This is THE goal. The United States has 61 national parks. I’ve been to only a couple of these so far. It will take many years to accomplish this goal but if fully accomplished I believe it will be very satisfying and quite an accomplishment. There are also many more National Monuments along the way (and National Memorials). While we are traveling the country we’ll hit all the state parks that interest us along the way. We’ll hit those too!
Deano’s Favorite National Parks (Force Ranked)
There are 61 National Parks in the US. I plan to visit them all over my remaining years on this rock (it is a life goal). I’ll force rank them here as I visit each of them. I feel like this is going to be kind of like picking your favorite child…damn near impossible. I’ll give it a try however!
#1 – Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah / visited 2019) – Emily and I spent a day here. One day was not enough, but we saw most all of the high points. We hit all the highlighted scenic overlooks. So, we technically saw it all. We even took an unplanned hike and saw some of the low points. But we could easily spend much more time in this place. As we hiked, I kept bumping into people because I was so busy looking all around. It seemed everywhere I looked there was an interesting view to take in. Emily and I think it is the prettiest, most interesting place we’ve ever seen. We stayed a bit too late. We stayed busy just past sunset (which is pretty late in Summer). This caused us to drive a lonely drive to get to Zion in the dark. We were in the middle of nowhere and (I) misjudged food and fuel. It was a bit of a nerve-wracking drive (and made our trip feel more like an adventure than it should have felt like)! Read a post about this trip HERE.
#2 – Zion National Park (Utah / visited 2019) – On the same trip where we went to Bryce we also went to Zion. They are pretty close together out in the middle of nowhere so most people do them together. They even cut the tunnel through a mountain in Zion to make the trip between the two parks easier. I don’t know what everybody was talking about how Zion is so beautiful?!?! All the views were being blocked by a bunch of big rocks!?!? Ha! The scale of Zion is hard to explain. There are so many different formations and the size of them makes a human feel pretty tiny. We only had two days on this trip which was only enough time to skim the surface. I told Emily I could spend days/weeks (maybe months) there hiking and biking. We were not able to even make it to all the stops that the shuttle bus has and didn’t get to do several of the hikes that I was very interested in doing. We will definitely go back when we can stay for a long time. Read a post about this trip HERE.
#3 – Great Sand Dune National Park (Colorado / visited 2011) – This place is down in southern Colorado in the middle of nowhere. It is such a strange occurrence because it just feels so out of place. You are driving along flat, desert farmland with a mountain range on one side and then you start to see a desert spring up. Once you are there it is so vast that you don’t even see the surroundings. It was like we had stepped onto another planet!?! We visited it one afternoon while in route from Colorado to New Mexico. This was not enough time to fully explore but it was enough to quickly take in the vastness of the landscape. Pretty fascinating place.
#4 – Olympic National Park (Washington / visited 2017) – The North Pacific Coast is spectacular. It is cloudy and rainy almost all the time and the landscape that thrives in this environment is very different than many other places. I could spend months in/around this park taking it all in. We didn’t spend nearly that amount of time there while we were in this part of the country. So, there is more to see (meaning we will need to go back). We drove through the area while driving from one part of Washington to another part. We were not there just to see this park. We did, however, see Ruby Beach along the way. We were traveling with a group but I kept finding myself wanting to dart away for side trips as we passed sign after sign detailing interesting spots. We stayed in Port Angeles and drove into see Crescent Lake one day. This is the prettiest lake I’ve ever seen. Emily liked it because there was a story of some murder that happened there (and she is a sicko like that). We also drove up to Hurricane Ridge one day and hiked around at the top. The views of the
#5 – Great Smokey Mountains National Park (Tennessee / visited 1998, 2006, 2014) – This is the most visited National Park in the nation. It is also the one I have visited the most. This is mainly due to it being so close to our home base in Nashville. The area has been on our family vacation itinerary several times. For many visiting this area means you will also spend time in Gatlinburg and/or Pigeon Forge and we have done those things as well. My preference is to spend the majority of my time not in either of those two places however. I’d much rather be in the park. That said, nobody much gives a hoot what Dad wants to do usually. This just means there are many, many unexplored areas within this National Park that remain to be seen. There are tons of hikes I want to take (and I haven’t even really built out a well-researched to do list for this area). I would imagine I could spend many months in/around this park. The last time we were there was in 2014. We played in a creek and had a picnic and we did a sunrise hike at Clingmans Dome (which was so fun and pretty and cold). We’ve done several of the other popular hikes over the years. We haven’t even scratched the surface however. Time to get to work!
