What is your favorite national park?

[eppie]

I have no idea if this topic 'lives' in the lurker lounge community, but I decided to ask anyway.
(I like to see you try and hijack this into an anti-government thread.:)

For some reason national parks are always nicer, more beautiful and spectacular in other countries.....and even more so in countries far away. On the other hand, coming from the Netherlands it is well understandable that my top picks will not be from my own country.

In the US my trips were most of the time build around NP visits. Giving you the nice on-the-road holiday feeling and seeing the most beautiful things.
The first thing that comes to mind is of course Grand Canyon national park; this is in my opinion by far the most spectacular park there is.....especially when seeing it for the first time. Yellowstone is also great, as well as most other parks I've seen but the one I maybe love the most is Saguaro NP in Arizona.....probably because this is so different from what I am used to (and I love cactii).

In Europe my best overal NP exeperience is probably the plitvic lakes . I went there with my family when I was a kid and love to go back there.....it is the area where the civil war in Yugoslavia started.

Another great experience was tierra del fuego NP . The great thing was that this is as far from the south pole as Copenhagen is from the North Pole, but a totally different surroundings (most importantly, less humans).

What do you find the greatest park? Any holiday advice?

[Jester]

I have no idea if this topic 'lives' in the lurker lounge community, but I decided to ask anyway.
(I like to see you try and hijack this into an anti-government thread.:)

National parks are communism. Land belongs to those who put it to productive use - why must we punish productivity and cripple our economy by creating parks with government muscle?

(Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

What do you find the greatest park? Any holiday advice?

Well, in Canada, we have about a bazillion gorgeous, glorious parks that are the envy of the world. I find Jasper particularly nice. Also, while not technically a park, a trip up north to the Yukon during the summer is surprisingly beautiful.

However, the most impressive park I've ever been to wasn't in Canada - it was the Iguazu (Iguaçu) National Park(s) at the border between Argentina and Brazil. The waterfalls there are just out of this world, and for the history-minded, the Guarani/Jesuit Missions are among the most fascinating and unique communities ever to exist. A remarkable place - although I must say I've never been down to Ushuaia, although I walk by advertisements for tours down there all the time these days. Maybe I should make the trip.

-Jester

[ShadowHM]

What do you find the greatest park? Any holiday advice?

To answer the title question: my favourite national park is the one that is a stone's throw away from our cottage: Bruce Peninsula National Park. :wub: I love to hike there. The Bruce Trail has its terminus at Tobermory, in the Park. I have hiked many sections of that trail, enjoying the various views and topography. The escarpment is just amazing, with some of Canada's oldest trees growing off the cliffs. For more visions of the beauty of the area, there is a series of aerial photographs here to tantalize.

The greatest park is another question altogether. (You didn't really think politics could be left out of any thread here, did you? :whistling:) The greatest parks are the ones that protect the most fragile things, in my opinion.

But there are parks that I would love to visit. Jester's suggestion, Iguazu, has been on my 'wanna see' list for a long time. I love waterfalls. I am lucky enough to live near Niagara Falls, so I can visit it several times a year. (My eldest lives in the city there.) I still mourn every time for the lost wonder of it, since only half the flow actually goes over the brink now, but I go anyway.

Another park I long to see is Oulanka National Park in Finland. Or Ukkusiksalik National Park off the north west coast of Hudson Bay and Torngat Mountains National Park at the northern tip of Labrador.

Edit: those pyto's that sneak in... <_<

[LennyLen]

My favourite is Abel Tasman National Park, but I'm also fond of Arthur's Pass National Park

[kandrathe]

What do you find the greatest park? Any holiday advice?

In the US, I would recommend Denali, or Yellowstone in warmer months. I like the desert parks in the spring.

If you are a SCUBA diver, then I would highly recommend Belize. Although, you could still fill the trip with some snorkeling, hikes in the rain forest, and visits to Mayan ruins. Or, head on down to Costa Rica's Arenal Volcano National Park. I've never been, but I've heard that El Cielo Biosphere Reserve - Tamaulipas, Mexico is very nice.

