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I’m planning a cross-country road trip in the near future and I’ve been spending a lot of time reading about natural scenery. I’m a big fan of National Parks – frankly, one of the best features of the United States in my opinion and sadly overlooked by the hordes of sheep that go to Disneyworld every year. (Nothing against Disney, it’s fun, but come on, it’s a big country!)

I’m no expert, but here are a few of my favorites from a couple trips:

Great Smoky Mountains – a really stunning and lush park, made even better by the Blue Ridge Parkway, which means you can catch a lot of it from the road. It’s the most visited NP in the country, which is bad in some ways because the park has experienced a lot of pollution and environmental degradation in the past few decades. The urban buildup around the Park has led to acid rain and encouraged pests. I also spent park of my young life camping in Pisgah National Forest next door.

Badlands National Park – This is a quintessential American landscape. It’s barren and forbidding but with an otherworldly beauty. Stop at Wall Drug for a bizarre slice of Americana.

Yellowstone – the first and still one of the best. Yellowstone led to the creation of the National Park System because, although people wanted to protect the land, there was no state government to do so. (It was an unincorporated territory.) Instead, the Federal government took control directly. There’s enough variety here to interest anyone. The hot springs are fascinating and the scenery is even better.

Dinosaur National Monument – Just getting out here is an experience. The park is composed of a swath of land in Northwestern Colorado and neighboring Utah and “desolate” doesn’t begin to describe the area. Oh yeah, and there are dinosaurs, lots of them – it was one of the most productive dig sites in the U.S.

Edit: I have this colorful memory of the town of Dinosaur. (Although “town” might be generous!) I stopped in a greasy dive – with what looked like animal feed sacks for wallpaper – to order a “Brontosaurus Burger” (no matter that there’s no such creature!) and ogle the locals, all of whom were cowboy-hat-wearing, spur-jingling rancher types.

I wish more foreign visitors to the U.S. had experiences like that. Most of this country is a world away from NYC and LA!

Mesa Verde National Park – I love the mixture of the stunning canyon-scapes and ancient ruins. Some of the preserved buildings have to be seen to be believed. The area just north of this, in the San Juan Mountains is also one of the most spectacular driving routes in the country, so again, just getting here can be a blast.

Crater Lake National Park – It’s a giant volcano caldera filled in with crystal water and shrouded in mist. Before you visit you’ll probably think that landscapes like this only exist in movies.

I’ve actually been to each of these. On my “to-do” list for the future are places like Yosemite and Glacier. (Probably not this summer, but eventually.)
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What are your favorite National Parks? For our purposes, “National Park” can be anything administered by the Park Service. The nomenclature about “monuments” and “historic sites” and the like doesn’t really make any sense.

This may sound corny, but they all become "favorites" for some reason or another. Some that spring to mind:

- Bryce Canyon (wow)
- Yosemite (not just for the Valley, but also for the amazing backcountry)
- Point Reyes (awesome, especially for being so close to an urban area)
- Hovenweep (not so much for the ruins, but for the isolation. The place is creepy peaceful)

Bryce is nifty but I prefer Zion National Park, tho they're close enough you should hit both.

Glacier National Park is beautiful and I'm sure great in all the seasons.

Denali National Park and Glacier Bay NP in Alaska are wonderful too.

Great Sand Dunes NP in Colorado is eerie, and a bit haunted feeling at times. I went there in early spring and we got caught in a storm while we were out in the dunes a rough, unique hike back to our camp spot. Very cool place.

big surs wildlife refuge is one of a kind beaches for the usa.

as far as sand dunes, i prefer white sands.

arches national park is great for long hikes in the winter/spring/fall. actually any place in utah is beautiful.

redwood national park, but only if enjoy nature haha.

georgia and flordia swamplands if you can take the humidity.

mojave desert especially the mountains, see those at sunrise.

and some of course what everyone else mentioned and if youre gonna check out hovenweep check out all of the surrounding area. mesa verde could be considered better especially by me.

I've only been to a few, and I can't say I disliked any, but I Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, is definitely worth a visit.

I agree...they all become favorites. It's so hard for me to pick a favorite and sometime it was more about ane experience. I think my two faves have been Death Valley NP and Channel Islands NP partly because they are much less traveled than some of the biggies like Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, etc.

I have some of the NP's post on my Rhoades Less Traveled

Keith

Yellowstone and Yosemite are two of my favorite. Very beautiful and there are just some sights you'll see there you won't get anywhere else!

I think Sequoia and Kings Canyon get overlooked. Kings Canyon has amazing granite domes like Yosemite and is uncrowded. Sequoia has amazing hiking among alpine wildflowers in the summer. Of course Sequoia also has cool, big trees - but I have to say they're not my thing since I grew up in Northern California with the sequoias there.

I agree that the National Parks are one of the best things in the US.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon are high on my list, I agree. I thought the giant trees were amazing, and we got to camp literally 20 yards from a 50ft cliff dropping into raging rapids! Pretty cool. Yellowstone is great too.

