Let’s talk National Parks

[MuirWannabe]

I've been to 49 US National Parks. My Top 10 are:

1. Yellowstone - astounding thermal features
1. (tie) Yosemite - absolutely stunning
1. (tie) Redwood - I find the massive old growth redwood forests to be one of the most gorgeous sights on the planet
4. Glacier
5. Bryce Canyon
6. Canyonlands - one of the most underrated national parks IMO
7. Grand Canyon
8. Olympic
9. Zion
10. Big Bend

Honorable mention: Crater Lake, Arches, Badlands, Mt. Rainier, Sequoia, Grand Tetons, Denali, Kenai Fjords, Acadia

Worth visiting but underwhelmed by:

Pinnacles
Cuyahoga Valley
Indiana Dunes
Gateway Arch
Petrified Forest
Great Sand Dunes
Everglades
Guadalupe Mountains
Capitol Reef (to be fair, I had lousy weather)
Theodore Roosevelt

Several of these were National Monuments before Congress upgraded them to National Parks--often at the behest of the tourist industry in a particular state. A president can declare any federal land to be a National Monument, but it takes a bill passed by congress to become a National Park.

Your bottom 10 are interesting. I haven’t been to the first four but not too excited about them. I enjoyed Guadalupe Mountains and capitol reef.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I've been to 49 US National Parks. My Top 10 are:

1. Yellowstone - astounding thermal features
1. (tie) Yosemite - absolutely stunning
1. (tie) Redwood - I find the massive old growth redwood forests to be one of the most gorgeous sights on the planet
4. Glacier
5. Bryce Canyon
6. Canyonlands - one of the most underrated national parks IMO
7. Grand Canyon
8. Olympic
9. Zion
10. Big Bend

Honorable mention: Crater Lake, Arches, Badlands, Mt. Rainier, Sequoia, Grand Tetons, Denali, Kenai Fjords, Acadia

Worth visiting but underwhelmed by:

Pinnacles
Cuyahoga Valley
Indiana Dunes
Gateway Arch
Petrified Forest
Great Sand Dunes
Everglades
Guadalupe Mountains
Capitol Reef (to be fair, I had lousy weather)
Theodore Roosevelt

Several of these were National Monuments before Congress upgraded them to National Parks--often at the behest of the tourist industry in a particular state. A president can declare any federal land to be a National Monument, but it takes a bill passed by congress to become a National Park.

Haven’t been to Olympic yet but it’s high on my desire list. Funny you have an honorable mention list. I keep one as well.

 

[Chuckanut]

Keep in mind Mr. Rainier has gone to timed entrance reservations during the Summer. Make them well in advance. that does not guarantee you a space in whatever parking lot is at the trail heads.

 

[Pointby2]

Keep in mind Mr. Rainier has gone to timed entrance reservations during the Summer. Make them well in advance. that does not guarantee you a space in whatever parking lot is at the trail heads.

Not being able to get parking at the trail heads or frantically searching for parking sure takes away some of the fun. I'd love to visit the parks up in the Pacific NW but the crowds are making me hesitate.

 

[imjustawarrior]

I've heard the parks are so crowded that no one goes anymore.

 

[audreyh1]

I've heard the parks are so crowded that no one goes anymore.

Unfortunately it’s not keeping people away. Ha ha

One way for dealing with reservations, timed entry is to stay in the park if lodging is available.

For Rocky Mtn NP there were still some slots that became available online at 5pm the previous day. I was able to nab some of those.

 

[rodi]

I've been to 23... Immediate plans for 3 more (Big Bend, Carlsbad Caverns and white sands in March) plus a revisit to Joshua Tree this coming January. Plus a first time visit to the North rim of the Grand canyon is planned. (Been to the South rim many times)

I'm rough order, 10 favorites are:
Yosemite
Glacier
Joshua tree,
Hawaii Volcanos
Grand canyon
Arches
Grand Teton
Crater lake
Yellowstone
Sequoia/Kings canyon (yeah that's two, but they are adjacent... We often camp in Kings canyon and hike in Sequoia).

If you include national monuments Muir woods would top the list.

