I live in South Carolina, about half an hour from Congaree National Park.
It's not a place you'd drive across the country to see, but it's beautiful and highly worth a visit. There are some freaky trees -- with knobs of roots that stick out from the ground, like nothing else I've seen. The place is kinda creepy, as if you're about to be attacked by zombies, and I love that.
There is a two mile elevated boardwalk which takes you around some of the most scenic areas of the park, and further hiking trails which branch off of that. There is also a river that goes through the park, and it's quite atmospheric in a canoe.
I knew this guy was not worth listening to when he wrote "a solid five hours away from absolutely anything else you might want to see or do". I live in Charleston, two hours away and at the heart of the Lowcountry, one of the most historically fascinating and beautiful places in the world. And a couple of hours in the other direction are the Blue Ridge Mountains!
Charleston is an awesome city. Loved going there for work. I highly recommend Big Bad Breakfast. I believe it started there. They have this croissant-based french toast thing that is absolutely out of this world. It's 30% butter, but 130% worth it.
I’m from the Lowcountry, live in the Upstate now. Kayaking through Congaree is one of my top memories as a Boy Scout. Incredibly beautiful in a way you don’t get most anywhere else. Feels like you’ve travelled back in time to some Jurassic age going through the tree covered channels. Just keep an eye out for the snakes!
> Can you hike in the Grand Canyon? Yes, technically. You can walk along the rim, but the view won’t change; same damn canyon on one side, same damn parking lot on the other. There are trails that go down into the canyon, but they’re a trap. They are featureless steep inclines formed into endless switchbacks, and when they finally end, there’s nothing to do except go back up, which will be just as boring but three times as hard and might kill you.
I’ve seen enough. From the Midwest so was looking forward to a takedown of the dunes (or something witty craptowns esq). but dunking on the GC for being a canyon?
We went a lot to the US in my teenage years. I have been to the Grand Canyon two or three times (you start losing counts at some point).
One time we were there with our family and my aunt/uncle + kids. We hiked down the canyon because my dad was sort of the group leader and he goes on such adventures without necessarily thinking it through.
So we went down with a small amount of water and food. I heard sometime years after that you have to pay to go down the Grand Canyon, but this was in the nineties and it was a quiet part of the Grand Canyon, not much to do. We hiked down, stayed inside the canyon for a bit to eat and drink and then we went up again.
And that's where the differences started. My dad was still undeterred and went up in high speed like it was nothing. We were young, fit teenagers and for us the climb was more than usual, but pretty doable. The rest of the adults... not so much. At least one family member was crying, others were swearing (without swearing, polite people) about the predicament my dad put us in.
I am not sure why I am telling this, I guess... go in prepared?
The Grand Canyon was nice, but I never loved it. I think my expectations were pretty big because it's so well-known, so it was a bit anti-climatic. I really liked Monument Valley, there was virtually no other tourist when we were there and it was stunning, even better than in the Lucky Luke comics [1] that we read as a kid. As I teenager I also loved White Sands. In contrast to the author I did really like Petrified Forest.
The NPS has large signs posted at the Bright Angel and Kaibab trailheads on the south rim warning visitors about the dangers of the trail, the heat, the steepness, the lack of shade. It is made abundantly clear that even a modest hike requires conditioning, water, appropriate shoes, and protection from the sun. They even have rangers patrolling the trails assessing hikers they pass and questioning those they believe are going to have trouble. Unfortunately, they can only recommend, not enforce. With all that, people run into difficultly and have to be hauled out. Sometimes, they die. As Ron White has said, you can't fix stupid.
The only time I saw the Grand Canyon was when we briefly stopped while I was helping a friend get her car across the country. It was January, no one was around, and patches of snow dotted the rim. Quite a beautiful sight. But we noticed a poster on a bulletin board detailing how a medical student who had run the Boston marathon had somehow gotten lost on a hike and died after running out of water. It was particularly shocking because my friend had known the woman who died since high school in New England, but had not heard the story until we were reading it on that poster.
I also did one of the hikes to the CO river in the 90s with 3 friends when we were in college. We got off to a late start so jogged down a good deal of the way (dumb). We carried a 1 gallon water jug each (not even close to enough). We had no extra clothing (dumb). Two of us (me being one) made it out that day. The other two didn't. A group of smart hikers with water filters and iodine tablets found them belly up on the path in the direct sunlight. I'm certain they would have died if the hikers didn't give them tablets, water and emergency blankets. Man we were dumb.