Still haven't gotten up to Big Sur or Yosemite, but I'm trying!

Bryce Canyon is at the top of my list. Extremely beautiful, and so much more personal than Grand Canyon.

Sequoia and Redwood are pretty fantastic as well - the giant trees!

Thanks for starting the thread - now I have a whole list of NP's that I want to see!

This summer, I'm swinging past Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Zion. That's one big swath of Southern Utah.

Never been to any of these so I'm psyched!

As well you should be. Southern Utah is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Those who have not been there should make plans to do so; it is much more exotic than some of those expensive Euro destinations that we, as travelers, tend to flock to.

Also: they speak English and the US dollar goes a long way!

National Parks are my favorite! Yes I must agree that National Parks are much more thrilled than Walt Disney World and their branches.

I went to:

Zion National Park - Utah, 5 stars!

Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky - Awesome!

Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts, Vienna, Virginia - Where I worked for 4 summer seasons.. - Only National Park for the performing arts. Worth for you to go there during summer

Grand Canyon National Park - Jaw dropping

Yosemite National Park- Awesome!

Death Valley National Park - Love the road there, if you go bit faster, its like a little roller coaster. Be sure to visit Badwaters, the lowest elevation in the United States.

Joshua Tree National Park - Nice, relaxing and comfy

Lassen Volcanic National Park... very nice

Redwood National Park - small but very nice, amazing!

Everglades National Park - good for bird-watcher and relaxing, but very flat.

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial - Gateway Arch is awesome.

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas - VERY small but water is very tasty and smooth.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park - NC and Tenn, - Hiked all the length of 72 miles Appalachian Trail through Smoky Mountain.. nice shelters and very hilly but beautiful.

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia - Hiked all the 102 miles Appalachian Trail through Shenandoah. Plenty of deers! Beautiful!

Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, ME - BEAUTIFUL and several very interesting hiking trails.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Carlsbad Caverns, NM - CHAMP!

Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado, VERY nice, beauitful, a must see, a great camping site! It was my first taste of August Snow, yes! at Rocky Mountain National Park!

Guadalupe Mountain National Park, Texas - Just a short visit, to the sign up front, but didn't go through the park... but I can see the Texas' tallest mountain, in beautiful light green, like it was blossoming from rain.

I almost went to Big Bend National Park, but canceled due to rain, but heard they are big jaw dropping

I don't understand why I fail to visit all of Utah's National Parks even through I live in neighboring state, Arizona.

Allan

quote:

Originally posted by Allan1970:
I almost went to Big Bend National Park, but canceled due to rain, but heard they are big jaw dropping

Allan

I'm sorry you missed Big Bend. One of the best in my opinion. Absolutely beautiful. We stayed there for a week and barely saw another person. I think they say its the largest national park but also the least visited since it is way out in the middle of nowhere. Right across the river from Mexico, you can easily walk across. Just make sure you have ID


Olympic national park is also amazing. Beautiful rainforest climate, rugged beaches, awesome mountains!

How about some international NP's on this thread?

quote:

How about some international NP's on this thread?

As this is the North America forum, it would be fine if they were in Canada or Mexico, but I doubt those would help the OP.

I'll just mention a few that haven't been listed yet:

Bandelier in NM

Delaware Water Gap

Devil's Tower (nothing beats camping in the shadow of the tower)

Grand Tetons (can't believe that hasn't been listed yet)

Great Basin (bristlecone pines...oldest living trees, possibly oldest living organism, over 4000 years old)

Great Falls

Volcanos (in Hawaii)

Harper's Ferry

Muir Woods (giant redwoods close to SF)

There are a few smaller ones worth visiting in New York City:

Grant's Tomb
Hamilton Grange (It's just been moved for the second time)
Gateway National Recreation Area.

Did you know that every state except Delaware has at least one NP?

You can't go wrong visiting any National Park. My favorites, however, can be seen in a large circular trip that encompasses Utah Route 12 (for Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands) and south to Arizona to take in both the north and south rims of Grand Canyon. You can see my pictures of that trip on Flickr by clicking here. All the pictures are tagged and captioned.

Olympic National Park was basically my backyard growing up.

The good: Beautiful, unique ecosystem. It's very large, and unlike Yosemite or Yellowstone, it is NOT overrun by tourists. There's lots of outdoor adventure activities, from small day-hikes to mountain climbing adventures. And the scenery is truly fantastic.


The bad: Access and transportation are terrible. Because there is a HUGE mountain range in the middle of the park, there is no road going through the middle. Unlike, Yellowstone or Glacier NP, you have to drive ALL the way around (or hike through the middle) to get to the other side of the park.

Also, because most of Olypmic National Park is a rain forest, the weather sucks. It's rarely very cold, but never hot, and almost always kinda wet.