 

[rodi]

And to be snobby... If we include international national parks if need to add:
Cinque Terre (Italy)
Galapagos Islands (Ecuador)
Machu Picchu (Peru).
Angkor Wat archeological Park.

With Cinque Terre inching out ahead of Galapagos, barely.

 

[Pointby2]

And to be snobby... If we include international national parks if need to add:
Cinque Terre (Italy)
Galapagos Islands (Ecuador)
Machu Picchu (Peru).
Angkor Wat archeological Park.

With Cinque Terre inching out ahead of Galapagos, barely.

So, if snobby International parks are OK, then. We went to:

Guilin Lijiang National Park
Beijing Great Wall National Park
Banff National Park


This year. I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite between the Guilin and Banff.

 

[Al18]

Has anyone been to Dry Tortugas, off the coast of Florida? Dry Tortugas National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

 

[audreyh1]

Has anyone been to Dry Tortugas, off the coast of Florida? Dry Tortugas National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

I’ve known that it’s a favored birding spot for one particular species but I have not been motivated to visit. I occasionally look at it on satellite view though.

I’ve done quite a bit of pelagic birding over the years but not off the southern tip of Florida.

 

[imjustawarrior]

Has anyone been to Dry Tortugas, off the coast of Florida? Dry Tortugas National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Yes. It was in my list. It is a nice day trip. The island (key) is basically an old fort. The fort is okay. There is also a bird sanctuary on one tip of the island. There is camping. Also, the snorkeling is decent along the moat wall. I mainly wanted to go to fly in a float plane. The plane ride was the best part. It flies pretty low and takes about 30 minutes. The water is amazing, and one can see turtles and sharks swimming around. The other option is to take the 2.5 hour (?) ferry ride. I spoke to someone who took the ferry, and he said that about a third of the people got sea sick. We took the first plane of the day and beat the ferry there. We had the place pretty much to ourselves. That was nice. We left just as the ferry arrived.

 

[Involuntary Retiree]

I don't have experience with more than 20 national parks, although when my DH turned 62, his birthday present from me was a senior national park pass. He is still working, so we haven't had an opportunity to go.
But my daughter and I did a month-long national park tour in 2019, right before COVID. We went to South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. My favorite was Bryce Canyon.

We also did a rim-to-river-to-rim hike from the Grand Canyon South Rim. It was one of the most meaningful things I've done in my life. Hard but spectacular!

My DH and I have so many national parks to get to in the next few years. The problem is that we're also looking to hang out anywhere internationally that we can get to affordably, and we've done a lot of that too.

So many national parks, so little time.

 

[Involuntary Retiree]

Internationally, this past summer, I walked across England which means that I visited UK National Parks, which were really picturesque and fabulous: the Lake District National Park, the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. My DH did not accompany me to the UK national parks.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Unfortunately it’s not keeping people away. Ha ha

One way for dealing with reservations, timed entry is to stay in the park if lodging is available.

For Rocky Mtn NP there were still some slots that became available online at 5pm the previous day. I was able to nab some of those.

Thanks for the tip on RMNP. I do miss the days of just showing up at a NP and being able to do what you wanted without worrying about reservations. Maybe it’ll all calm down in a few years.

 

[robnplunder]

One of my dreams was to visit most of the NPs but I stopped at 27. It seems there's a new NP every year, and the quality of the new NPs is, well, not up to par with the ones I've visited already. DW and my favorites are the ones in Utah, Arches National Park in particular.

 

[audreyh1]

Thanks for the tip on RMNP. I do miss the days of just showing up at a NP and being able to do what you wanted without worrying about reservations. Maybe it’ll all calm down in a few years.

Who knows. This was an unexpected consequence of the pandemic but it didn’t abate! I suppose so many people discovered the great outdoors and fell in love. Massive lines of cars at park entrances forced timed entry. We had last visited Grand Teton NP in late September 2003. This last September the park was jam packed! No timed entry because it’s so remote I suppose, but man it was busy. Fortunately we used in park lodging for part of it but I was shocked at the parking situation at Jenny Lake and the number of people everywhere 3rd week of September.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Who knows. This was an unexpected consequence of the pandemic but it didn’t abate! I suppose so many people discovered the great outdoors and fell in love. Massive lines of cars at park entrances forced timed entry. We had last visited Grand Teton NP in late September 2003. This last September the park was jam packed! No timed entry because it’s so remote I suppose, but man it was busy. Fortunately we used in park lodging for part of it but I was shocked at the parking situation at Jenny Lake and the number of people everywhere 3rd week of September.