[eppie]

Well, in Canada, we have about a bazillion gorgeous, glorious parks that are the envy of the world. I find Jasper particularly nice. Also, while not technically a park, a trip up north to the Yukon during the summer is surprisingly beautiful.

However, the most impressive park I've ever been to wasn't in Canada - it was the Iguazu (Iguaçu) National Park(s) at the border between Argentina and Brazil. The waterfalls there are just out of this world, and for the history-minded, the Guarani/Jesuit Missions are among the most fascinating and unique communities ever to exist. A remarkable place - although I must say I've never been down to Ushuaia, although I walk by advertisements for tours down there all the time these days. Maybe I should make the trip.

-Jester

Canada is defenitely on the wish list. I would probably go for a trip to north west US / southwest Canada.
I didn't visit Iguazu.....Argentina is just to big so you have to choose an area, knowing that you will miss a lot of nice things.
I defenitely can recommend you a trip to Patagonia.....just a short flight from Ushuaia you have the Los Glacieres where hug glaciers continuously break of partly into a lake....very spectacular.

[eppie]

To answer the title question: my favourite national park is the one that is a stone's throw away from our cottage: Bruce Peninsula National Park. :wub: I love to hike there. The Bruce Trail has its terminus at Tobermory, in the Park. I have hiked many sections of that trail, enjoying the various views and topography. The escarpment is just amazing, with some of Canada's oldest trees growing off the cliffs. For more visions of the beauty of the area, there is a series of aerial photographs here to tantalize.

Nice, and I can see for you guys living in Canada and New Zealand it is not a problem pointing to some park in the neighbourhood. There is just so much more nature around.

New Zealand and/or Australia are also on the wish list. Big disadvantage is that it is so bloody far away from where I am living. (and I started to dislike flying)

[Frag]

I personally favor Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada. It's not the most physically impressive (Grand Canyon and Noel Kempff take those wins for my personal experiences) nor the most sublime (Badlands at night wins that), however the tranquility and subtlety that fills Algonquin park's lakes, forests and wildlife filled me with a wonder I've scarcely been able to recreate through my memories.

Coming face to face, literally, with a moose calf and her protective mother gave me one of the primal fears that exists in most humans as a blessing from our predecessors. The lunch I ate on a lake island in the mid-section of the park, watching the loons, ducks and fish was one of the most enjoyable moments of my teenage years due to it's tranquility and (excepting my canoe and self) pristine environment. It felt like how it might have been to be on an exploratory quest before civilization splattered across the land and starting exploiting natural resources which took down the pristiness (yeah, yeah) of some of ecosystems.

Also, as mentioned earlier, Belize is a dream destination spot for parks. I own a bit of land there, kinda, as part of an early-life focus on rain forest protection and still haven't made it to see it firsthand.

Cheers,
~FragB)

Edit: Province Memory Failure

[LochnarITB]

Voyageurs National Park

[kandrathe]

Voyageurs National Park

I love the Minnesota parks, but in the winter I would be looking for something more towards the equator.

[Lissa]

I have no idea if this topic 'lives' in the lurker lounge community, but I decided to ask anyway.
(I like to see you try and hijack this into an anti-government thread.:)

For some reason national parks are always nicer, more beautiful and spectacular in other countries.....and even more so in countries far away. On the other hand, coming from the Netherlands it is well understandable that my top picks will not be from my own country.

In the US my trips were most of the time build around NP visits. Giving you the nice on-the-road holiday feeling and seeing the most beautiful things.
The first thing that comes to mind is of course Grand Canyon national park; this is in my opinion by far the most spectacular park there is.....especially when seeing it for the first time. Yellowstone is also great, as well as most other parks I've seen but the one I maybe love the most is Saguaro NP in Arizona.....probably because this is so different from what I am used to (and I love cactii).

In Europe my best overal NP exeperience is probably the plitvic lakes . I went there with my family when I was a kid and love to go back there.....it is the area where the civil war in Yugoslavia started.

Another great experience was tierra del fuego NP . The great thing was that this is as far from the south pole as Copenhagen is from the North Pole, but a totally different surroundings (most importantly, less humans).

