Navy
Navy to hold week of outreach events at national parks
Stars and Stripes
April 17, 2026
Members of Navy Band Southwest, stationed in San Diego, perform at events throughout Phoenix for Phoenix Navy Week in 2024. The U.S. Navy will hold a week of outreach events at national parks across the country in late April 2026. (Christiena Taralson/U.S. Navy)
The U.S. Navy on Thursday announced a week of outreach events at national parks across the country taking place in late April.
National Parks Navy Week will see sailors engage with communities via musical performances, demonstrations of Navy technology, service projects and other events from Sunday to April 26, the service said in a news release. The week will also connect ships with their namesake locations or communities.
Unlike most Navy Weeks, which focus on a single location, the National Parks week will take place in multiple areas. The national parks with a Navy Week event include:
Hot Springs, in Arkansas
Zion, in Utah
Great Smoky Mountains, in North Carolina and Tennessee
Olympic, in Washington state
Mesa Verde, in Colorado
Everglades, in Florida
Cuyahoga Valley, in Ohio
The National Mall, in Washington, D.C.
The week is part of the Navy’s “Road Trip to 250,” itself part of a military-wide effort to honor the United States’ 250th birthday.
The Navy Week program began in 2005 and has served as the Navy’s main mechanism for outreach into areas of the country without a significant Navy presence.