National Parks we have seen:
We started visiting national parks before we were married.
The first we saw was Virginia's
Shenandoah NP. That is where the Skyline Drive takes
you across the top of Virginia's north western mountains
and continues down to the
Great Smokey
Mountains as the
Blue Ridge Parkway.
We have done this trip
three times, camping in our tent on the early trips and
more recently staying in beds and breakfasts some of the time.
After we found how much
we enjoyed these two parks, we decided to see what Maine's
national park Acadia NP
was like and discovered that we loved its rugged coast line and
hiking on the carriage paths in the cool emerald woods.
Since then we have pursued all of our national parks, resolving
to see the mainland parks, first
east of the Mississippi, and later in the lower 48.
The next set of parks we saw were
Biscayne and the
Everglades. We spent very
little time in Biscayne (we don't like being on the water much),
but over a week in the Everglades, where
we particularly enjoyed the huge number of birds and the
regularly occurring alligators. We've visited the Everglades twice,
each time entering from both the south at Flamingo and from the
north at Shark Valley. Neither entrance should be missed, but if
you have to spend just a few hours, go to the Anhinga Trail along
the entry road that takes you to Flamingo. At Shark Valley the
tram takes you back to a tower over an alligator hole that is
loaded with wildlife during the winter. Summers are not the time
to visit the Everglades (or any part of south Florida),
with hoards of mosquito's and terrible humidity and
hot temperatures.
In the winter the mosquito's are far less prominent and the
temperatures are relatively cool.
On our next trip we went out to see the
Grand Canyon. We flew
into Tucson, and drove north to the Canyon, ending up leaving
from Las Vegas. We were at the south rim for over a week.
We hiked down into the canyon for a few miles and saw a mountain
goat and lots of evidence of the mule caravan that goes the 17 miles
to the bottom. Also during that time we saw what became
Saguaro NP while it was
still a national monument. We camped there one night in the
desert. We took a day trip to see
Petrified Forest NP,
which hardly did the park justice, though the jewel like
quality of the ancient logs was certainly worth the long drive.
We returned to parks on the east side of the country when we went
to see Mammoth Cave and
Hot Springs NP's via yet
another visit to Shenandoah and the Great Smokey's.
We did this in January and have photo's of sparkling ice hanging
from the trees along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had to do a lot
of detouring after that ice storm, however. We absolutely
adored the long walks along the course of the extinct underground
river deep underground at Mammoth Cave. We were less happy
with the more commercial atmosphere of Hot Springs, though we
did get some irreplaceable crafts there that still decorate
our house.
On our next trip we saw
Carlsbad Caverns NP,
Big Bend NP,
and the
Guadalupe Mountains NP. It was probably the trip on which we
did the most driving, flying to Dallas and renting a car there
and then driving up into the south eastern part of New Mexico to
see the caves, then going south through the mountains and down
to the bend. We put over 2000 miles on the rental car in the
two weeks of this trip. Carlsbad Caverns were smaller then Mammoth
Cave, but far more decorative. It made for several very pleasant
walks. We spent a very memorable night camping in below 30 degree
weather on New Years eve in Guadeloupe Mountains NP, but were
rewarded with the clearest and largest display of the stars that
we have ever seen. We spent the longest time in Big Bend, which
is 100 miles south of the nearest town -- Alpine. We had nice
desert walks, took some great photos and saw the Rio Grande for
the first time. We also lost our traveler checks 3/4 of the way
through the trip, forcing us to give up the cash based camping
plan and head for credit card honoring motels (we were tired of
camping by then).
Then we took a trip to see
Isle Royale. We drove out there from
Philadelphia, which was a mistake and ended up spending only a
few days of our two weeks on the Island itself. It was also where
my MS symptoms emerged, which colored the experience. We also
didn't see a moose, which was a terrible disappointment, since
almost everyone that visits there does.
Among my fears when I was diagnosed with MS was that I would no
longer be able to visit the national parks. After I got used to
working around my symptoms we decided to continue to pursue our
plan to see the parks in the lower 48. Our first post MS trip
was to see
Yellowstone and
The Grand Teton'son the same trip. We flew all the way there,
a first, and stayed in the lodges for the whole time, another
first. We also had a great time. We did a bit more touring by
car, as an accommodation to my fatigue, but also had some very
nice short walks among the trees and wildlife of both parks and
the amazing geysers at Yellowstone. The trip was a success.