If you are fit, you can absolutely do this. In fact, you can go all the way to the other rim and back (rim-to-rim-to-rim). The current record is sub 6 hrs by Ultrarunner Jim Walmsley. [0]
I read all the chapters on the hiking and falling deaths before I hiked rim-to-rim. So many of them are "Family hikes down to the canyon, young child complains of heat. Sits down and dies." Or "Someone takes a shortcut, walks down an un-climbable hill. Dies of exposure."
There were a lot of completely unprepared tourists on the way up to the South Rim. They had walked down a little bit and couldn't walk back up. We weren't in great condition ourselves but we had been hiking for the past 12 hours.
Canyons can be a challenge. To maybe paraphrase some signage along the way. Down is optional. Up is not.
Going down to the river makes for a very long day. I've boated (part raft, part other) down the canyon but I've only hiked down to a spot part of the way and then back.
GCNP is my absolute favorite park but it is definitely hard to get to know. Much of its charm is below the rims. I've done 4 multiday hikes from different trailheads on each rim as well as a 15 day dory trip on the Colorado. There a number of truly magical places you encounter than cannot be seen from the rim. In the midsts of some of the harshest terrain, there are grottos in sidecanyons filled with ferns, trees, and a stream. Waterfalls gushing from caves high up on the canyon wall. Deer, bighorn sheep, and birds of all types. Geologic features that go back as much as 1.2 billion years. Fossils that come from some of the earliest examples of life on this planet. Artifacts of people who lived there a thousand years ago. None of this comes cheap but if you put in the effort, you experience something that will change your view of the world.
What I love about it is that more than any other park I've visited, it defies description. I adore Yosemite and Joshua Tree, for example, but I believe they can be understood from photography. Grand Canyon feels like it can barely be understood in person, like just the idea of it is too big or complex to hold in your mind and that is thrilling for me.
I'm from the West Coast. My national park experience includes Yosemite, Volcanoes, Arches, Zion, Bryce, Redwood, Crater Lake, and Lassen. (I've technically also been to the Grand Canyon, but it was so foggy, it was more like going to the Sears Portrait Studio - you couldn't even see the canyon.)
I used to say "I've never been to a national park and wondered why it's a national park - they all have an obvious and immediate majesty to them."
Then I went to Pinnacles, and Acadia. I'd honestly forgotten about Pinnacles until I started writing this comment. It's also one of the newest parks, so even though it was underwhelming, it didn't impede my belief in park majesty.
Acadia, though, just doesn't have the magic. It's an island, which is strange because that means there's a town in the park where people live. Honestly I think I liked the coffee shop I had breakfast in more than the rest of the park. There's a summit you can take photos from and a hike that goes along the rim of the island. That seemed to be it. As a West Coast boy, it didn't have the same specialness as the other parks I've seen. Even my Mainer friends say "we don't know why Acadia is a park - there are so many other places in Maine that are at least as pretty."
If this guy thinks Yosemite, Zion, Arches, and the Grand Canyon are among America's worst parks, he's bonkers or trolling.
> they all have an obvious and immediate majesty to them.
"Grandeur" is not the only criteria for nice national parks. I'm from the east coast, and while all of the breathtaking views in California were amazing, after a few years of living there I began to get frustrated that I couldn't find anywhere "cozy" to visit during the weekends. Some locations along the Russian River probably came the closest, but the jagged rocks and coniferous trees still didn't manifest the sort of "warm and snug" feeling one gets while river tubing along a mountain river in the Blue Ridge mountains. Temperature deciduous rainforests are actually quite rare across the planet, and particularly when the leaves change colors, it's a sight to behold.
Strong disagree on Pinnacles being underwhelming. The California condors acord woodpeckers and alone are worth the visit. The caves are also very cool if you go when they're open.
Acadia is a beautiful park and it definitely reaches National Park level for the East coast. I don't really agree with your assessment there, especially since it doesn't sound like you saw much of Acadia if you think it's only Cadillac mountain and a single hike.
The East coast just doesn't have as many untouched lands as the West. West coast parks, pretty much all the parks West of the Mississippi, are next level. If you're accustomed to that then none of the East coast parks are going to wow you.
