National Geographic list of the 10 least visited national parks.

[Kirk W]

1. GATES OF THE ARCTIC NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE

2. LAKE CLARK NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE

3. KOBUK VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

4. ISLE ROYALE NATIONAL PARK

5. NATIONAL PARK OF AMERICAN SAMOA

6. NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK

7. KATMAI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE

8. DRY TORTUGAS NATIONAL PARK

9. WRANGELL-ST. ELIAS NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE

10. VIRGIN ISLANDS NATIONAL PARK

 

Of this list we have only visited numbers 8 and 10. How many have you visited?

[agesilaus]

Worthless list for 99% of us. Almost all those listed are impossible to visit for RVers.

A list of the least visited parks in the lower 48 would be much more useful. Like this:

• Wolf Trap NP for the Performing Arts. ...
• Guadalupe Mountains NP. ...
• Voyageurs NP. ...
• Congaree NP. ...
• Great Basin NP. ...
• Dry Tortugas NP. ...
• Isle Royale NP. MICHAEL J THOMPSON/SHUTTERSTOCK. ...
• North Cascades NP. SOISUDAS/SHUTTERSTOCK.
• 
  And even that list is almost half impossibe with out a boat. We have not been to Congree, Voyageurs {which I think has parts on dry land}, or North Cascades. They are on our to-do list. And why is Wolf Trap even a NP in the first place, I smell the stink of politics.

[Yahoo Ramblers]

4,6 & 9

[Kirk W]

21 hours ago, agesilaus said:

Almost all those listed are impossible to visit for RVers.

If we assume that we can only visit if we take our RV, then that is true. When we visited Dry Tortugas NP we were fulltimers as were the other two couples who were with us. We visited by boat and left the 3 RVs in a campground but we did visit. We have visited many of the National Parks and also numerous other sites managed by the NPS by means other than our RV and we plan to continue todo so as long as we are able. I suspect that there are others who read the forum that may be interested as well. There is even a group called Worldwide Travelers BOF that is not exclusive to RV travel. 

The National Park System encompasses 424 national park sites in the United States. They span across more than 84 million acres, with parks in each state and extending into the territories, including parks in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam. Only 63 of them have the "National Park" designation in their names.   

How Many National Parks Are There?

[LindaH]

We have visited -- with an RV -- Guadalupe Mountains, Great Basin, and North Cascades.  None of these require a boat to get to.  In fact, you can't get to them by boat.

Edited April 28, 2023 by LindaH

[agesilaus]

I'll grant Dry Tortuga as an exception, but who plans to visit Samoa NP? And many of tje Alaska parks are multi day hike in only, and with the bear population up there hiking is no simple affair.

 

[agesilaus]

3 minutes ago, LindaH said:

We have visited -- with an RV -- Guadalupe Mountains, Great Basin, and North Cascades.  None of these require a boat to get to.

I never said that they do need a boat, we have been to Guadeloupe and Great Basin several times and want to visit North Cascades. Great Basin is a great visit with a cave but is way off any beaten path being on the famous NV Hwy 50. Guadeloupe is on the way to Carlsbad but there isn't a lot to do in that park. No scenic drives for example and limited hiking.

 

[sandsys]

5 hours ago, agesilaus said:

Guadeloupe is on the way to Carlsbad but there isn't a lot to do in that park. No scenic drives for example and limited hiking.

We are human beings not human doings. It is enough to just be. You could stop and see what there is without having to "do".

Linda

[2gypsies]

6 hours ago, agesilaus said:

I never said that they do need a boat, we have been to Guadeloupe and Great Basin several times and want to visit North Cascades. Great Basin is a great visit with a cave but is way off any beaten path being on the famous NV Hwy 50. Guadeloupe is on the way to Carlsbad but there isn't a lot to do in that park. No scenic drives for example and limited hiking.

 

We've done five of the listed parks:

We've driven Hwy 50 multiple times and a great place to boondock to visit Great Basin NP is Sacramento Pass BLM about 10 miles west of the park.  It's an awesome place to star watch!

Guadalupe National Park has approx. 20 trails of all abilities and lengths.  We climbed 'the peak' - signed the log book at the top - 9 mi. round trip and love McKittrick trail - so very pretty. There are various road entrances for scenic drives.

We were offered a volunteer gig at Dry Tortugas but timing didn't work.  It would have been a great experience.

North Cascades has many, many trails and nearby campgrounds.

Isle Royale NP - we took the ferry from Copper Harbor... did some beautiful hiking with lots of water views and moose and returned that day via the ferry.

Wrangell NP Alaska - we drove around 50-60 mi to see the Kennecott copper mine.

[fpmtngal]

I’ve visited 6 (North Cascades) and 9 (Wrangell/St. Elias), I’ve always wanted to visit Isle Royale, but have never managed to get there.  Maybe one day…

[Vladimir]

On 4/27/2023 at 7:27 AM, Kirk W said:

6. NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK

9. WRANGELL-ST. ELIAS NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE

I visited North Cascades National Park as a Forest Service employee.  It seems that the Park Service illegally posted the boundary line between the Forest Service and Park Service managed lands. 

