Favorite National Park?

This one is tough for me. But here goes.

Favorite eastern NP would have to be Isle Royale, for isolation, unspoiled beauty, and great backpacking.

For mountain scenery Sequoia, the high Sierras are incredible. For desert beauty Big Bend, I have never seen such a profusion of cacti in my life, and during the spring bloom it was absolutely amazing.

Favorite marine park, National Park of American Samoa. Offshore coral reef, white sandy beach with nobody's foot prints but mine, lined with cocoanut palms. Swam with black-tipped reef sharks and ate raw giant clam on the beach with my Samoan hostesses.

Forest park, with out a doubt Redwoods N.P., mid-morning walking along the trail, patches of fog burning off with sunlight breaking through the redwoods and the mist, green everywhere from the ferns that line the trail to the enormous redwoods that tower overhead. A true cathedral in nature.

Overall favorite park, Yellowstone. Yellowstone is an enormous nature preserve with unique geological features. Huge herds of bison and elk, there are wolf packs, grizzlies and other assorted predators including cougar. Alpine wild flowers in beautiful meadows, waterfalls, geysers, hot springs, and boundless mountain scenery. It is the closest thing in the lower 48 that we have to a Serengeti.

O.K. here is a shout out to all the rest of the National Parks, not just in the U.S. but worldwide because I truly love them all!

I suppose because I'm familiar with it and I've been there quite a few times. I even hiked across most of it from west to east once. Quite an adventure.

That is one of my favorite mountains.

Half of our team of 6 did when we hiked the park. I had to go down the trail from Bighorn Flats to Bear Lake because one of my knees was giving me unexpected problems. So I never got up there.

In the eastern part of the country, I adore Acadia National Park in Maine. Absolutely gorgeous.

In Massachusetts, it's a state park called World's End. I adopted the name "World's End" for my personal company name as a result.

Out west, I adore Zion National Park. To me, it's the most peaceful, least intrusive place on the face of the earth. The amount of tourists flowing through is a lot smaller than the hordes that go to see the Grand Canyon, and because of that, it's cleaner, hardly crowded, and people who go there seem to have a lot more respect for the geology that surrounds you. I love the Grand Canyon as well, but it's hard to be comfortable and at peace when you have hundreds of people surrounding you all the time.

I didn't get to see Yosemite or Yellowstone, but since I love peace and solitude, I think that they both would disappoint me in terms of crowds.

That said something like 95% of the people that visit the parks never go beyond 250 yards from their vehicles. Do the windsheild tour, then hit the backcountry.

So much so that I have the Passport to our National Parks. Yes, I will go out of my way to go to a park :)


I am a dork. I know. I embrace my dorkness.

but there were so many that I had been to that I would have to go back to get the stamp, some are really out of the way, I may do it yet.

when I was doing a cross country trip. I started in California and had already been to Joshua Tree (which I think may be my favorite park), and the Grand Canyon. I got mine at the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, so I just stuck the receipts for entry into the book. I say it counts :)

I just recently bought one for my 5 year old nephew hoping that it helps to cultivate a love of nature and our national parks in him. And it will be something wonderful for him to look back to when he's older.

I've only been to Acadia once in my life, which is not very much for growing up in Maine. There are too many tourists in the Bar Harbor area, so my family always avoided going there. You have to reserve camping sites way, way in advance at Acadia too. We preferred to do things at the spur of the moment, instead of making plans months in advance, which is why we always wound up going camping in the White Mountains. My dad is also from NH too, which is another reason why we always went there.

I don't know the difference between a National Park versus National Forest. Maybe White Mountains area is called a National Forest because there are many parks there instead of just one. Anyhow, I have always liked going to the White Mountains area. There are plenty of different state run camping areas (with swimming) and lots of mountain trails to hike.

you've done the Kancamagus Highway, then? Beautiful, beautiful place during the peak in fall. I would die happy if I were there when the time came. :)

I love the White Mtns as well--I've hiked the Flume several times, as well as Lost River, and hung around in other spots. I haven't been up there in about 10 years, I'd say, but would love to get there this summer.

and I have been to many in the US and Canada.

Favorite Canadian park = Yoho http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/yoho/index_e.asp

I would love to visit every National Park in the US and Canada :-). Going to Yosemite next week.

We used to go run the river every Easter. We put in at Lajitas and get out at Rio Grande Village. Haven't been to Yosemite or Yellowstone in over 40 yrs, would love to go back. Have you been to Banff NP & Glacier Lake in Alberta?

My husband and I took off for a year back in 1982 (when we lived in Houston). We hit a number of Canadian parks during the summer from Nova Scotia to British Columbia.

My first trip to Big Bend was in 1980 and we floated down the Rio Grande for a bit in our canoe. I think I have been to Big Bend at least five times. Also, I love the TX State Parks - best system in the US, in my opinion.

We haven't been to Yosemite since 1982 and we didn't spend any time there other than one night. We had seen so much wilderness by then, Yosemite seemed like a big tourist trap. We're going up there to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary next week but will probably hike around in the Sequoia National Forest which borders the park.

I have been to Boquillas though. The first time I had ever been outside the U.S. and I do it crossing the Rio Grande on a rowboat going into Mexico. No border stations, no guards, a real frontier border experience. Unfortunately, I heard that they closed that crossing because of 9/11, what a shame. What they don't tell you is that the U.S. border patrol has two stations on the only two roads going down to Big Bend, you don't go through them going down but you have to go through them going back up. I almost got into some heavy shit because of that.;)

It is amazingly beautiful.

I went on a bus trip with Young Life through there in 1981. We stayed two nights in cabins at Grand Teton (Signal Mountain Lodge area). The people who worked there were so very nice, and treated us very well (a Ramada Inn in Glenwood Springs CO was not so nice to us high school students). Both parks are beautiful, but Jackson Lake is too cold to swim in. I found out the hard way.

I've never been to Isle Royal, even though I live in Michigan. My brother has gone there-he and his family like to camp out and hike and all that. They love it up there, because it's so isolated.

Sleeping Bear National Lake Shore (Dunes) is a nice park in Michigan. It's a lot of fun for kids to climb the dunes.

In Grand Teton. Kind of a playground for the rich. I met Harry Connnick Jr. there, Angie Dickinson, she was real nice. Bob Woodward stayed there and the Reagans ate lunch there. BFD, right?