Acadia is a bit of an odd setup with a patchwork of private and public land (along with some of the recent additions from the Rockefellers). But, while many areas on the Maine coast are very nice I'd still argue that Acadia in unique. Obviously different from the big lakes and Baxter.
Have you been to Orcas Island or the San Juan islands in Washington?
I think Acadia is a great National Park, especially for the East coast. But I moved to Seattle a few years back and only more recently got out to Orgas Island. It's insane how similar it is to Acadia.
I live in New England and did a weekend sea kayaking trip to the San Juans for reasons I don't really recall when I was in the area anyway. My recollection was that it was fun but, as someone for whom Maine was just a few hour drive away, not something I'd make a point of doing again given how similar the two areas were.
Advice for folks who like National Parks, but wish you could experience some of that nature with fewer people around:
Many National Parks are surrounded by a National Forest. National Forests surrounding National Parks are often similarly beautiful. I mean, they're beautiful in a similar way, due to being in roughly the same location on the map...same climate, same fauna, same flora, same geology, though not necessarily on as grand a scale as what they built a fee gate in front of. They're free to enter, often allow overnight camping, and provide an experience mostly free of other people. Of course, there are plenty of reasons to go to the Park, too. I never miss a National Park if I'm going to be anywhere near one. But, the US also has incredible public lands that haven't been elevated by a "National Park" designation and they get far fewer visitors, and if your biggest complaint is "too many people", your solution may be just outside the Park.
+100 to this. Because Yosemite keeps getting called out, I would also mention that Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park is right next to Yosemite, just as spectacular in many ways (e.g., Rae Lakes Loop), and far less crowded.
Colorado is a great example of this. Rocky Mountains national park is good but a bit of a tourist trap and there's so much more to see in CO than that.
If you haven't tortured yourself on the Devil's Corkscrew switchbacks on the Bright Angel Trail at the Grand Canyon, on the hottest day of summer, have you really National Parked??
All joking aside, I disagree with the author regarding the Grand Canyon. Havasupai Gardens -- the verdant oasis at the bottom of the canyon, where you can camp and recharge -- is one of my favorite places I've camped. There are areas for wading and swimming, and the sounds of the night creatures is eerily beautiful.
We've only hiked a little bit down the canyon when we were last there (which was back in 2009, sadly), but I also strongly disagree with the author. It may not be the longest, deepest or widest canyon in the world, but if you actually go there and take a look at it, you'll see for yourself why it's called the Grand Canyon. Then again, if this article keeps some easily bored/jaded people away from the national parks, all the better for the rest of us!
I hiked and camped for three days in the Grand Canyon about 10 years ago and it was one of the high points of my life. The sheer beauty of the massive space was transformative in the way I see the world. How small we are, how big it was. I know statements like this seem overly dramatic but my time there is still something I replay in my head.
So when people dunk on the GC, I always just tell myself how lucky I was that my experience was so wonderful.
The problem with the Canyon is that (1) what's really interesting is seeing the whole thing top to bottom and (2) the really spectacular views are when you're partway down, with the best locations depending on the time of day. However, because it's such a challenging hike, most people don't get those experiences. FWIW, Havasupai Gardens is only about halfway down, but because it's the last water tap before the river, it's kind of the last somewhat readily accessible point.
I half agree with the author's take on Yosemite. The valley really is ridiculously overcrowded but the view also is amazing. The situation here is a little bit like the Grand Canyon in that there's lots of amazing stuff but it's more work to get there, mostly in terms of a lot of time on foot. The good news about the Sierras is that except for the amazing big wall stuff in the Yosemite Valley, Sequioa Kings Canyon is basically just as nice and the traffic situation is much better.
We drove to the Grand Canyon in a rental car from Vegas. "We" that is my old parents and I. We don't gamble, drink, or do hookers, so we didn't really like Vegas very much. (Stop! Hold your horses. It's a joke. I know there's other things you can do in Las Vegas. It's a joke.)
We arrived at the canyon before sunset and the setting sun hit it so beautifully from above. The colors were incredible.
We were gonna just spend the night and drive back first thing in the morning. But then we said to ourselves, we don't like Vegas, the Grand Canyon looked awesome. So we went back the next morning and spend more time there, just driving along the rim and stopping every now and then to let the impressions sink in.
With the sun on the opposite side now than the night before, it looked totally different.
This was all part of a longer road trip, and the Grand Canyon was definitely one of the highlights.