#6 – Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky / visited 2003) – I’ve been to Mammoth Cave a couple of times because it is pretty close to where we live. I think one trip was as a child with a group. When our kids were smaller, we went with Emily’s Dad. We stayed in the lodge and spent a day or so there. It has been a while since we’ve been and I’m positive there is more to see than what I’ve seen. Of course, it is pitch black dark in the caves so ‘see’ might not be the correct term! The scale and size of this cave is pretty crazy. I’ve been in several caves in my life that were fun (but much, much smaller). I have to admit I get a little freaked out being underneath that much rock. We will likely go back soon and take our time to make sure we see everything that interest us.
#7 – Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado / visited 2010) – These are cliff dwellings and it is very interesting to see how these places are built but also a bit eerie to think about all the humans that lived there before we came along to look at things. We are basically going through an open house through someone’s old bedroom/kitchen. Very interesting place!
#8 – Gateway Arch National Park (Missouri / visited 1990) – I went with my parents to see this when I was in high school (and we were visiting a relative in St. Louis). I didn’t even realize it was a National Park until I saw it on the list recently. I don’t remember it being ‘National Park’ level impressive to be honest. Don’t get me wrong the arch is impressive and I get the symbolic nature of it and how important ‘the West’ is to our Nation. I just kind of find it strange that a man-made structure is on the National Park list. Maybe I missed something in my young and foolish teenage days. Emily and I will need to go back. St. Louis is on our list anyway.
Big Bend National Park – Rio Grande Village, Boquillas Canyon & Hot Springs
On our final day in Big Bend National Park, we headed over to the eastern side of the park. We stopped at the park’s visitor center (movie) and hiked on Dugout Well Trail before heading over to Rio Grande Village. Once there, we headed to Boquillas Canyon. I wanted to ride a canoe and donkey…
Big Bend National Park – Chisos Basin and Lost Mine Trail
It was hike day in Big Bend National Park for us. For various reasons, we didn’t do the South Rim Trail (sad face emoji) as I planned. We wound up doing the Lost Mine Trail. It could not have been too much worse. It was the perfect hike. It also saved us about 10 miles…
Big Bend National Park – Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive & Santa Elena Canyon
This was one of my favorite days at Big Bend National Park. The Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive was beautiful. It had lots of stops for exploring/hiking. I was so busy taking in the sights that I even did a full face plant on one hike. Emmaline and Emily throughly enjoyed that! We ended the day…
Getting To Big Bend NP – Terlingua, TX
We were heading down to Big Bend National Park, and it was a haul! I’d never been to West Texas. There is A LOT of open space…OPEN…A LOT. Emmaline was going on the trip with us, and I’d tried every way possible to talk her out of coming. I was worried about the “remoteness” not…
Biking Carriage Trails @ Acadia National Park
So. Much. Fun! I was somewhat skeptical of the e-bike. “I don’t NEED an e-bike!” Well…I didn’t NEED it, but I WANTED it! I quickly got used to the electric assist on the bikes we rented. We covered 30+ miles on the Carriage Trails around Acadia National Park. It was fall, the leaves were beautiful,…
Acadia NP – Hiking (Climbing) Beehive
Utterly Terrifying! LOL We’ve done plenty of hiking in our days. I use the word ‘hiking’ VERY loosely. This ‘hike’ would barely classify as such. There was definitely some climbing on this one. Some very disturbing climbing. But as with many things…we are glad we did it! Probably won’t do it again…but glad we DID…
Acadia National Park – Ocean Path & Cadillac Mountain
We started off our visit at Acadia National Park by driving around the park loop road. We explored the Ocean Path. We timed the tide coming into Thunder Hole perfectly. The same tide almost got us at Sand Beach. We had a date (and time) to get up Cadillac Mountain, so we headed up from…
