every time he visits a park, he creates original art of that park with ADG Founder and Creative Director Joel Anderson. You can view Kenneth’s complete collection of national park poster art here.
Below: Kenneth Crane in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
Before we dive into our interview with Kenneth, check out the italicized intro text below and the video that accompanies it.
After Kenneth and ADG Founder/Creative Director Joel Anderson finished creating one original poster design for each of the 63 national parks, Kenneth’s alma mater John Brown University invited him to display the art in a one-of-a-kind exhibit. Take a walk with us as we view the exhibit in the video below:
Kenneth Crane’s Biography
Kenneth (Ken) Crane a self-employed illustrator, explorer, and photographer based in Monument, Colorado. After earning degrees in illustration and graphic design from John Brown University in 2016, Ken spent eight years in the Christian non-profit sector helping underserved communities at home and across the globe.
Below: Ken in Kobuk Valley National Park.
Ken's most notable wilderness adventures have occurred in the past five years, but his love for the natural world has been a lifelong commitment, given that he's immersed himself in the outdoors since childhood. Ken has hiked and camped at every opportunity, camera in one hand, sketchbook in the other.
Committed to portraying through light and color the beautiful places safeguarded by the conservationists and wilderness enthusiasts of yesteryear, Ken visited all 63 national parks, photographing and illustrating each to tell one of America’s greatest stories.
Below: Ken Crane in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Ken’s Quest to Visit All 63 U.S. National Parks
ADG: When did you start and when did you finish the quest to visit all 63 U.S. National Parks? Which was the first one you visited, and which one was the last?
Ken: It started with Joshua Tree National Park in November of 2019. Technically that wasn't the first park I’d been to, but it was the one that planted the idea for seeing all 63 and capturing the personality of each park in photography and illustration. I was visiting the Cholla Cactus Garden at sunrise, and as the sun was coming up, it illuminated the mullions of needles on thousands of cacti. It was a Holy moment. Then I visited Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park in January of 2020 during a flood, and had a similar moment. Then I saw the Tetons in Grand Teton National Park in September 2020 and captured a few more incredible moments on my camera. By then, I’d really gotten the message. I needed to go on a quest to document all 63 U.S. National Parks.
Below: Ken Crane photographs ADG Founder and Creative Director Joel Anderson and Joel's co-author and friend Dan Pierce in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
ADG: Why did you embark on this journey? What’s the story behind your desire to see all 63 parks?
Ken: On a practical level, it was the desire to photograph landscapes that are beautiful. Why all 63? We are blessed with an amazing homeland. The value of this photography portfolio is that you have ALL this landscape diversity and wildlife biodiversity in ONE country. It’s an unmatched range of diversity with animals and landscapes and climates and biomes and ecosystems. It’s just incredible, and I wanted to document that in one body of work, created by just one photographer.
Below: Ken with ADG Founder and Creative Director Joel Anderson at the top of Pikes Peak en route to Rocky Mountain National Park.
ADG: Looking at your work does make us more proud of the country we call home. Would you say the quest made you more patriotic?
Ken: Absolutely. And that’s why I was so committed to finishing the project in 2026, as this year is America’s Semiquincentennial. Traveling the nation to see these parks made me more appreciative of the country I call home. The parks remind us of the founding ethos of this nation. The parks are democratically-designated lands, public lands, created for all Americans to enjoy. The parks are the embodiment of values like freedom, wilderness, and discovery.
Below: Ken with ADG Staff Writer Ren Brabenec in Denali National Park, holding ADG national park books and guides.
ADG: Walk us through what a park visit looks like to you.
Ken: A park visit is different for everyone. I research the park beforehand and I go to the spots I think are going to be most motivating. There’s an intensity of exploration in the approach. I’m up before sunrise and I stay up well into the night to capture star photography. I definitely don’t sleep much on these trips. For me, enjoying the park is about getting as immersive as I can in there. I’ll book and plan my whole day around sunrise and sunset and the lighting and when and how I can get to different landmarks. But everything about my plan can change in a moment, because what’s tricky about photography is that you have to photograph the park you get, not the park you want. Weather changes, the presence of wildlife or the lack thereof, it all changes the calculus for how I’m going to explore the park I’m in.
Below: Ken in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park with ADG Staff Writer Ren Brabenec and two friends.
ADG: What was your favorite park?