That's similar to my experience. I used to go to LV for the DefCon conference, and a classic gaming expo one year. But I'd go for a week, and also drive around the area, including over to Death Valley. I eventually started spending most of my time on Death Valley and only visiting LV briefly.
As someone who doesn’t hike or camp, I didn’t really enjoy the Grand Canyon.
When I was 18 my dad thought it would be cool to take me there for a week. I suggested we just stop there briefly, then go skiing in Colorado, which he accepted.
We got to the Grand Canyon and it was so big that it didn’t even look real. I was pretty much done after 30 minutes, so was my dad. He was glad I suggested the Colorado option, as he wasn’t sure what we’d do there all week.
I’m glad I saw it, so I’ll never wonder, but I’m also glad I didn’t try and make it into more than it was, as a non-camper.
I like hiking but absolutely not camping. I had a similar experience. IMO the canyon is too wide for its width which creates a similar effect to it just being a valley. I found it much more spectacular to stand on pretty much any mountain in the Alps.
Funny enough driving up to the grand canyon there are some arms of it that in essence narrow, deep cracks in the ground. I absolutely loved those!
I-15 out of Vegas hits a small part of Arizona on the way to Utah, and the freeway runs up a river gorge - it's an amazing drive and in no way comparable to the Grand Canyon - but it has its own charm.
The ironic thing about the "best" national parks these days is that they are so overcrowded the experience can be genuinely miserable. I would gladly take a "sub-par" or boring park where I can actually be alone with nature over sitting in a two-hour traffic jam in Yosemite or Yellowstone just to see a tree.
I don't know Yellowstone, but the situation with Yosemite is a bit complicated. There are basically two congestion issues:
1. Congestion in the park itself.
2. Traffic.
Yosemite is huge, but the only places that are really built out are Yosemite Valley (where most people go) and Tuolomne Meadows (where a lot of climbers go). Most of Yosemite is backcountry and just accessible by foot. So what happens is that most people go to one of these two places (which, to be clear, really are spectacular) and then stay within a few km radius of the parking lot, hence the crowding. But once you get outside that, it's quite empty. I've done 50-odd mile loops in Yosemite and seen basically nobody [0].
As far as traffic goes, there are very few entrances to the park. If you're coming in from the bay area, you're probably coming in through the Tioga Road/Big Oak Flat entrance. As a result, even if you want to be in some part of the park where there are very few other people, you can end up having to wait in line to enter with the giant mobs of people who want to go to the Valley. The fix here is to enter super early or super late, when there basically is no line.
I did a second visit to yellowstone during the winter and it absolutely ruled. Most of it is closed to only commercial operators but the Lamar Valley area is fine if you can get a vehicle with studded tires.
But love the Gatlinburg aside. It's like Myrtle Beach, but worse. The Blue Ridge mountains have amazing natural beauty for miles in every direction. So many great towns too - Blowing Rock, Boone, Asheville, Maggie Valley, (hopefully Chimney Rock will be back on that list someday). Why anyone would pick Gatlinburg to visit is beyond me.
If you want to go to Great Smokies, do it from the east side, not the west. The east side can be charming (I really liked Bryson City). Pigeon Forge? What a tourist trap hellscape.
Really? Agree to disagree. At least in MB I can bike around, get in the ocean, and pig out on seafood. It's not classy, but at least it's cheap. I would never fly there, but as a weekend trip from Charlotte, it's not terrible bang-for-buck at all. Though I'm sure nostalgia from going there frequently as a child is coloring my view.
Sorry - significantly better was overreaction from my part. My view of Myrtle beach is somewhat muddied by the reason I was there in the first place. Was in GA for a wedding, was going to go to FL, but couldn't due to a hurricane and ended up quickly shuffling to Myrtle Beach. Felt like a memory of a town. I do have a coworker who recommended me some good spots, but not sure if I will ever make it back there https://maps.app.goo.gl/EbWrjJ92qgV3vx598.
Gatlinburg is maybe the ultimate tourist trap. Was hilariously enough also around there for a wedding.
I can't really argue for either as destinations. Both of these places I don't think I would go over other available options.
I live in Sevier county about 30 minutes from Gatlinburg. It is indeed a peculiar place, unlike anywhere else I can think of. We almost never go there despite being so close. The best restaurants in the area I recommend to tourists are actually in downtown Sevierville (which is small and quaint), not Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge.
