Best National Parks

[EatMoreChips]

I've hardly been out of Chicago for a year and could do with a big trip this summer. I've had enough of cities for a while though, so would you care to recommend your favorite national parks???

[Yuwipi Woman]

How about Arches National Park near Moab, UT.

http://www.nps.gov/arch/

[Fledgling]

I've visited 2 parks (apart from San Francisco bay area). I'd recommend visiting Glacier National Park in Montana as you can do a one day tour on the red buses and they take you past the mountain that Paramount based their logo on. Also on the smaller scale is Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Badlands, hiking and a great canyon, it's overlooked up there.

[Nlogax]

Head over to AZ. Organ Pipe Cactus NP is what you're looking for. It's seriously, seriously beautiful.

http://www.nps.gov/orpi/

[chilango]

Arches is by far my favorite.

Bryce Canyon, Zion and Canyonlands are all also awesome.

All in Utah.

[EatMoreChips]

How about Arches National Park near Moab, UT.

http://www.nps.gov/arch/

It was actually about the first place I considered - and I saw a picture of it on the side of a U-Haul truck this morning, so it must be an omen.

[Tramsruoyknihtu]

i'll stick another vote in for Arches National Park - its also a good call because in that Four Corners area there are a whole clutch of NP's worth spending time at

[Johnny Canuck2]

Arches is excellent, and it's close to the Monument Valley in Arizona, sort of.

I like Yellowstone also, especially the drive east to Cody Wyoming. Saw my first grizzlies in a river there.

I've only driven through Yosemite, and I'd like to go back and check it out sometime.

There's an interesting park in N. Dakota called Theodore Roosevelt or something, also worth a visit.

If you like mountain wilderness, there's an international park, Canada/US, called Waterton Glacier International Park; it's in Montana and Alberta. Gorgeous mountains, blue lakes, etc. I spent a lot of time there when I was a kid.

[Fledgling]

There's an interesting park in N. Dakota called Theodore Roosevelt or something, also worth a visit.

.

It's a probably overlooked park on the road less travelled but makes a fantastic stopover break for those heading west from Minneapolis and Chicago towards Yellowstone or Glacier. Theodore Roosevelt NP has 2 sections, the southern being a bit more accessible and including the amazing Painted Canyon. Used to drive past it about 2-3 times a week on my way to Dickinson. You could just drive the loop road around the southern section in a day and even have time for a bit of light hiking in the badlands there. Definitely one of my best days in that region. But it's so dry and I suppose it would be hard for the park to accommodate a lot more visitors.

[Johnny Canuck2]

It's a probably overlooked park on the road less travelled but makes a fantastic stopover break for those heading west from Minneapolis and Chicago towards Yellowstone or Glacier. Theodore Roosevelt NP has 2 sections, the southern being a bit more accessible and including the amazing Painted Canyon. Used to drive past it about 2-3 times a week on my way to Dickinson. You could just drive the loop road around the southern section in a day and even have time for a bit of light hiking in the badlands there. Definitely one of my best days in that region. But it's so dry and I suppose it would be hard for the park to accommodate a lot more visitors.

Did you see the prairie dog city?

[HAL9000]

yosemite?

http://www.yosemitefun.com/glacier_point.htm

[ZUL]

Here is a list of all the US National Parks. I think just about all of them should be beautiful and worthwhile but obviously some will be better than others.

Alabama
Little River Canyon

Alaska
Bering Land Bridge
Denali
Gates of the Arctic
Glacier Bay
Katmai
Kenai Fjords
Kobuk Valley
Lake Clark
Noatak
Wrangell-St. Elias
Yukon-Charley Rivers

Arizona
Saguaro
Grand Canyon
Petrified Forest

Arkansas
Hot Springs

California
Channel Islands
Death Valley
Joshua Tree
Kings Canyon
Lassen Volcanic
Mojave
Redwood
Sequoia
Yosemite

Colorado
Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Great Sand Dunes
Mesa Verde
Rocky Mountain

Florida
Big Cypress
Biscayne
Dry Tortugas
Everglades

Hawaii
Haleakala
Hawaii Volcanoes

Kentucky
Mammoth Cave

Maine
Acadia

Michigan
Isle Royale

Minnesota
Voyageurs

Montana
Glacier

Nevada
Great Basin

New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns

North Carolina
Great Smoky Mountains

North Dakota
Theodore Roosevelt

Ohio
Cuyahoga Valley

Oregon
Crater Lake

South Dakota
Badlands
Wind Cave

Tennessee
Great Smoky Mountains

Texas
Big Bend
Big Thicket
Guadalupe Mountains

Utah
Arches
Bryce Canyon
Canyonlands
Capitol Reef
Zion

Virginia
Prince William Forest
Shenandoah

Washington
Mount Rainier
North Cascades
Olympic

Wyoming
Grand Teton
Yellowstone

Virgin Islands
Virgin Islands

American Samoa
American Samoa



My short list would include:
Grand Canyon
Petrified Forest
Joshua Tree
Mojave
Redwood
Yosemite
Rocky Mountains
Glacier
Crater Lake
Zion
Yellowstone

[RaverDrew]

Yosemite is the most stunning place on Earth I've ever been to. I'd well recommend it. :cool:

[phildwyer]

My favorite is Shenandoah, you can drive through the Blue Ridge mountains just a bit further south as well.

