What are your favorite US National Parks? (2015, homes)
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Serious answer: I'm fascinated with Death Valley although I haven't been there yet. Specifically what the lives of people who live there are like. I love places that are "extreme" or record-holding in some way.
Arches also seems cool and very unique. Want to take my parents out there sometime.
As for the ones I've been to, North Cascades is my favorite. Very stark and imposing mountains, like Liberty Bell Mountain right on the Skagit/Okanogan County border, the edge of Western and Eastern Washington. It somehow has the highest fatality rate of any park, by a lot. Maybe because it's lesser-known so it mostly attracts highly ambitious hikers and climbers, and it gets very intense and sudden snowstorms and avalanches?
Others I have been to - Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Pinnacles, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Redwoods, Lassen Volcanic, Petrified Forest, Saguaro & Crater Lake
Out of those I would say that Death Valley is underrated because it's a desert & Lassen Volcanic is amazing and relatively unknown. In general, National Parks are worth their salt and something great to visit.
We should stop creating these parks because National Parks are international parks. By giving them the designation, we are turning them into Disneyland. It's ridiculously hard to get a spot in Yosemite now. When I started camping 10 years ago it was easier. Also, you can find amazing places to go that aren't National Parks. For instance, I would say that Mt. Hood is an undesignated National Park based purely on how amazing it is. There are areas in the Sierra Nevadas wilderness areas that are just as good as a National Park. I hope they never get the designation because as I said, it turns them into Disneyland.
Instead, I think we should buy up at least ~80% of Appalachia and turn it into a gigantic National Forest so that more people can enjoy the outdoors and it can be protected. We need better funded and maintained public lands.
Serious answer: I'm fascinated with Death Valley although I haven't been there yet. Specifically what the lives of people who live there are like. I love places that are "extreme" or record-holding in some way.
Arches also seems cool and very unique. Want to take my parents out there sometime.
As for the ones I've been to, North Cascades is my favorite. Very stark and imposing mountains, like Liberty Bell Mountain right on the Skagit/Okanogan County border, the edge of Western and Eastern Washington. It somehow has the highest fatality rate of any park, by a lot. Maybe because it's lesser-known so it mostly attracts highly ambitious hikers and climbers, and it gets very intense and sudden snowstorms and avalanches?
That has a lot to do with it.
The main road is closed most of the year due to prolific snowfall. You really can’t experience North Cascades National Park without being an avid hiker or climber. It’s not like Yosemite and some of the other well known parks and that’s what makes it great. The lack of roads and wilderness experience is what makes it so special.
North Cascades National Park has the largest concentration of glaciers in the US outside Alaska. Some of the most rugged terrain in North America makes it a beautiful yet dangerous place.
You really can’t experience North Cascades National Park without being an avid hiker or climber. It’s not like Yosemite and some of the other well known parks and that’s what makes it great. The lack of roads and wilderness experience is what makes it so great.
North Cascades National Park has the largest concentration of glaciers in the US outside Alaska. Some of the most rugged terrain in North America makes it a beautiful yet dangerous place.
To add to this, the park itself has weird boundaries. Heavily trafficked areas like Ross Lake and Diablo Lake are part of the North Cascades National Park Complex, however, they are technically not within the park itself, so the NPS doesn’t count them for visitation statistics. What the NPS considers to be NCNP is not accessible by car and generally very difficult to get to, so the average visitor will be more exposed to the brutal elements than any other park.
I absolutely love the National Park system, but am ashamed to say I’ve only visited a small handful of them. I’ve been to all the PNW ones (besides North Cascades) and have also been to the Grand Canyon and Saguaro. I briefly visited some of the Midwest ones. My favorite of this bunch is either the Grand Canyon or Olympic.
Top of my list to visit are Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Tetons, Glacier, Denali, and any of the Utah ones.
Serious answer: I'm fascinated with Death Valley although I haven't been there yet. Specifically what the lives of people who live there are like. I love places that are "extreme" or record-holding in some way.
Arches also seems cool and very unique. Want to take my parents out there sometime.
As for the ones I've been to, North Cascades is my favorite. Very stark and imposing mountains, like Liberty Bell Mountain right on the Skagit/Okanogan County border, the edge of Western and Eastern Washington. It somehow has the highest fatality rate of any park, by a lot. Maybe because it's lesser-known so it mostly attracts highly ambitious hikers and climbers, and it gets very intense and sudden snowstorms and avalanches?
I will never forget my visit to this park. It was over 30 years ago, and at the time I had lived in only New Jersey my entire life. My dad and I were at a business convention in Las Vegas. It was July. The partners he was with wanted to gamble and drink. I wasn't going to do any of that. On day one, I went to see Hoover Dam. On day two we set off for Badwater Basin, in the park, the lowest point in the United States.
I remember driving through the town of Death Valley Junction, which was more settled at the time, but saw nothing but scattered mobile homes. And I was equally awestruck at how expansive and spread out the entire terrain was driving from Vegas. As we were driving slowly through town, all I can remember was seeing signs (at least 4, probably closer to 10) advertising treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. It wasn't substance abuse back in the day. I was shocked because I thought where I was driving through was paradise, and how could anyone be possibly unhappy to live there. I was a young adult at the time, not very worldly and obviously had no idea.
We proceeded on and driving on California Route 190, and descended after Furnace Creek. From above, it looked like we were driving into Frosted Flakes. Then I began to make out this was solid salt. It fascinated me. At the same time my dad started to complain that the air conditioner wasn't working very well. Soon thereafter, we both opened the door as we both approached Badwater Basin, and my dad about collapsed after having gotten out of the car. He had to get right back in it, and I made a short hike to Badwater Basin in my own. The temperature outside was 124 degrees. It's still the hottest weather I've ever experienced and likely will not ever again. (When we left two days later, the plane was delayed until the sun set, because air gets very unstable wehn the air is that hot) Upon approaching Badwater Basin, I saw in front of me a very small alkaline pool of water, with tadpoles swimming it. It was amazing to think at that temperature, some form of life could still be supported. Also, on the way back to the car, I saw in front of me a cliff, and near the top there was a marker that read "sea level". That's my experience with Death Valley National Park.
I really love all the parks. Never been disappointed. Surely some are better for postcards, hiking, etc.
Volcanoes, while unique, didn’t have the awe that I was hoping for. Voyagers, sort of looked a bit like the rest of MN (my home state). Again, never been disappointed, just didn’t have the “wow” factor perhaps of some of the others
I voted Mt. Rainier. It is my favorite land formation in the country. I’ve never been yet, but one day, I will get there.
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