That said, I've been to various theme parks around the world, and Dollywood is probably my overall favorite. We go quite a few times a year; it's great for both kids and adults.
> But love the Gatlinburg aside. It's like Myrtle Beach, but worse.
Yeah Gatlinburg is a strange place, that one stuck out to me too. I described it in my comment as like a touristy beach town but small and not in a charming way. That main strip with all the t-shirt and other tourist shops haha, it reminds me so much of Daytona Beach when I lived there as a child.
> Cuyahoga Valley: There is nothing wrong with Cuyahoga Valley. Statistically, you’re from Ohio, so why not?
In college, I took an interim elective course on geology of the national parks. On the first day of class, the professor asked an icebreaker for students to say which national park they lived closest to. I said Ohio - Cuyahoga Valley.
Well some snot nosed boy scout confidently piped up that there were mostly certainly no national parks in Ohio, and the professor agreed. This is a deep personal grudge that I still hold to this day.
Dry-nosed Eagle Scout here to relieve you of your grudge. There is of course as you know a national park in Ohio and it is wonderful. Grew up right along its edge, and I'm forever grateful for it!
> Look: there are better canyons. There are better canyons just as accessible as the Grand Canyon, just as nice to look at, and much more interesting to actually exist in. Go to Bryce Canyon. Go to Zion Canyon (in the off season). Go to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Go to Canyonlands!
I totally agree. Canyonlands is in my opinion the single most amazing national park. Parts of it is hard to get to, but even locations readily reachable in a car has amazing views that change. And there are basically no crowds.
Bryce Canyon has good hikes but the fact that NPS runs a bus in the park tells you about the crowding situation. It’s still good if you don’t mind crowds.
Zion is also not bad but the crowds are worse than Bryce Canyon. The mile or so of the Virgin River is like a manmade water park.
“I’m pretty content to say that North America absolutely mogs the rest of the world in national parks. “
This is exactly what a European friend remarked to me years ago. He thought us Americans were a bit unaware of just how good we had it compared to the rest of the world.
Very entertaining post. I’ve only been to a small number of national parks but I do agree they aren’t especially nicer than some of the non-national park places I’ve been. My favorite is probably Point Lobos (a mere “state” park).
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It's not a place you'd drive across the country to see, but it's beautiful and highly worth a visit. There are some freaky trees -- with knobs of roots that stick out from the ground, like nothing else I've seen. The place is kinda creepy, as if you're about to be attacked by zombies, and I love that.
There is a two mile elevated boardwalk which takes you around some of the most scenic areas of the park, and further hiking trails which branch off of that. There is also a river that goes through the park, and it's quite atmospheric in a canoe.
It doesn’t have the same wow factor as other national parks, but it’s a special place for sure.
See you at the fireflies!
> Can you hike in the Grand Canyon? Yes, technically. You can walk along the rim, but the view won’t change; same damn canyon on one side, same damn parking lot on the other. There are trails that go down into the canyon, but they’re a trap. They are featureless steep inclines formed into endless switchbacks, and when they finally end, there’s nothing to do except go back up, which will be just as boring but three times as hard and might kill you.
I’ve seen enough. From the Midwest so was looking forward to a takedown of the dunes (or something witty craptowns esq). but dunking on the GC for being a canyon?
The “non superlative” is largest canyon by volume
One time we were there with our family and my aunt/uncle + kids. We hiked down the canyon because my dad was sort of the group leader and he goes on such adventures without necessarily thinking it through.
So we went down with a small amount of water and food. I heard sometime years after that you have to pay to go down the Grand Canyon, but this was in the nineties and it was a quiet part of the Grand Canyon, not much to do. We hiked down, stayed inside the canyon for a bit to eat and drink and then we went up again.
And that's where the differences started. My dad was still undeterred and went up in high speed like it was nothing. We were young, fit teenagers and for us the climb was more than usual, but pretty doable. The rest of the adults... not so much. At least one family member was crying, others were swearing (without swearing, polite people) about the predicament my dad put us in.
I am not sure why I am telling this, I guess... go in prepared?