Having demonstrated that we could still see national parks dispite
my illness, we turned our eyes west again. We decided to take a
look at the Utah parks. We initially thought we would fly in to
Las Vegas and drive as far as
Capitol Reef NP, stopping at
Zion NP and
Bryce Canyon NP along the
way. Once we got there, however, we found the driving so
pleasant and the miles so easy that we headed further up to include
Arches and
Canyonlands. These five parks
all emphisize different aspects and different takes on the same
geological formations -- all spectacular and well worth seeing,
but most present in each park at greater or lessor concentration.
We thought we would also include the north rim of the Grand Canyon
in this trip, but it was still closed early in the spring, so
instead we swung up to see
Great Basin NP in Nevada.
Our trip ended with a frantic search for lodging on crowded Las
Vegas Saturday night prior to our morning flight home.
In the spring of 1997 we collected the three national parks in
Washington. We flew into Seattle where we stayed one night
in a B&B (our current lodging of choice) and then went to
Mount Rainier NP. We got to
drive up to Paradise there and did a bit of hiking (Susan took
quite a hike one day)before we headed up to Lake Chelane where we
saw North Cascades NP
by taking the boat up to the tiny town of Stehekin. We count this
park kind of like we count Biscayne NP -- we weren't in it, but
we did see it. We ended the trip in
Olympic NP, where we had a couple of wet hikes, and a whole
lot of incredible views of the mountains, rain forest and ocean.
In the summer of 1998 we flew to San Francisco and drove to Redwood NP, Lassan Volcano NP and Yosemite. We had been thinking about Yosemite for years, since it is the granddaddy of national parks. We also were eager to see some of the big trees on the coast, since we did not think the trees we saw in Washington were not all that much bigger then those we've seen in Allegheny National Forest just hours from home. We got to see some very big trees indeed. We drove many miles to get to these parks and stayed a day in each, two at Yosemite. Both the trip along the coast and Yosemite merit a second look.
This year (1999) we decided to look at three of the less famous parks. We flew to Rapid City South Dakota
and drove to Badlands NP. It is a picturesque park and we had a nice drive and a nice walk but were happy to move on after one day. We went next to Wind Cave NP. It is an older park that features a limestone cave that has been a tourist attraction since before this century. While not as long as Mammoth Cave and not as dramatic as Carlsbad Caverns, it is a very interesting cave in its own right. Unfortunately, given the season, only one tour was being taken, so we didn't get to go in the natural entrance or take the candlelight tour. Surprisingly, Wind Cave was eclipsed by the experience we had at nearby Jewel Cave National Monument. This cave was more recently explored and the section of cave that is open to tours was pristine prior to the sixties when a 39 story elevator was put in. As the ranger said on the tour -- if you've been in a 39 story building recently... you are probably not from South Dakota. We drove next to Theodore Roosevelt NP in the western side of North Dakota. We got there via Devil's Tower, which was a striking sight coming up from the plains. TR NP is known for bison, petrified wood and its isolation. It is quite remarkable for its isolation, though to us the whole region is remarkable for its isolation. We returned to Rapid City through a wet, clingy snow two days later. We finished the trip looking at Mammoth bones, touring private caves and watching the Buffalo roundup at Custer State Park. While I'm glad we saw these parks, they are not on the top of our list for another visit.
In January of 2001 we saw all five of the parks we had yet to see in California. We saw the Channel Island NP first, where we got to see a gray whale, pacific white sided dolphins, an elephant seal, sea lions and multiple birds, then drove up to see Sequoia and King's Canyon. We had a bit of snow there, as well as terrific views of the giant trees. Death Valley NP was next, followed by Joshua Tree . In between we went back to LA and saw the Getty Museum, which was well worth the day we spent there.
In September of 2001 we flew into Kalispell, Montana and rented a car to drive up to Glacier NP. It is, indeed, as beautiful as reputed. The Glacier's seem small, but that is only because of the great distance. Of course we didn't walk to any of the glaciers, but we did do some hiking and came close enough to a bear to smell it, though not to see it. One more down, still a few to go.
Then, of course, more national monuments were declared national parks. We had been to South Florida on a number of occasions, but had not been out to The Dry Tortugas. However, since it was made a national park, we had to go back. We did so in January of 2002.
Then in the summer of 2003 we did another of our single park trips. Voyageur NP is sufficiently distant that we made it a destination in itself. It was well worth it. We flew to Minneapolis and drove from there to the lakeside, where we took a boat in to the lodge. It was a bit more primative than we expected, but still a very pleasent trip. We have photos on the photo page.
I think this makes a total of 39. We still have five more to go on the mainland, unless any more National Monuments graduate to park status (they keep doing that!). There are a few more after that if we fly to Alaska, Hawaii or to St. Johns. Then we can go back to the those we liked best.
I know you can't wait until we tell you about another national park. But while you wait enjoy this funny faq or read more about National Parks at their website.
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