Overview

PARKS celebrates America’s national parks. Players control two hikers trekking trails over four seasons (rounds), collecting resources at trail sites to visit national parks and earn points. The player with the most points at the end of the year wins.

Components

• 1 tri-fold board
• 2 token trays
• 48 Park cards, 10 Season cards, 12 Year cards, 36 Gear cards, 15 Canteen cards
• 10 Trail Sites (5 Basic + 4 Advanced + 1 Waterfall for 4+ players)
• 1 Trailhead tile, 1 Trail End tile
• 10 Hikers (2 per player), 5 Campfires (1 per player)
• 1 Camera, 1 First Hiker Marker
• 15 Forest tokens, 15 Mountain tokens, 30 Sunshine tokens, 30 Water tokens, 12 Wildlife tokens
• 28 Photos (1 point each)

Setup

1. Place the board centrally; fill token trays with all token types and photos.
2. Shuffle and deal 3 Park cards face up to the board; place Parks deck.
3. Shuffle and deal 3 Gear cards face up; place Gear deck.
4. Deal 1 Canteen card face up to each player; place remaining Canteen deck.
5. Deal 2 Year cards to each player; each keeps 1 as their secret Personal Bonus and discards the other.
6. Shuffle the Season deck; reveal the top card as the first Season.
7. Build the Trail: place the Trailhead, shuffle the Basic Sites plus 1 random Advanced Site, lay them out left to right, and place the Trail End on the far right.
8. Each player takes 2 Hikers and 1 Campfire (lit side up). The most recent real-life hiker gets the First Hiker Marker; the player to their right gets the Camera.

Turn Structure

Starting a Season

Reveal the Season card’s Weather Pattern. Starting with the 2nd Trail Site, place tokens from the pattern onto each site (one per site), repeating the pattern until the Trail End.

Taking Turns

The player with the First Hiker Marker goes first. On your turn:

1. Move one of your Hikers forward (to the right) to any unoccupied site.
2. If the site has a Weather token, take it as a bonus.
3. Perform the site’s action.

Campfire rule: If another Hiker (even your own) occupies a site, you cannot visit it UNLESS you flip your Campfire to the extinguished side. Your Campfire resets (re-lights) at the start of each season.

Season End

A Season ends when all Hikers reach the Trail End. The player with the Camera may take a Photo at the reduced cost. Shuffle in one more Advanced Site for the next Season’s Trail (making trails progressively longer).

Actions

Trail Site Actions

Site	Action
Forest	Take 1 Forest token
Mountain	Take 1 Mountain token
Valley	Take 2 Sunshine tokens
Ocean	Take 2 Water tokens
Vista	Draw a Canteen OR spend 2 tokens for a Photo + gain the Camera
Waterfall (4+ players)	Gain 1 Sunshine + 1 Water
Wildlife (Advanced)	Spend 1 token to gain 1 Wildlife token
Lodge (Advanced)	Spend 2 tokens to gain any other 2 tokens (not Wildlife)
Lookout (Advanced)	Reserve or Visit a Park OR Buy Gear
River (Advanced)	Spend 1 Water to copy another occupied site’s action

Trail End Actions

At Trail End, you may perform ONE of these:

• Visit a Park: Spend the tokens shown on a face-up Park card to claim it.
• Reserve a Park: Take a Park card to reserve for a future visit.
• Buy Gear: Spend tokens shown on a Gear card to claim it and gain its ongoing ability.

Wildlife Tokens

Wildlife tokens are wild and can substitute for any other token when visiting Parks or taking Photos. They CANNOT be used in Canteens or for buying Gear.

Canteens

When you gain Water on a turn, you may place it on an empty Canteen instead of your supply to trigger the Canteen’s bonus action. Water stays on the Canteen until end of season.

Photos

Photos cost 2 tokens at the Vista (or 1 token if you have the Camera). Each Photo is worth 1 point.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

At the end of the 4th Season, tally points:

• Points from visited Park cards
• 1 point per Photo taken
• Points from your Personal Bonus (Year card)

Highest total wins. Tiebreaker: most unspent tokens.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Players can carry a maximum of 12 tokens at any time. Discard excess at end of turn.
• You must be able to perform a site’s action to visit it.
• Hikers can only move forward (to the right) on the trail, never backward.
• Reserved Parks can be visited at any future Trail End.
• The Trail grows by 1 site each Season (new Advanced Site added).
• Gear cards provide persistent abilities for the rest of the game.
• At the end of the game, unvisited reserved Parks score 0 points.
• The First Hiker Marker passes to the player who reached the Trail End first each Season.

Player Reference

Season	Trail Length
1 (Spring)	Trailhead + 5 Basic + 1 Advanced + Trail End
2 (Summer)	+1 Advanced Site
3 (Autumn)	+1 Advanced Site
4 (Winter)	+1 Advanced Site

Token	Type
Forest	Basic resource
Mountain	Basic resource
Sunshine	Basic resource
Water	Basic resource (also fills Canteens)
Wildlife	Wild (substitutes for any token for Parks/Photos)