Best national parks in the U.S.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:47 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U. ... onal_parks

-Redwood National Park -- Stunning. Only spent a day driving through and a few stops, but I guess this is as close as a person can get to seeing the world as it was thousands of years ago.

-Denali -- While RW feels like a look into the past, Denali feels like a world far away from everything else, completely in the wild (you know, aside from the tourist buses and such). A sprawling reserve in an already out of the way place. With other national parks it kind of feels like visiting a zoo (how I felt at Yellowstone). I mean, look at this. I want to go back.

-Grand Canyon -- Even though this was an early childhood trip (age 3), these are some of my earliest memories. I remember walking down some trail on the side of a canyon and a snake scaring my mom and being afraid of falling into the Grand Canyon while looking over. It gave me nightmares. Very cool place for geological formations, but I prefer forests, mountains, and glaciers.

I'd like to hear about other cool places in the U.S.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:13 am

I can't believe I've never been to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. (national parks and surrounding areas have the coolest names of anything ever)

http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/parks.html

it290 · Post by **it290** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:47 am

One of the nice things about living in Colorado is having access to all the beautiful national forests and such. That said, probably my favorite national park here would be the Great Sand Dunes. Here's a nice image from Wikipedia:

And here's another nice shot:

Semi-interestingly, the Dunes only became a national park last year. Prior to that they had a national monument designation.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:54 am

Sand dunes are awesome. What does the U.S. not have? Take that, world. I can't remember where it was that I had my lone encounter with a be-duned place, but it was cool.

Pardon, more weepy eyed nostalgia. Another Alaskan park I know I've been to is Wrangle-St Elias. I remember because of this pic:

Abandoned mining town! Getting here was the most frightening thing ever. It was a very narrow dirt road on the edge of a mountain and the vehicle we were in was shaking. One old car rotting at the bottom along the way.

oxtsu · Post by **oxtsu** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:48 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haleakala_National_Park

nem · Post by **nem** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:56 am

National parks are the one thing that I really like about the US. I have quite a few pictures taken from Anza Borrego from my last trip. I think I need to dig them out for this thread.

magnum opus · Post by **magnum opus** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 3:30 pm

it290 wrote:One of the nice things about living in Colorado is having access to all the beautiful national forests and such. That said, probably my favorite national park here would be the Great Sand Dunes. Here's a nice image from Wikipedia:

And here's another nice shot:

Semi-interestingly, the Dunes only became a national park last year. Prior to that they had a national monument designation.

down here in new mexico we have the White Sands national monument. looks just like that but pure white, it's fucking surreal for me as an alaskan cause you go there in the winter and kids are in coats cause it's cold out and every one is sledding down these big white dunes, the dirty sand that gets pushed of the road in even looks like dirty snow.

Post by **undamned** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 4:20 pm

Yosemite National Park. Hike to the base of "El Cap" and look up. I've never felt so small.
-ud

extrarice · Post by **extrarice** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:02 pm

Recently my wife and I moved from CA to NC, driving across the country, hitting several parks on the way. By far, the most awe-inspiring one was Arches National Park in Utah. Maybe because it was a nice break from bleaque scenery on a long drive. We wanted to make it to Bryce Canyon but that would have meant a massive detour from our route.

(then just about a year after moving to NC we moved back to CA, hitting the Grand Canyon on the way - everyone should go see that)

extrarice · Post by **extrarice** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:09 pm

No idea how it dbl-posted.

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:34 pm

extrarice wrote:Recently my wife and I moved from CA to NC, driving across the country, hitting several parks on the way. By far, the most awe-inspiring one was Arches National Park in Utah. Maybe because it was a nice break from bleaque scenery on a long drive. We wanted to make it to Bryce Canyon but that would have meant a massive detour from our route.

(then just about a year after moving to NC we moved back to CA, hitting the Grand Canyon on the way - everyone should go see that)

Totally worth a double post! I visited both when I was twelve or so. Absolutely incredible. I'd love to go back.

I'm lucky to have spent so many years living in Idaho. Get out of town and most of the state is like some kind of national park. I used to drive from here to visit Idaho all the friggin' time. I'll try to get some sweet pix organized to post up.

Pa