Ken: For the longest time it was Grand Tetons National Park. But in my second-to-last year on this quest, I had planned to go see Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska, and that trip got diverted at the last minute due to a freak winter storm in the Brooks Range during early September. I went to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park at the last minute, despite having been there already, just a month prior. But that second trip into Wrangell ended up being my most immersive park adventure yet. I guess it’s not so much about the specific park that’s your favorite, it’s more about the experience you have, and which experience stands out the most. Five days backpacking in the remote wilderness of the Wrangell mountains was unlike anything else I experienced on this quest.
Below: ADG Staff Writer Ren Brabenec, shot on location in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, by Ken Crane.
ADG: What surprised you most about this quest?
Ken: You can plan up one side and down the other (and you should) but you never really know what you’re going to get until you’re there in the park experiencing it. These places are highly unpredictable. You just have to be ready for anything and everything.
Below: Ken in Haleakala National Park, along with art he'd created of the park.
ADG: What advice do you have for folks who want to do what you did and see all 63 parks?
Ken: I’ve been meeting more and more people who want to visit all 63 parks. My advice is this:
1) Plan ahead. It sounds trivial, I know. But seeing all 63 is a huge undertaking. Plan each trip carefully, and prepare for anything. You’re way more likely to succeed and to see all 63 if you carefully plan it out than if you just wing it.
2) Lay out a realistic timeline. Visiting all 63 parks isn’t something you can do passively. It has to be an active part of your life, or it just won’t happen. Set realistic expectations for yourself, but do have expectations.
3) Finally, find a reason for doing it. Whether it’s career-related, or something you’re doing with your spouse as a major part of your marriage goals, find a deeply powerful reason for visiting the parks that connects you to the mission. If you can find a deeper meaning behind the mission, you’ll succeed in traveling to all 63 parks.
Below: Ken Crane and Ren Brabenec at Isle Royale National Park, along with art Ken had created of the park.
Ken’s Art and Photography
“Each park’s illustrations begin with research, lots and lots of research,” Ken said in his book Wilderness & Wonder: An Illustrated Guide to the National Parks. “I begin by perusing park websites and travel blogs for photography hotspots and insider info, everything from campsites and wildlife viewing to sunrise and sunset times. I meticulously plan out each day, saving golden hour for lighting inspiration and midday for reference material. That allows me to use my time in the parks efficiently because, once on location, I have a limited amount of time and I must be methodical and diligent, on the lookout for iconic scenes, dramatic lighting, intriguing specimens, and active wildlife, all components that paint the broader picture of that park.”
Below: Ken posing in Denali National Park with the national park coffee table book he co-authored with Ren and Joel.
Ken’s process is emblematic of a true artist, someone who is committed to the craft and portraying the parks in a way that is genuine and true while maintaining the whimsy and heavenly joy of landscapes, flora, and fauna that cannot be found anywhere else on Earth.
Below: Wilderness & Wonder in Olympic National Park.
And Ken’s style is one like no other. In his illustrations, he uses a dry brush digital sketching technique to compose elegant, mysterious, beautifully fluid, illustrated poster art. Ken combines 21st-century graphic design techniques with a loose, flowing, hand-rendered style that hearkens back to the vintage poster art of the early 20th century. In his photography, he combines a deep understanding of lighting and topography to arrange and capture shots, often racing to specific locations in the parks to be at the exact right spot at the exact right time to get the shot.
Below: One of Ken's illustrations, shot on location in Redwood National Park.
What’s Next for Ken Crane?
Ken’s art stands out because he travels to the places he creates art of. That's how he can portray the national parks in such awe-inspiring glory, often focusing on the wondrous, sometimes lesser-known aspects of the parks that are typically overlooked.
As he just finished visiting his last park in March of this year, Ken was thrilled to announce the next big step in his artistic career. “I have a book in the works!” Ken said towards the end of our interview. “I’ll be ready to announce more information and a release date soon, so the place you should go to get more info is my new website, Park Quest. Sign up for my newsletter on that site, and get a free national park map in the process.”
Below: An epic photo Ken took of Ren Brabenec in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
One thing is for certain, Ken’s art career is one worth following. His future is bright, his art is incredible, his photography is stunning, and his commitment to preserving crafts that matter is highly admirable.
We can’t wait to see what 2026 and beyond has in store for him.
-Ren Brabenec
Anderson Design Group Staff Writer
Below: Ken stopping for a smile after a long several days of backpacking at Isle Royale National Park.