What do you find the greatest park? Any holiday advice?

For sheer beauty and serenity, Olympic National Park on the Olympic Pennisula in Washington state is well worth the trip. It's the only temperant rain forest within the US getting somewhere on the order of 100 to 110 inches of rain a year, but you'd never know it as the Olympics are shrouded in mist year round (the cause of all the percipitation). It is very quiet and the wild life are unlikely to recognize you're there till you are within a few feet of them if upwind (I was able to get within 10 feet of a deer there once because it couldn't really hear me and deer have very poor eyesight while being upwind). Just make sure you're in decent shape and have a good pair of hiking boots to enjoy the excursion.

[LavCat]

Thank you, eppie -- what a lovely, wistful thread! I have enjoyed visiting people's URL's. Not having a vehicle, I am limited in places I can explore. That being said I am fortunate to live in a pleasant, pretty area, between a pair of local parks and a state park. The view from my window is a lava intrusion, now covered in the last leaves of orange and gold. In winter, when I was younger, I would snowshoe to the top. Now the mountainside is more built up, but there is still a lovely view from the park above.

For years I have walked to work through wetlands, sometimes meeting more wildlife than I'd care to mention. This is also an historical area, Washington lived where I work in Rocky Hill. Rochambeau marched the French army past my apartment complex, on the way to meet up with Washington in Princeton. Last spring the route to Yorktown was designated a National Historic Trail, so sort of like a National Park!

Since I can't insert links (wish I could)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington-Ro...lutionary_Route

So many places I have not been. Of the parks I have visited, I too loved Plitvice! I was there in the early 1970's when the country was the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. At the time there were seven hotels at Plitvice, serving local specialities of trout.

I have not seen the Grand Canyon, nor any of the parks of the American southwest. One U.S. National Park that I'd recommend is Glacier Bay, though as I recall it was not yet a National Park when I was there:
http://www.nps.gov/glba/index.htm

Acadia is another U.S. National Park I could suggest:
http://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm

I've been to remotish spots of Canada such as Gander and James Bay, Moose Factory and Fossil Island. However no Canadian National Parks that I can think of. I'd love to see more of the Canadian wilderness before I die. I had plans to travel up the Alcan Highway some summer with a friend but she crashed her Jeep and killed herself.

One more lovely destination I have visited is Lake Turkana National Parks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Turkan...onal_Parks

Though when I was there the lake was "Rudolf", and it was not a park! Turkana used to be connected with the Nile, and Nile Perch are native:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile_perch

It was not all that long before when the area was first discovered by the Europeans. One of my photographs was published in Sky and Telescope. Later that year Time or Newsweek (I can't remember which) called Lake Rudolf the most remote vacation spot on earth. And like where I live, there are vipers. (Fortunately here the local perch are smaller.) It does get dark at night. Bring water.


Edit: Wrong periodical. Did submit a picture to Natural History, but I don't think it was used.

[Ziig]

I live in Western US...so I would recommend:

Canyonlands, Utah and The Arches, Utah and of course Yosemite

Also, as mentioned above, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone were very enjoyable and memorable visits for me. If you hit up Yellowstone, just a short trip away is the Grand Tetons, also quite amazing.

There are so many I would love to visit someday, this is a fun thread thanks.

[DeeBye]

I personally favor Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada.

Yeah, this one has my vote too. It's so tranquil there.

[--Pete]

Hi,

What do you find the greatest park? Any holiday advice?

In my youth, I hiked most of the Appalachian Trail. Although crowding has made it less enjoyable, there are still many stretches that can be enjoyed in the Southern parts after school starts in the fall and before it lets out in the Spring. Another place I often enjoyed camping in is the Okefenokee Swamp. Never did meet Pogo, though.:)

I really can't pick any one place as the greatest, they all have something to offer.

--Pete

[eppie]

I have enjoyed visiting people's URL's.