Boy that’s bad. I kinda thought it was a summer thing, but you’re saying even in September. Yikes.

 

[youbet]

It's not a National Park, but I'll put in a vote for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It's part of the Superior National Forest and managed by the National Forest Service. It's as close to a wilderness experience as you'll find in the lower 48. The only catch....... you have to explore by canoe.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness comprises 1,090,000 acres of pristine forests, glacial lakes, and streams in the Superior National Forest. Located entirely within the U.S. state of Minnesota at the Boundary Waters, the wilderness area is under the administration of the United States Forest Service. Wikipedia

Back in the day, DW and I used to do week long canoeing trips into the BWCAW and Quetico Provincial Park (the Canadian side) and have many fond memories of the experiences.

 

[DrRoy]

We so far have been to 53 of the 63 National Parks. 3 more planned for next year.
Top of the list (not in order):

Arches
Bryce
Canyonlands
Capital Reef
Crater Lake
Glacier
Grand Canyon
Grand Teton
Yellowstone
Yosemite

Bottom list

Biscayne
Channel Islands
Hot Springs
Indiana Dunes

For those who did not like Great Sand Dunes or Petrified Forest, perhaps you did not see them from the best locations.

 

[audreyh1]

Yeah, loved the Blue Mesa loop in the Painted Desert NP (which conjoins with the Petrified Forest NP). That’s me .

 

[Teacher Terry]

I’ve been to 11 national parks mostly after I moved to the west coast 28 years ago. Zion is my favorite and I’ve been there 3 times. For most of the parks we stayed at lodging outside the park and it took a lot of time to drive back and forth.

In 2018 we took our motorhome and stayed inside the park at Yellowstone and the grand Tetons. We spent 4 days at the first park and 2 at the Tetons. Not having to waste time driving in and out was great. We went the first week of June so it wouldn’t be as crowded. In many of the parks we did a lot of hiking.

However, we had 4 dogs with us for the last trip and they can’t hike on the trails because of the rules. So we spent more time at the lookout places because we frequently had the dogs. It was a month trip and we didn’t want to leave them home for so long. We took a few hikes when we left them all in the motorhome.

 

[Gumby]

I second the advice to stay in the parks. In 2019, we spent three nights in Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Tetons, two nights in the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone and two nights in the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. It was so great to just get up and start doing cool things in the park, without having to drive in. The one caution, though, is that you need to make reservations about a year in advance.

 

[Involuntary Retiree]

Yeah, loved the Blue Mesa loop in the Painted Desert NP (which conjoins with the Petrified Forest NP). That’s me .

View attachment 52856

Beautiful! I must go there!

 

[tutan]

Scenery and equally important, solitude, are my criteria. Unfortunately these days I would have to rank these parks lower due to the crowds:

Yosemite - less crowded from east entrance. Less traveled alternative to Yosemite is Kings Canyon/ Sequoia. Easier access to spectacular scenery in the high Sierra from US 395

Arches
Zion
Bryce Canyon
Canyonlands
Crater Lake
Grand Canyon
Hawaii Volcanos

I would have to rank Death Valley high for the panoramas, the colors, and the solitude.

Not as high on my list:

Lassen Volcanic
Great Basin
North Cascades
Capitol Reef
Dry Tortugas
Biscayne
Haleakela
Acadia

Just okay:

Pinnacles
Channel Islands - may catch a glimpse of the island fox.
Mesa Verde - impressive but made easily accessible/ handed out on a plate for mass consumption. Go out to Bears Ears and surrounding areas in SE Utah to look for dwellings and granaries in their more natural state. Spend a few nights out there and you may encounter a few ancient Puebloan spirits.