National Parks Master Thread

[Kobe Bryant]

Please recheck the name. (And 10 is misspelled.)

No need, as I am pretty familiar with the NPS.
Find it pretty funny that I didn't notice, I've simply been C/P when updating.

[ponash123]

Which of the 3 parks are you planning to visit and asking about?

Still deciding, but interested in all 3 possibly

[Kobe Bryant]

Did you end up doing this? TR?

If you followed this thread you would know, lol 

[ponash123]

If you followed this thread you would know, lol 

Almost 1300 pages... care to give me a summary?

[Kobe Bryant]

Almost 1300 pages... care to give me a summary?

Updated, new in bold.

United States:

1. Yellowstone, Wyoming
2. Zion, Utah
3. Bryce  Canyon, Utah
4. Grand Canyon, Arizona
5. Yosemite, California
6. Badlands, South Dakota
7. Grand Teton, Wyoming
8. Sequoia, California
9. Petrified Forest Arizona
10.Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee
11.Theodore Roosevelt, North Dakota
12. Hot Springs, Arkansas
13. Wind Cave, South Dakota
14. Acadia, Maine
15. Great sand Dunes, Colorado
16. Joshua Tree, California
17. Saguaro, Arizona 
18. Shenandoah, Virginia
19. Mammoth cave, Kentucky
20. Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio
21. Indiana Dunes, Indiana *
22. Gateway Arch, Missouri *

•MT Rushmore NM, South Dakota


International:


Sanjay Gandhi , Mumbai, India
Arenal Volcano , La Fortuna, Costa Rica
Manuel Antonio, Quepos, Costa Rica
Carara,Costa Rica
Plitvice Lakes, Croatia
Iguazú, Puerto Iguazu, Argentina
Iguaçu,  Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
Soberanía, Panama
Portobelo, colon, Panama
Metropolitan NP, Panama city,Panama
Masada, Israel
Ein Gedi Antiquities,Israel
Yarkon, Israel

[Something Fishy]

Almost 1300 pages... care to give me a summary?

Profile > Account Settings > Look and Layout > Messages to display per page > 50.

You're welcome .

[ponash123]

Sigh... I just want a summary of the Washington National Parks

[Traveler718]

What kind of summary are you looking for? Olympic is very diverse and spread out. There's the beaches on the coast, the Hoh Rain Forest, and Hurricane Ridge. Lots of driving, and needs 2 full days minimum with driving to see it all, but very unique and fun. We went to 2 beaches (Shi Shi and maybe 2nd?), the Hoh Rain Forest, stopped at a beautiful lake, and loved the Hurricane Ridge hike.

Mt. Rainier is beautiful, but not as much "to do" other than various hikes and vantage points of the (beautiful) mountain. North Cascades is amazing and doesn't get the credit it deserves, especially for being so close to Seattle. We spent the better of a day driving the main roads through the park, getting out at viewpoints, and doing a lovely 1-2 mile hike to a lake surrounded by mountains. Hope that helps.

[ponash123]

What kind of summary are you looking for? Olympic is very diverse and spread out. There's the beaches on the coast, the Hoh Rain Forest, and Hurricane Ridge. Lots of driving, and needs 2 full days minimum with driving to see it all, but very unique and fun. We went to 2 beaches (Shi Shi and maybe 2nd?), the Hoh Rain Forest, stopped at a beautiful lake, and loved the Hurricane Ridge hike.

Mt. Rainier is beautiful, but not as much "to do" other than various hikes and vantage points of the (beautiful) mountain. North Cascades is amazing and doesn't get the credit it deserves, especially for being so close to Seattle. We spent the better of a day driving the main roads through the park, getting out at viewpoints, and doing a lovely 1-2 mile hike to a lake surrounded by mountains. Hope that helps.

Thank you!!

[yitzgar]

What kind of summary are you looking for? Olympic is very diverse and spread out. There's the beaches on the coast, the Hoh Rain Forest, and Hurricane Ridge. Lots of driving, and needs 2 full days minimum with driving to see it all, but very unique and fun. We went to 2 beaches (Shi Shi and maybe 2nd?), the Hoh Rain Forest, stopped at a beautiful lake, and loved the Hurricane Ridge hike.

Mt. Rainier is beautiful, but not as much "to do" other than various hikes and vantage points of the (beautiful) mountain. North Cascades is amazing and doesn't get the credit it deserves, especially for being so close to Seattle. We spent the better of a day driving the main roads through the park, getting out at viewpoints, and doing a lovely 1-2 mile hike to a lake surrounded by mountains. Hope that helps.

Extremely helpful, thanks.

[Something Fishy]

New in bold. My rankings are below.

