7 Best U.S. National Parks to Visit

I have it on my bucket list to see every national park - and collect a patch for a fun “adventure jacket”. This is what I sketched up to group clusters of NP’s that one could reasonably visit in a trip (with about 7-10 total days per trip). Comes out to 18 trips over the course of a few decades. (Carlsbad and Hot Springs crossed cause I went there recently)

Biased opinion: Fiordland National Park, New Zealand

Before the Midwest was covered in smoke, I had the pleasure of spending about a week hiking across the Lower 48's Least Visited National Park,* which has been on my bucket list for about 5 years. We took the lesser traveled Minong Ridge Trail. The closest thing I can compare it to is the Avatar's spirit realm, or Jurassic Park, or the Kokiri Forest in Zelda. I can't say enough good things about this place, even if it was the hardest 45 miles I've ever done.

I just saw a negative post about most overrated NP, now let’s talk about our favorite things we did in a US NP and our favorite experience. Mine is Yellowstone, such an incredible park. There is no one specific experience that I preferred in the park, as everything is magical. Some pictures attached!

I know there tend to be quite a few campground and facility closures at the end of September in many of our National Parks especially in the mountains. I work Fire season all summer so the fall is really my main opportunity. Im in the South West so Utah has great options, Im just curious if there is a gem out there for the Fall time frame and would love some input! Thanks, Pic for attention. (Been to Yellowstone many times)

As you can see I simply love the West 😁

But I would like to see some new places and national parks and I am quite unsure what to choose next (open to any ideas!). I still have the Annual Pass until Feb 27

Here is what I am considering:

1. WA + OR and its National parks: basically my top choice as Crater Lake, Olympic and Rainier looks just incredible and even the nature outside of those parks like OR coast is stunning. But I think this must be done between May and early October.

2. Dakotas: basically go back to Wyoming, repeat Yellowstone, then Devils Tower and parks in Dakotas with Mount Rushmore

3. Colorado + NM + West Texas: All Colorado Parks then go to Carlsbad Cavers, Guadalupe and Big Bend. A huge trip on road, maybe too big. But definitely on the list

4. Anything “different”, not top West Parks. Or simply California, but I am saving that for a bit later.

I would really love to get some advice from people who plan/done options above. As all of those are not those most famous parks and I am from Czech Republic I may have blurred expectations 😁

Watching sunrise from top of Angels Landing. Had it all to myself. Half way back down before I saw another person.

Climbing Longs Peak every year in Rocky

The cave hike in Pinnacles

Watching sunrise under Delicate Arch with no one else around

Watching the Milky Way come up over Canyonlands

Just seeing all, or most of Olympic

If I were to put together a traveling wish list - what are some parks I should experience?

Hey Users! I want to hear your thoughts. Aside from the obvious ones like Yosemite or Glacier, which park do you think is the best for someone visiting the U.S. for the first time? I’m looking to impress but maybe something a bit more accessible for a first trip.

Yes, Yellowstone. Then Bryce followed by Denali.

One of the few National Parks where you can more or less hike the entire thing in a day! I recommend this loop to anyone who visits:

• Start from Bear Gulch Nature Center
• Hike to Moses Spring Trail

• From here, follow Moses Spring Trail → Rim Trail → High Peaks Trail → Tunnel Trail → Juniper Canyon Trail → Balconies Trail → Old Pinnacles Trail → Bench Trail → Bear Gulch Trail → End at Nature Center!

• 12 miles total, 2,150 feet of elevation gain.

I know, a lot of trail names. I promise it's not that complicated, there are just a lot of individually named trail segments lol. GPS route below! Park map for reference here.

Yellowstone in winter!!!!! I was lucky enough to visit in late December. I booked through the Yellowstone Institute and stayed in the Mammoth Hot Springs lodge for 5 nights. Pure magic! The highlight was a ranger guided snowmobiling trip to the waterfalls (frozen at that time of year). We didn’t see another human all day. Just bison, elk, otters, bald eagles and even trumpet swans.

Yellowstone Institute took me and my family out every day in a specially equipped van (studded tires to grip the snow packed roads). We learned so much about identifying the various animal tracks and we searched for wolves with spotting scopes. My kids are grown now but we still talk about it.

Oddly enough the bombardier trip to Old Faithful was our least favorite thing we did. Not because Old Faithful disappointed us (quite the contrary). It was because we had gotten used to the magic of being in a part of the park with very few visitors. There were big crowds at Old Faithful, even in late December. Mammoth Lodge, on the other hand, was very quiet and cozy.

The geothermal activity that spews steam into the air coats everything with a thin veneer of ice. It makes the scenery a winter wonderland. If you really want to channel your inner Princess Elsa there is not better place to do it.

The answer has changed over the years.

As a kid, it was Arches, especially the Fiery Furnace, where I could shimmy through a natural maze, always wondering what treasure would be found around the next wall.

As a young adult, it was Yosemite. Those epic backpacking treks along the John Muir trail or in Toulumne Meadows. Valley visits in winter were also sublime.

As an older adult, it is Yellowstone. The ecology and geology of the place is unique. It is like five or six national parks in one place. Maybe there's issues with crowds, but a short hike resolves that.

At some point, I'll fade into senescence, and maybe there will be a new favorite, or maybe I'll have no favorite, just satisfaction that generations prior had the foresight to preserve such beauty into this system of national parks.

Death Valley.

There are many awesome things to see, but for me the most awesome was the Salt Creek pupfish.

These are a species of fish that are remnant from when much of the Great Basin was a giant lake. Now, small populations of fish live in impossibly tiny refugia. Back in the 90s they had a boardwalk over the creek and you could see the pupfish swimming around their little world. As a young person just on the cusp of adolescence, standing among mountains and an endlessly blue sky, I experienced my first case of wonder at the magnitude of the universe. 

I will always be grateful to the pupfish for sharing that with me.

Acadia - Going to the top of Cadillac Mountain at 4am and watching the first sunrise in the US.

Rocky Mountains - hiking to Dream & Emerald Lakes. It was my first time seeing mountains of that scale and I was blown away

Olympic - Hoh Rainforest, the beaches, Hurricane Ridge. Pretty much everything

I've been to 39 national parks with repeated visits to many. To me the best ones are where you can get away from crowds and actually be in nature. So it depends on the time of year and how far you are willing to travel from a parking lot. Rocky mountain is a favorite because it is not too far from my home. I really enjoyed Death Valley. The skies are so clear you can see millions of stars. Wrangell St. Elias is great if you have the proper vehicle to get into the undeveloped parts of the park. Last 4th of July I saw a bald eagle flying overhead and it was magical.

Zion. Fly into Vegas and drive

I describe Zion as if Walt Disney designed a national park. There’s a really cute little town right next to it. That has a shuttle right into the park. You can stay there and not even have to drive to the park. Once you were in the park, there is a shuttle that goes around the bottom of the valley and drops you off at all of the different main hiking points. It’s super accessible and easy to get to and each hike takes you in a different direction up into the canyons.

Hard not to pick Glacier, at least in the lower 48, but there are a handful of others I wouldn't be able to argue with either. The tetons are pretty phenomenal

Acadia in Maine in the summer is spectacular.

Bryce is my personal favorite. Has some of the best hiking ive done. Crater lake is just epic the first time you get a view from the rim. Glacier is gorgeous. Yellowstone has it all. Redwoods is unlike anything ive ever experienced. I love shenandoah and the smokies as i grew up in VA and would go to the area every year