Yes this is nice way of seeing some snapshots of great places to visit.
Acadia I have been to as well; we were there in Oktober so the weather was a bit gloomy......a bit to misty and rainy to really enjoy the foliage, but very nice indeed. It was the first park I visited on the east coast and there is a big difference between the ones on the west coast.

vii; you are lucky and thanks for the recomendation, but I actually visited most parks in the sourthwest.
Death Valley, Yoshua Tree, Channel Islands, Lassen Volcanic, Sequoia/Kings Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, all the Utah parks (including Dinosaur NM which is great if you are into dinosaurs), all the arizona N parks and Mesa Verde (fantastic because of the archeological finds) plus some other state parks.
It is easy to say 'nice to have so many parks so close by' but on the other hand, we have done thousands of miles of driving a rental car to get to all of them:).

Deebye: canada will be high on the list....in this thread Canada parks are mentioned the most, and it would be reasonably easy to arrange. It will have to wait a bit.....the plan for next year is driving up to the north cape (above the polar circle). Scandinavia is much like Canada I think, also very empty, forests, lakes, big animals. The Norway fjords should be fantastic to visit on the way back.


Pete, my father wants to walk it...problem is that a toursit visa is valid for 3 months....so that would mean you have to go back to Europe and fly back again.....I think my mother is happy about that.:)
A few years ago I visited Shenandoah and Great Smokey Mountains, great places indeed, especially amazing because they are so close to all those big cities. In GSM NP I saw a mother black bear with two cubs (my first ever (and only) bear spotting in the wild!!). And as for Acadia, for some reason the atmosphere is different than in the parks on the west coast, but I can't put my finger on what that difference is.....maybe it is just something in my mind.:)

[Sir_Die_alot]

Glacier national park loved this place because its still beautiful and gets overshadowed by yellowstone which is about the same distance from where ever most people come from. A very positive point when you go to a park to get AWAY from mobs of people. :D

[ShadowHM]

Hi,
In my youth, I hiked most of the Appalachian Trail. Although crowding has made it less enjoyable, there are still many stretches that can be enjoyed...

--Pete

Straying off topic, I was entranced by Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. Sadly, I had never even heard of the Appalachian Trail until I read that.

(And I only picked it up because I love his writing. :wub: I am flying through a re-read of The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid at the moment.)

[LavCat]

Straying off topic, I was entranced by Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. Sadly, I had never even heard of the Appalachian Trail until I read that.

(And I only picked it up because I love his writing. :wub: I am flying through a re-read of The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid at the moment.)

I've been on a section of the trail in New Jersey, near the New York border. Just short hikes however. I used to belong to a folk music society, and we would get together twice a year for a long weekend at a Y camp on a lake that adjoined the trail. It was beautiful, and I learned what to do when you see a bear. The food was good. Can't say much for sleep.

Unfortunately I can't think of the Appalachian Trail without remembering the book Eight Bullets, by Claudia Brenner. They were on a section of the trail in Pennsylvania:

http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Bullets-Surviv...e/dp/1563410559

The first bullet: When the first bullet hit me, my arm exploded. My brain could not make the connections fast enough to realize I had been shot. I saw a lot of blood on the green tarp on which we lay and thought for a split second about earthquakes and volcanoes. But they don't make you bleed. Rebecca knew. She asked me where I had been shot. We had encountered a stranger earlier that day who had a gun. We both knew who was shooting at us. Perhaps a second passed.

The second bullet: When the second bullet hit my neck I started to scream with all my strength. Somehow the second bullet was even more unbelievable than the first.

The third bullet: The third bullet came and I now know hit the other side of my neck. By then I had lost track of what was happening or where we were except that I was in great danger and it was not stopping.

The fourth bullet: I now know a forth bullet hit me in the face. Rebecca told me to get down, close to the ground.

The fifth bullet: The fifth bullet hit the top of my head. I believe Rebecca saw that even lying flat I was vulnerable and told me to run behind a tree.

The sixth bullet: The sixth bullet hit Rebecca in the back of the head as she rose to run for the tree.

The seventh bullet: The seventh bullet hit Rebecca's back as she ran. It exploded her liver and caused her to die.

The eighth bullet missed.