United States:

• Acadia, ME (2011, 2017)
• Badlands, SD (2020)
• Cuyahoga Valley, OH (2014, 2020)
• Denali, AK (2020)
• Everglades, FL (2010, 2019)
• Gateway Arch, MO (2019)
• Grand Teton, WY (2012, 2020x2)
• Great Smoky Mountains, NC/TN (2013)
• Haleakala, HI (2014)
• Hawaii Volcanoes, HI (2012, 2018)
• Indiana Dunes, IN (2020)
• Katmai, AK (2020)
• Kenai Fjords, AK (2013)
• Lake Clark, AK (2020 x2)
• Rocky Mountain, CO (2009)
• Yellowstone, WY/ID/MT (2012, 2020x2)

International:

• Banff National Park, Canada (2017)
• Jasper National Park, Canada (2017)
• Lovćen National Park, Montenegro (2018)
• Parque Nacional Viñales, Cuba (2015)
• Sassen–Bünsow Land National Park, Svalbard (2016, 2018)
• Skadar Lake National Park, Montenegro (2018)
• Snæfellsjökull National Park, Iceland (2016)
• Tierra del Fuego National Park, Argentina (2018)
• Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland (2015, 2016, 2019x2, 2020)
• Yoho National Park, Canada (2017)

U.S. top 3:
Katmai
Yellowstone
Grand Teton

Hawaii Volcanoes would've been my #3, but that was before the 2018 eruption pretty much destroyed the entire thing.

International top 3:
Vatnajökull (Iceland)
Banff (Canada)
Sassen–Bünsow Land (Svalbard)

[Kobe Bryant]

Sigh... I just want a summary of the Washington National Parks

Did you end up going?

[Traveler718]

No, she went to Croatia instead. See her amazing TR (which mentions the original plan for WA got replaced with Croatia): https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=119332.0

[Traveler718]

Added 3 more this summer, bringing me up to 38 NP's. Theodore Roosevelt has some beautiful scenery and wildlife, but it's REALLY far from everything (esp. when you're on a road trip from NYC because you don't want to fly). Indiana Dunes and Cuyahoga Valley were hardly memorable, but some politician managed to make them NP's, so at least they're now checked off. Unfortunately, we were quite close to Isle Royale, but it could only be visited this summer via a $300 pp plane ride, and Voyageurs houseboats were all booked up. The updated list:

Acadia
Arches - loved it!
Badlands
Big Bend
Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Bryce - stunning!
Canyonlands
Capitol Reef
Carlsbad Caverns - amazing!
Crater Lake - gorgeous!
Cuyahoga Valley
Denali - enjoyed the all-day bus tour so much we did it again the next day
Gateway Arch
Glacier - my favorite!!
Grand Canyon - to the bottom and back up!
Grand Teton
Great Sand Dunes - really cool and not as well-known as it should be
Great Smoky Mountains
Guadalupe Mountains
Indiana Dunes
Kenai Fjords
Kings Canyon
Mammoth Cave
Mesa Verde - lots of fun for kids
Mount Rainier
North Cascades - another one that deserves more love than it gets
Olympic
Redwood - I really loved it here, had an amazing time tracking down Hyperion, the tallest living thing on Earth, whose location is kept secret, a shame it's so remote
Rocky Mountain
Sequoia
Shenandoah - Old Rag is a great hike - but not in the rain!
Theodore Roosevelt
White Sands
Wind Cave
Wrangell-St. Elias
Yellowstone
Yosemite
Zion

[Kobe Bryant]

No, she went to Croatia instead. See her amazing TR (which mentions the original plan for WA got replaced with Croatia): https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=119332.0

I did, and it's a great TR. Thought, there was a possibility of doing both.

[ponash123]

I did, and it's a great TR. Thought, there was a possibility of doing both.

I did not unfortunately, but I do hope to make it there one day, it looks beautiful. My spreadsheet shall remain with my others to be hopefully dug up in the future (as I've done with others, like Croatia, which I actually started researching about 4 years ago.)

[Kobe Bryant]

I did not unfortunately, but I do hope to make it there one day, it looks beautiful. My spreadsheet shall remain with my others to be hopefully dug up in the future (as I've done with others, like Croatia, which I actually started researching about 4 years ago.)

Looking to go Mid October.
On the agenda: Crater lake NP, and the 3 parks in WA.

[SSLPhD]

Looking to go Mid October.
On the agenda: Crater lake NP, and the 3 parks in WA.

Those are all truly beautiful parks.  You can easily spend an entire day or two in each.

[cgr]

https://www.michelobultra.com/PureGoldCEO

[cgr]

Couldn't find much on the GSM thread. Best hikes?