I can understand since NPS employees have a hard time with a map and compass!!

Anyway, the information on the Easy Pass trail is at the end of this post:

https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2010/08/whats-in-name.html

It is a grind to get to the ridge where the National Park starts, but well worth it.  If your lazy, the NPS posted the boundary a thousand feet below the ridge, but trust me you want to get up to the ridge.

Wrangell-St. Elias was a total surprise.  I got there in my RV.

https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2016/10/usbackroads-destination-dead-dog-hill.html

National Parks were America's fourth best idea after the Declaration of Independence and Forest Service and BLM lands.

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Vladimir

[bruce t]

Just to throw a curved ball!!

Define "visit"? There are millions of folks who stop at the visitors center and tick that NP off their list. Some NPs we have done just that. Stopped. Read the information and drove on. Other NPs we have pulled the hiking boots on and hiked 20 miles into the park. Far away from the car parks. 

How many folks have driven to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Looked over the edge from one of the car parks and called done?

I'm not being critical. Just a thought about what "seeing a NP" realy is.

 

[sandsys]

1 hour ago, bruce t said:

How many folks have driven to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Looked over the edge from one of the car parks and called done?

Sort of.  We also drove to the north rim and peeked over the edge there.

If you want to have fun, ask for a Junior Ranger guidebook and do the activities in it.

From the NPS website: "Junior Rangers are typically between the ages of 5 to 13, although people of all ages can participate."

Linda

[2gypsies]

2 hours ago, bruce t said:

How many folks have driven to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Looked over the edge from one of the car parks and called done?

 

We explore our national parks thoroughly.  We hiked down the Bright Angel Trail and picked up our raft trip through the Canyon for days.  Awesome remembrance!

We volunteered at Sleeping Bear Dunes Nat'l Lakeshore and there's a 'Scenic Drive' on the map.  I couldn't tell you how often we were asked "Is there anything to see on the drive?"

[Steven@146]

In a couple weeks we will be at Big Bend Natl Park. We will visit Big Bend Ranch State Park as well. Looking forward to experiencing for ourselves what we have seen in videos. Also looking forward to experiencing the "Dark Sky Reserve".  We are not able to take the longer more difficult trails but there are some easier @ a mile or two that we can take.

I can understand why they say it is one of the less visited NP, it's kind of out there a ways.

[Kirk W]

12 hours ago, bruce t said:

Define "visit"?

10 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

We explore our national parks thoroughly.

I am wondering how you define that as well. To use Yellowstone NP as an example, we have done some hiking on some of the shorter trails of a couple of miles roundtrip, we have walked the vast majority of the boardwalks, and in 2004 we volunteered at an Idaho state park and made day trips to spend a total of 26 days, 1 or 2 day trips to each attraction where we walked nearly all of the boardwalks. Yet we have not seen even close to all that park has to offer. The park boasts more than 900 miles (1,449 km) of hiking trails and 15 miles of boardwalks so did we see the park thoroughly?

At Denali NP we did an all day tour by bus with stops at all of the major attractions while there for 2 days.Denali National Park is huge – 6 million acres to be precise. So, to preserve the park's natural beauty, there are only 35 miles of hiking trails.

Everglades NP has about 1.5 million acres of canals, marshes and tropical critters, its hiking options are limited. There are 3 entrances and 5 visitor centers and we have been to all of those as well as having hiked most of the trails that they do have. When we volunteered there for 4 months in 2008/9 we also spent a day touring some areas not open to the public with an LEO by airboat but we didn't do any of the 120 miles of canoe/kayak trails. 

I could give other examples but the point is that with most of our national parks and monuments, to define what it means to see it well is a very subjective thing. Most of us see what we can based on the time that we have, our physical abilities and even our budgets. I think the only one of those attractions that I have seen enough to fully satisfy me with no desire to return to see more would have to be Devil's Tower, where we did spent 3 days on a fairly small attraction. When we were at Olympic NP, one of the park rangers told me that he had been in that park for 23 years and that there were still parts that he had not seen. 

[Kirk W]

National Parks: Ken Burns on why they were America's best idea

“You begin to have your memories or the important memories, the major signposts etched into your consciousness by the power of the national parks, and I can’t think of anything else besides tragedy--and this is the opposite of tragedy--that does that so well for us,” Burns says.

[RV_]

I am surprised Hoh Rain forest, part of the National park system isn't mentioned as a least visited NP. It is part of the the Olympic National Park so may be included in that count.

They have very short trails behind the visitor center that immerse within a few hundred yards to see things normally involving long arduous hikes but they also have longer more challenging hikes for those who can as well as the Hoh river and lake in the valley

We have been to most of the better known large US National Parks and Canadian Provincial parks in Alberta and BC on the way up to Alaska to Dawson Creek then across the Alcan and back to the US five months later along the western major route the Cassiar Highway. Yes we did Denali, Kenai, Chugach parks and several others up there.

Hoh is a gem we have gone to twice because of its immediate exposure to spectacular rain forest despite being approximately 31 miles south of Forks off Highway 101. It was never crowded when we went in late spring and fall. We drove up with our 36 foot fiver and back no ferry or cruises because we could explore and stay in any areas we liked.