The Grand Canyon was nice, but I never loved it. I think my expectations were pretty big because it's so well-known, so it was a bit anti-climatic. I really liked Monument Valley, there was virtually no other tourist when we were there and it was stunning, even better than in the Lucky Luke comics [1] that we read as a kid. As I teenager I also loved White Sands. In contrast to the author I did really like Petrified Forest.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luke
https://fastestknowntime.com/route/grand-canyon-crossings-az
I read all the chapters on the hiking and falling deaths before I hiked rim-to-rim. So many of them are "Family hikes down to the canyon, young child complains of heat. Sits down and dies." Or "Someone takes a shortcut, walks down an un-climbable hill. Dies of exposure."
There were a lot of completely unprepared tourists on the way up to the South Rim. They had walked down a little bit and couldn't walk back up. We weren't in great condition ourselves but we had been hiking for the past 12 hours.
Going down to the river makes for a very long day. I've boated (part raft, part other) down the canyon but I've only hiked down to a spot part of the way and then back.
(Though I hear Zion has gotten even busier in the last few years, that's not great.)
I used to say "I've never been to a national park and wondered why it's a national park - they all have an obvious and immediate majesty to them."
Then I went to Pinnacles, and Acadia. I'd honestly forgotten about Pinnacles until I started writing this comment. It's also one of the newest parks, so even though it was underwhelming, it didn't impede my belief in park majesty.
Acadia, though, just doesn't have the magic. It's an island, which is strange because that means there's a town in the park where people live. Honestly I think I liked the coffee shop I had breakfast in more than the rest of the park. There's a summit you can take photos from and a hike that goes along the rim of the island. That seemed to be it. As a West Coast boy, it didn't have the same specialness as the other parks I've seen. Even my Mainer friends say "we don't know why Acadia is a park - there are so many other places in Maine that are at least as pretty."
If this guy thinks Yosemite, Zion, Arches, and the Grand Canyon are among America's worst parks, he's bonkers or trolling.
> they all have an obvious and immediate majesty to them.
"Grandeur" is not the only criteria for nice national parks. I'm from the east coast, and while all of the breathtaking views in California were amazing, after a few years of living there I began to get frustrated that I couldn't find anywhere "cozy" to visit during the weekends. Some locations along the Russian River probably came the closest, but the jagged rocks and coniferous trees still didn't manifest the sort of "warm and snug" feeling one gets while river tubing along a mountain river in the Blue Ridge mountains. Temperature deciduous rainforests are actually quite rare across the planet, and particularly when the leaves change colors, it's a sight to behold.
The East coast just doesn't have as many untouched lands as the West. West coast parks, pretty much all the parks West of the Mississippi, are next level. If you're accustomed to that then none of the East coast parks are going to wow you.
> Even my Mainer friends say "we don't know why Acadia is a park - there are so many other places in Maine that are at least as pretty."
I believe that private ownership of land is the biggest answer.
I think Acadia is a great National Park, especially for the East coast. But I moved to Seattle a few years back and only more recently got out to Orgas Island. It's insane how similar it is to Acadia.
Many National Parks are surrounded by a National Forest. National Forests surrounding National Parks are often similarly beautiful. I mean, they're beautiful in a similar way, due to being in roughly the same location on the map...same climate, same fauna, same flora, same geology, though not necessarily on as grand a scale as what they built a fee gate in front of. They're free to enter, often allow overnight camping, and provide an experience mostly free of other people. Of course, there are plenty of reasons to go to the Park, too. I never miss a National Park if I'm going to be anywhere near one. But, the US also has incredible public lands that haven't been elevated by a "National Park" designation and they get far fewer visitors, and if your biggest complaint is "too many people", your solution may be just outside the Park.
All joking aside, I disagree with the author regarding the Grand Canyon. Havasupai Gardens -- the verdant oasis at the bottom of the canyon, where you can camp and recharge -- is one of my favorite places I've camped. There are areas for wading and swimming, and the sounds of the night creatures is eerily beautiful.
So when people dunk on the GC, I always just tell myself how lucky I was that my experience was so wonderful.
I half agree with the author's take on Yosemite. The valley really is ridiculously overcrowded but the view also is amazing. The situation here is a little bit like the Grand Canyon in that there's lots of amazing stuff but it's more work to get there, mostly in terms of a lot of time on foot. The good news about the Sierras is that except for the amazing big wall stuff in the Yosemite Valley, Sequioa Kings Canyon is basically just as nice and the traffic situation is much better.
We arrived at the canyon before sunset and the setting sun hit it so beautifully from above. The colors were incredible.