Congaree National Park (South Carolina)
Our trip to South Carolina was to check Congaree National Park off our national park list. It is a small national park but the spiders didn’t get that memo (hhuuuugggeeee). I was glad to have Emmaline with us because I’m an old fart and left my readers in the car so I couldn’t read the…
Mammoth Cave NP – Gothic Avenue Tour
Gothic Avenue was our final tour at Mammoth Cave NP. Seeing all the candle smoke writing on the cave ceilings (from over a hundred years ago) was very interesting. We’d planned to hit another cave system while in the area but heavy rains closed that one down. So, we finished up our final tour at…
Mammoth Cave NP – Grand Avenue Tour
The Grand Avenue Tour was our longest tour at Mammoth Cave National Park. It was 4 miles long and took about 4 hours. It was also my favorite tour of our trip. It had it all: slot canyons, tubular passageways, tall canyons, and tunnels sparkled with gypsum. It ended following the Frozen Niagra and Domes and…
Mammoth Cave NP – Star Chamber Tour
A cave tour with the only source of light being our gas lantern’s flame. It was our 3rd tour of the day but it was the most unique. We entered the cave at dusk with about 10 lanterns. So we experienced the cave just like they did a hundred years ago by candlelight! Then the…
Mammoth Cave NP – River Styx Tour & Historic Tour (Extended)
A lot of the River Styx Tour follows the more popular Historic Tour route but it is a very different tour. I liked it much better than the Historic Tour. You get to go to the deepest part of Mammoth Cave (down to the River Styx and Echo Lake). The River Styx tour also was…
Great Onyx Lantern Tour @ Mammoth Cave NP
We started our tours at Mammoth Cave NP with the Great Onyx Lantern Tour. This cave system is not part of Mammoth Cave system but is part of the national park. After a short (and pretty wild) bus ride we were assigned lanterns and entered the cave. It was a nice mix of cave geology…
6 Tours In Mammoth Cave National Park
I’d been to Mammoth Cave National Park before. Like many places I’ve been previously I didn’t ‘finish it’. It is the completionist in me! So I planned multiple days with 6 tours and 12 miles of underground hiking. After 16 hours of underground tours, I’m marking this National Park done. CHECK!
Two Days In Hot Springs National Park (Hot Spring, AR)
We spent two days exploring Hot Spring National Park (in Hot Springs, AR). I was excited to go for a soak to heal all my ailments in the 4,000-year-old thermal spring waters. I did my soaking at the Buckstaff Bathhouse which opened in 1912 (and is the only bathhouse to continuously operate since then). It…
Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park
In our many visits to Chattanooga, we’d previously visited parts of Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We’d visited Point Park at the top of Lookout Mountain. I’d never been to the visitors center for The Battle of Chattanooga which is located there so we did that on this trip. There is a ‘high tech’…
Everglades National Park – Flamingo and Royal Palm Area
This was my favorite day in the Everglades. We were at Flamingo campground, which is the southernmost part of the continental US. I started off earlier than the rest of my crew with some sunrise solitude. Another reason I was up early was to be at the ranger station to get ranger-led kayak tour passes…
Everglades Alligator Farm + Ernest F Coe Visitors Center + Travel Day
Everglades National Park is a big place…1.5 million acres of wetland. We explored the north and west side from Everglade City, FL. For the rest of our trip, we moved to the southernmost point, Flamingo. On this travel day, we packed up the RV and made the 130-mile journey to our new location. Once we…
Everglades National Park – Shark Valley Area (Airboat Ride and Shark Valley Tram Tour)
On our second day in Everglades National Park, we visited the Shark Valley area. We met up with Emmaline at the Everglades Safari Airboat ride. I saw plenty of airboats while in the Everglades area but these were the best ones for this redneck. Two huge V8 motors on an extremely large airboat was impressive.…
Everglades National Park – Gulf Coast Area (Kayaking and Boat Tour)