Go here and scroll down:

https://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/visiting-the-hoh.htm

 

[2gypsies]

3 hours ago, Kirk W said:

I could give other examples but the point is that with most of our national parks and monuments, to define what it means to see it well is a very subjective thing. Most of us see what we can based on the time that we have, our physical abilities and even our budgets. 

I agree. 'thoroughly' according to abilities and budget and time.

I was replying to Bruce T's comment about some just getting out of the car at Grand Canyon and looking over the edge and then moving on.  The person spent a lot of money to visit so why not enjoy even the simple things for a couple days or more or even just overnight?  Ranger programs? Visitor Center films? Short walks? A sunrise or sunset? A drive at sunrise or sunset for animal viewing - the best times.

[Kirk W]

22 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

I was replying to Bruce T's comment about some just getting out of the car at Grand Canyon and looking over the edge and then moving on. 

I think that we have all seen them. "Hurry and look! Take some pictures and get back in the car because we still have 300 miles to go today!"   🙄

Edited April 30, 2023 by Kirk W
repair a typo

[sandsys]

21 hours ago, Kirk W said:

I think that we have all seen them. "Hurry and look! Take some pictures and get back in the care because we still have 300 miles to go today!"   🙄

Earlier I implied that's us but it's really not. Dave usually hiked further than I did but we never just got out, took pictures, and moved on. Unless I was having one of those days where getting out wasn't an option but, even then, Dave did and brought me back pictures from further into a park.

Linda

[bruce t]

A few years back we spent 15-20 minutes trying to find a park at the Newfound Gap in the Smokies NP. The crowds were out. It was a Sunday. It was the peak of fall colours. Wife and I had been hiking many sections of the Appalachian trail and we wanted to hike north from the car park. Day hike. 4-5 hours out and 4-5 hours back. The first 2-300 yards of the trails was like sale day at Walmart!!! Crowds? Gosh push and shove. But after about 500 yards we were all but by ourselves. A mile further up the trail we could have hiked naked without fear of being seen. FWIW we don't hike naked. 😉

Go to Arches NP. Crowds!!! Try Canyonlands. The south section. The Needles. Car parks are all but empty. Hike the Confluence trail and you will be lucky to see anyone else on the trail. Yet it's spectacular. 

My point is that I would rather take the risk with the bears and poison ivy than the traffic in a NP. The postcard views of NPs are overrun with folks who can't go further or simply don't want to go further. There's an upside in that the small percentage of worn-out sections of the parks preserve the vast majority of the park.

But my guess it's more damaging for your health sitting at home eating popcorn in front of the TV.

 

[agesilaus]

Quote

Go to Arches NP. Crowds!!! Try Canyonlands. The south section. The Needles. Car parks are all but empty. Hike the Confluence trail and you will be lucky to see anyone else on the trail. Yet it's spectacular. 

 

Arches, GSMNP, Zion, South Rim, Yosemite and TNP are all notorious for the mobs. Arches and Zion crowds are blamed on an advert campaign Utah did with big billboards in Times Square and other east and west coast cities. It worked too well.

GSMNP is the only major park in the east so yeah, big mobs. And that pass is not the worst.

We visited Zion in early April last year and there was still a mob scene. So hit these places in late fall or winter.

Canyonlands requires major effort on the part of visitors so no crowds, we did a week there last year. Glacier GTTS road is usually packed.

Such is life in modern tomes hopefully the going-on-the-road craze caused by the plague years is abating. RV sales are way down.

Edited May 1, 2023 by agesilaus

[Kirk W]

Based on many visits to Yellowstone NP, one big factor is to visit in the fall after school has started or in spring before school ends. In addition to the lack of  traffic and large crowds, either of those times you will see more wildlife than in busy seasons, partly due to fewer people to disturb them but also most animals are most active in early spring to recover from winter and in the fall to prepare for winter. The very best time to observe the bears of the park is in late September and October as they are pushing to gain fat for winter hibernation and pretty much ignore everything but food sources. If you do visit in the busy part of the year, arrive early and plan to walk as Bruce has suggested. Our experience was that crowds drop away very quickly, even in areas with boardwalks. A park ranger told me that in most areas, 60% of the visitors never go more than 1/4 mile and after 1 mile you will have left about 90% of the visitors behind. He said that they estimate that no more than 1% of the visitors ever get as much as 5 miles into the trails. 

[bruce t]

We lived/RVed in the USA for approx 8 years. In that time we learnt many things that we greatly appreciated about the USA. At the top of the list would be the parks. Be they National, State, City or county parks. COE, forestry or whatever. The park system is a wonderful asset. Much to the credit of folks like the CCC back in the 20-30s. Im not sure many Americans realise what a wonderful asset they have often on their doorstep.

The problem is that many parks are being worn out by their popularity. Goodness knows what will happen to them if they become more popular. I think that park danger comes from the humans who take so much for granted. 

What's the solution? I have no idea but someone had better find a solution soon or the problems will only get worse.