[Yuwipi Woman]

Here is a list of all the US National Parks. I think just about all of them should be beautiful and worthwhile but obviously some will be better than others.



Your list forgets Nebraska (as all lists do):

http://www.csc.edu/geoscience/toadstool/index.htm

[Gavin Bl]

Yosemite is gorgeous and would be my fave to go back to, yellowstone is very interesting but I can only be sprayed with dilute sulphuric acid for so long...

The 'Red Rock' parks are fab too

Arches is great, Canyonlands is like being at the dawn of time - just a massive scale.

I absolutely loved Zion, a gorgeous river valley with precipitous desert cliffs and lush veg around the river. Bryce is great too, very odd looking.

Sedona is very nice.

After a while you do tend to get a bit 'Red Rocked Out' though.

For sheer beauty, I would go to Yosemite as part of nice California trip. I'd do that tomorrow in fact.

[Johnny Canuck2]

Your list forgets Nebraska (as all lists do):

http://www.csc.edu/geoscience/toadstool/index.htm

Shit: I missed that when I was there. But we slept in a rest stop in Wyoming, east of Cheyenne, that looked a lot like that.

[Gavin Bl]

Whats that line in 'Unforgiven'

"I thought I was dead. Turns out I was just in Nebraska".


I drove through there from Denver up to South Dakota. It is a giant lawn really isn't it?

[Yuwipi Woman]

Whats that line in 'Unforgiven'

"I thought I was dead. Turns out I was just in Nebraska".


I drove through there from Denver up to South Dakota. It is a giant lawn really isn't it?

The fact that no one else wants to live here is one of its perks.

[xiannaix]

I've hardly been out of Chicago for a year and could do with a big trip this summer. I've had enough of cities for a while though, so would you care to recommend your favorite national parks???


If your in Chicago - Devil's Lake - I think it's a Wisconsin State park rather than national but it is quite probably doable in a day. (It's 190 miles away) It's a remarkable place - Indian burial mounds and great geoloy. Basically it looks like a big hole drilled through rock with one side that fell out and a lake at the bottom - it is VERY deep and just as cold but amazingly clear. No motor boats allowed last I checked.

http://www.devilslakewisconsin.com/

[xiannaix]

Shit: I missed that when I was there. But we slept in a rest stop in Wyoming, east of Cheyenne, that looked a lot like that.


lol - I've stopped at (probably) that one a couple times on my way from Minneapolis to Sacamento.

Not a lot going on in Cheyenne.

[Johnny Canuck2]

lol - I've stopped at (probably) that one a couple times on my way from Minneapolis to Sacamento.

Not a lot going on in Cheyenne.

We went through on a Saturday night. There were a couple of drunk guys up on the roof of the bar beside the 7-11. We just kept driving.

[xiannaix]

We went through on a Saturday night. There were a couple of drunk guys up on the roof of the bar beside the 7-11. We just kept driving.



there's another spot in WY (I think WY) where I always stopped for gas - middle of the state - named Rock Springs? on I-80 and everytime - same girl working at the gas station which pretty much was the town as near as I could tell :D I think she was hot for me and knew I was coming. :)


Oh, Little America way west Wyopming - a must stop and get an ice cream cone place (I always stopped there to call family and let them know I hadn't been killed by vagabonds of the road)

[Johnny Canuck2]

there's another spot in WY (I think WY) where I always stopped for gas - middle of the state - named Rock Springs? on I-80 and everytime - same girl working at the gas station which pretty much was the town as near as I could tell :D I think she was hot for me and knew I was coming. :)


Oh, Little America way west Wyopming - a must stop and get an ice cream cone place (I always stopped there to call family and let them know I hadn't been killed by vagabonds of the road)

I felt the same way about a girl at a gas station in Fargo, on the south side of the interstate. I think she had the hots for me, but I also think that she was a crackhead.

[EatMoreChips]

If your in Chicago - Devil's Lake - I think it's a Wisconsin State park rather than national but it is quite probably doable in a day. (It's 190 miles away) It's a remarkable place - Indian burial mounds and great geoloy. Basically it looks like a big hole drilled through rock with one side that fell out and a lake at the bottom - it is VERY deep and just as cold but amazingly clear. No motor boats allowed last I checked.

http://www.devilslakewisconsin.com/


We've been a couple of times... they host triathlons and yes, it's very cold. Nice though!