Our first day in the Everglades National Park was in Everglade City, Florida. We visited the Gulf Coast Visitors Center of the Everglades National Park. The Gulf Coast Area leads into the 10,000 Islands. We took a boat tour into this area and out to the Gulf of Mexico. Everglades City is the Stone Crab…
Olympic National Park – Ruby Beach, Crescent Lake, Marymere Falls, and Hurricane Ridge
Throwback 2017! This trip included the moment where I decided I was going to figure out how to travel more. We spent a few days in different areas of Olympic National Park. The reason I needed to figure out my travel situation was that I left feeling like a few days didn’t do this park…
Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)
We spent a fun-filled, jam-packed, day in Bryce Canyon National Park in the Summer of 2019. This is my favorite National Park that I’ve visited so far. It is so beautiful! We drove down from Park City, Utah, and explored the park before heading on to Zion National Park. I might have cut it a…
Zion National Park – Our Two Day Adventure
Zion Canyon, The Narrows, Riverside Walk, Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools, Big Bend, Pa’rus Trail, South Entrance, Cable Mountain Lodge, Zion Canyon Shuttle, Swimming, Hiking. We saw all that but two days at Zion National Park wasn’t nearly enough to see everything! Phenomenal! If you have not been…GO! Zion National Park is currently duking it out…
Deano’s Favorite National Monuments (Force Ranked)
There are 129 protected areas in the US that are known as National Monuments. These are the ones I have been too (force ranked):
#1 – California Coastal (California / visited 2014) – Most people don’t realize that most of the California Coast is a National Monument. We spent time on a beautiful part of it on our visit to Carmel-By-The-Sea. We drove the 17 Mile Drive up to Monterey, saw Pebble Beach, drove down the coast to Big Sur, and visited Point Lobos State Natural Preserve. Hard to imagine any part of the California Coast being more beautiful than this section of it.
#2 – Capulin Volcano (New Mexico / visited 2005) – On our way back to Denver to fly home from one of our New Mexico visits we stopped by Pop’s ranch in northern New Mexico and had a picnic with his ranch manager. We headed north from there and went by Capulin on the way back to the interstate. It was windy because storms were rolling in and such a fun hike with the kids. The views at the top were awesome and made better by the ominous weather that day.
#3 – Muir Woods (California / visited 2014) – We visited here while on one of our San Francisco trips. The trees are amazingly large and the hike is very peaceful…except for the part where my mother-in-law, Mimi, broke all the ‘trail rules’ with her excessive loudness. The trees have survived forest fires and decades of weather and wind…but barely a visit from Mimi! Ha!
#4 – Browns Canyon (Colorado / visited 2005, 2011) – I’ve rafted here multiple times in the Arkansas River on some of our stays in Colorado. The last time was on our trip to Aspen in 2011.
#5 – Bandelier National Monument (New Mexico / visited 1999) – I think I visited this in 1999. We had been to Santa Fe and swung by here on the way to Pop’s cabin. Just outside Los Alamos, New Mexico this is a pretty phenomenal place in terms of living history. These are cliff dwellings and it is very interesting to see how these places are built but also a bit eerie to think about all the humans that lived there before we came along to look at things. Very interesting place!
#6 – Statue of Liberty (New York / visited 1990) – Visited this on a band trip in high school.
Deano’s Favorite National Memorials (Force Ranked)
#1 – Lincoln Memorial – (Washington DC / visited 1990) – Visited this on a band trip in high school. My favorite President and I love the words from the Gettysburg Address which are featured on this monument.
#2 – Washington Monument – (Washington DC / visited 1990) – Visited this on a band trip in high school.
#3 – Vietnam Veterans Memorial – (Washington DC / visited 1990) – Visited this on a band trip in high school. I’ve learned a ton about the Vietnam war since visiting this. I want to go back to it now.
DeanoRolls (@deanoroll5) 