Most underrated national parks (land, locations, America)

[knrstz]

Originally Posted by JakeDog

It means that Eastern National Parks wouldn't even qualify as state parks in many Western States, particularly Oregon, b/c they are not very impressive by Western Standards.

Show me one area in the west that has a fall like the deciduos forrests of New England like you'd find in acadia national park. I love the west but I get tired of the mentality that if the mountains aren't as tall or canyons aren't as deep, that it's not as beautiful. The west definately has more variety than the east but I wouldn't say more beauty.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by Katiana

I take it you've never been to most of them. Adirondack NP, Shenandoah NP, Smoky Mtn NP are all "impressive", IMO, and I live in the west.

Love Adirondack, we used to go there every summer and rent a cottage, but it's not an NP, it is a state park.

[Ben Around]

Underrated and undiscovered = Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. Unique scenery, not what people think of when they think of ND.

http://coolrain44.files.wordpress.co...k-p-1943-m.jpg

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Ben Around

Love Adirondack, we used to go there every summer and rent a cottage, but it's not an NP, it is a state park.

You are correct, but it's also the largest park in the US, bigger than Yellowstone.

About the Adirondack Park

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by Katiana

I take it you've never been to most of them. Adirondack NP, Shenandoah NP, Smoky Mtn NP are all "impressive", IMO, and I live in the west.

As well are Acadia & Everglades

[thePR]

Originally Posted by Katiana

You are correct, but it's also the largest park in the US, bigger than Yellowstone.

About the Adirondack Park

There are plenty in Alaska that are bigger as well as Death Valley.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by Ghengis

As well are Acadia & Everglades

Used to live in FL and have been to Everglades many times. It was a major disappointment to me. IMHO,there are other more wild and interesting places in FL than the Everglades.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Ghengis

As well are Acadia & Everglades

Probably. I've just never been to those. Unlike many on CD (I don't mean you), I like to talk about what I know.

Originally Posted by thePR

There are plenty in Alaska that are bigger as well as Death Valley.

Maybe in AK, but not Death Valley.

From my link:

Today the Park is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, greater in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined. The boundary of the Park encompasses approximately 6 million acres, nearly half of which belongs to all the people of New York State and is constitutionally protected to remain “forever wild” forest preserve.

Death Valley National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

A superlative desert of streaming sand dunes, snow-capped mountains, multicolored rock layers, water-fluted canyons and 3 million acres of wilderness.

[thePR]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Maybe in AK, but not Death Valley.

From my link:

Today the Park is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, greater in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined. The boundary of the Park encompasses approximately 6 million acres, nearly half of which belongs to all the people of New York State and is constitutionally protected to remain “forever wild” forest preserve.

Death Valley National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

A superlative desert of streaming sand dunes, snow-capped mountains, multicolored rock layers, water-fluted canyons and 3 million acres of wilderness.

I was looking at the wrong numbers, whoops.

[Akhenaton06]

I'll go with Congaree National Park just outside of Columbia, SC, which is the largest remnant of old-growth floodplain forest remaining on the continent and an international biosphere reserve.