We were gonna just spend the night and drive back first thing in the morning. But then we said to ourselves, we don't like Vegas, the Grand Canyon looked awesome. So we went back the next morning and spend more time there, just driving along the rim and stopping every now and then to let the impressions sink in.
With the sun on the opposite side now than the night before, it looked totally different.
This was all part of a longer road trip, and the Grand Canyon was definitely one of the highlights.
When I was 18 my dad thought it would be cool to take me there for a week. I suggested we just stop there briefly, then go skiing in Colorado, which he accepted.
We got to the Grand Canyon and it was so big that it didn’t even look real. I was pretty much done after 30 minutes, so was my dad. He was glad I suggested the Colorado option, as he wasn’t sure what we’d do there all week.
I’m glad I saw it, so I’ll never wonder, but I’m also glad I didn’t try and make it into more than it was, as a non-camper.
Funny enough driving up to the grand canyon there are some arms of it that in essence narrow, deep cracks in the ground. I absolutely loved those!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj0dvrBiuX8
Maybe I'll tell my kids this is the Grand Canyon so I can go to In-n-out ;)
I don't know Yellowstone, but the situation with Yosemite is a bit complicated. There are basically two congestion issues:
1. Congestion in the park itself. 2. Traffic.
Yosemite is huge, but the only places that are really built out are Yosemite Valley (where most people go) and Tuolomne Meadows (where a lot of climbers go). Most of Yosemite is backcountry and just accessible by foot. So what happens is that most people go to one of these two places (which, to be clear, really are spectacular) and then stay within a few km radius of the parking lot, hence the crowding. But once you get outside that, it's quite empty. I've done 50-odd mile loops in Yosemite and seen basically nobody [0].
As far as traffic goes, there are very few entrances to the park. If you're coming in from the bay area, you're probably coming in through the Tioga Road/Big Oak Flat entrance. As a result, even if you want to be in some part of the park where there are very few other people, you can end up having to wait in line to enter with the giant mobs of people who want to go to the Valley. The fix here is to enter super early or super late, when there basically is no line.
[0] https://educatedguesswork.org/posts/northern-yosemite/
But love the Gatlinburg aside. It's like Myrtle Beach, but worse. The Blue Ridge mountains have amazing natural beauty for miles in every direction. So many great towns too - Blowing Rock, Boone, Asheville, Maggie Valley, (hopefully Chimney Rock will be back on that list someday). Why anyone would pick Gatlinburg to visit is beyond me.
What do you prefer about Gatlinburg?
Gatlinburg is maybe the ultimate tourist trap. Was hilariously enough also around there for a wedding.
I can't really argue for either as destinations. Both of these places I don't think I would go over other available options.
That said, I've been to various theme parks around the world, and Dollywood is probably my overall favorite. We go quite a few times a year; it's great for both kids and adults.
> But love the Gatlinburg aside. It's like Myrtle Beach, but worse.
Yeah Gatlinburg is a strange place, that one stuck out to me too. I described it in my comment as like a touristy beach town but small and not in a charming way. That main strip with all the t-shirt and other tourist shops haha, it reminds me so much of Daytona Beach when I lived there as a child.
> Cuyahoga Valley: There is nothing wrong with Cuyahoga Valley. Statistically, you’re from Ohio, so why not?
In college, I took an interim elective course on geology of the national parks. On the first day of class, the professor asked an icebreaker for students to say which national park they lived closest to. I said Ohio - Cuyahoga Valley.
Well some snot nosed boy scout confidently piped up that there were mostly certainly no national parks in Ohio, and the professor agreed. This is a deep personal grudge that I still hold to this day.
> Look: there are better canyons. There are better canyons just as accessible as the Grand Canyon, just as nice to look at, and much more interesting to actually exist in. Go to Bryce Canyon. Go to Zion Canyon (in the off season). Go to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Go to Canyonlands!
I totally agree. Canyonlands is in my opinion the single most amazing national park. Parts of it is hard to get to, but even locations readily reachable in a car has amazing views that change. And there are basically no crowds.
Bryce Canyon has good hikes but the fact that NPS runs a bus in the park tells you about the crowding situation. It’s still good if you don’t mind crowds.
Zion is also not bad but the crowds are worse than Bryce Canyon. The mile or so of the Virgin River is like a manmade water park.
This is exactly what a European friend remarked to me years ago. He thought us Americans were a bit unaware of just how good we had it compared to the rest of the world.