US NATIONAL PARK POLL

Capitol Reef. no tourists, no camping fees and totally beautiful.

national parks do not fuck around

except like the cavern-based ones, worth seeing but those can be a bit disneylandish

Isle Royale fuiud

Have been to Badlands, Hawaii Volcanoes, Joshua Tree, Mount Rainier, and Rocky Mountain; all pretty great. Had the best time at Joshua Tree and the worst at Hawaii Volcanoes but that's prob. down to the difference between being a 21-y.o. on a buzz and a 12-y.o. on a package tour.

been to about 15 of these, most have been in the west, and arches really stands out as one of the more striking and memorable at first sight

acadia rules

although almost nothing beats going through bryce canyon in a blizzard when no one else is there

over the past two years I've started doing a bunch of backcountry stuff when I go to these parks, before I just did the standard hikes and whatnot

Lassen was always a treat for us when we lived in Redding, when we couldn't stand one more day of 100˚+ heat.

death valley cuz it's no fucking joke. i do prefer cold weather, so when i eventually visit denali i'm sure i'll want to change my answer.

basically i like my nature to be brutal in some way.

I have not been to very many of these outside of california but I would like to get all challopsy: yosemite is hella overrated

that's the worst challop mannnnn

was actually going to make a post about how parks like yosemite and glacier really have the unfair advantage of being 4 or 5 parks in one but then realized that all of these have the unfair advantage of being an incredible place in a personal way

it's just so crowded and disneylandy

I went to yosemite during memorial day wknd and saw like 5 other people the whole time, but I was in the backcountry and it was p glorious the whole time

Isle Royale yall

Siskiwit Lake is the largest lake on the island. It has cold, clear water which is relatively low in nutrients. Siskiwit Lake contains several islands, including Ryan Island, the largest, which contains Moose Flats, a seasonal pond, which contains Moose Boulder. When Moose Flats is a pond, Moose Boulder becomes the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake in the world.[6]

it's just so crowded and disneylandy

― iatee, Monday, August 1, 2011 6:52 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

But I can totally see why someone would think this. It's such a big park though!

missing Kenai Fjords on the list btw

damn I took the list off some random's site that I could c+p it from

Missing Minuteman National Park too, but nobody'd probably vote for it. My favorites:

Joshua Tree
Yosemite
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Redwood
Sequoia and Kings Canyon

s'ok, I was just going thru the list finding the ones I've been to and noticed it wasn't there xp

Amazing story #1

I was in Yosemite during a controlled burn. But the fire had gotten a little feisty, and was ringing around the back of the road I was on. Cars were lined up over a half-mile drive, surrounded on both sides by trees on fire, and had to wait for a ranger to get in and drive them through the blazing area. Things got kind of toasty, and the car I was in was one of the last ones allowed through before the others were herded up to a parking lot. A ranger climbed in my car, spread a wool blanket soaked in water around the windshield gasket (so it wouldn't crack or contract?) and drove us right through the heart of a blazing forest fire. One of hte coolest moments of my life.

god damn

Isle Royale (about 20x, grew up near there so I am way biased)
Acadia
Denali
Kenai Fjords (never forget)
Olympic
Glacier
Mt. Rainier
Teddy Roosevelt
Voyageurs
Mojave (but I was a baby and don't remember)

Canadian parks probably don't count but Algonquin is awes and I'm hitting up Pukaskwa next week and can't wait

xp holy shit, my best story was riding in crazy seas in a tiny boat

oh fuck Algonquin is only a provincial park nm

Missing a few:
Cuyahoga Valley NP
Great Sand Dunes NP
Great Basin NP
Black Canyon of the Gunnison

No Great Smokies or Congaree, either.

"black canyon of the gunnison"? i'm sold, sight unseen.

what the fuck is this poll

been to 22 of the *ahem* listed ones, hiked dozens of trails in Mt.Rainier but have just as much love for Arches. Give me a month.

You've got Kings Canyon listed twice (under "Sequoia & Kings Canyon"). I voted for Sequoia, which I have personal sentimental attachments to. But looking at them all here makes me realize I've been to far too few of these places. Damn. I need to start making plans to get out of town.

glacier

only been to a handful of these though

I lived in Yosemite so I'm a little biased.

Yoesmite forever and always

I have been to/through:

Bryce Canyon NP
Death Valley NP
Grand Canyon NP
Haleakala NP
Joshua Tree NP
Lassen Volcanic NP
Mojave NP
Petrified Forest NP
Redwood NP
Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP
Yosemite NP
Zion NP

i think great basin is the least-visited in the lower 48. everyone needs to hike through the bristlecone pine forest there at least once in their life.

pretty sure Isle Royale is the least visited in the 48, comes in at #5 overall here w/ ~20k visitors in 2007

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/national-parks-124040809

/stanning

oop, ~16k visitors

in utah, i prefer the parks that get fewer visitors. i mean you can disappear into wilderness pretty easily in any of them, but just in general.

capitol reef > grand staircase-escalante national monument > canyonlands > arches > zion > bryce

GS-E is HUGE

sorry about leaving a ton of places out, I'm making a new poll guys, but hit a problem, there's a 50 option max and there are 58 so I'm going to have to get rid of some or something, any suggestions

yo what do I do

I'm the first one to mention Yellowstone? "Crowded and Disneylandy" yeah sorta, but I have a childhood fascination with the pools that never really went away.

http://cache2.artprintimages.com/p/LRG/27/2724/35YND00Z/art-print/carol-polich-morning-glory-pool-yellowstone-national-park-wyoming-usa.jpg

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US NATIONAL PARK POLL