National Parks?

[peppermint]

I have set goals to make it to as many national parks as I can. No set time frame for this. The parks I'm most interested in are Arches, Zion, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Crater Lake, Denali, Glacier, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, Redwood, and Sequoia.

Does anyone have any tips for these or any of the national parks? (Time of year to go, did you go alone or on a guided tour, what kinds of activities did you do? What did you like/dislike? Did you camp or where did you stay?) For reference I'd most likely be going alone or with an adult travel partner, no kids. I love hiking, sightseeing, and learning about the parks and the surrounding areas. Oh, and I live in the Midwest so will be likely flying in to all these locations (unless I win the lottery, then BOOM - cross country road trip!)

Thanks in advance for any info or advice!

[G22]

I've been to almost all the ones you mentioned. Summer months (June-August) are the most popular months for pretty much all national parks. I've always gone and done the parks on my own time, no guides or anything. Its hard to highlight everything on each of those parks. There is SO much to see in each one.

I would recommend knocking several out in one trip though. We've done that many times and its so cool to see how different each of the parks are. We knocked out like 10 parks in Utah last summer in a 2 week period.

Arches - Super hot in the summer. We went in July, so any big day hikes we wanted to do, we started really early before it got blazing hot. We did the Delicate Arch hike and its my favorite one there I think. So amazing to stand under it and see how small you are in comparison.

Zion - Also super hot in the summer. It got to 107 one day while we were there. Definitely start out any day hikes early on here too. Zion is neat because most NPs you are up in the high looking down on the view, whereas here you are at the bottom of the canyon looking up. The towering walls are amazing. We did the Narrows hike, where you hike through the canyon in a river. Such a cool hike. Zion also is one of the only parks that has a busing service that you have to use to see the main part of the park. You cannot drive on your own through the whole thing, but the buses run often so we didn't have too much issue catching one when we needed it.

Yellowstone - Definitely one of the parks you'll want a few days there. Its just so big its hard to drive the entire thing and get out and do hikes in one day.

Yosemite - I love this park. My memories are a bit fuzzy since I went in high school, but amazing views here.

Denali - We went in July, and had rainy/cloudy weather the day we did the park. But still its Alaska, and so cool. We saw a ton of wildlife here.

Glacier - I can't say enough good stuff about Glacier. It is my favorite NP and I love living a few hours from it. We go up a couple times a year. Good medium hikes we've done are Avalanche Lake, Hidden Lake, the hike around St Mary's Lake to Virginia Falls (I forget the name of the trail). My goal hikes for this year are part of the Highline, Iceberg Lake and Grinnell Glacier. You'll want to do this park in the summer if you want to hike, because its snow covered half the year. Going To The Sun road doesn't even open all the way until mid-June on a good year.

Grand Teton - I also love this park. Similar to Glacier though, winter months are rough there and some of the roads close, so if you want to hike I'd recommend summer.

Grand Canyon - Super busy but still something every one should see at some point. South Rim has all the big pull offs and views, but North Rim is still pretty spectacular. I've done both and was never disappointed.

Not to pimp my blog, but we did Arches, Zion, Teton, Grand Canyon, Bryce and a few more last summer. I've also got a few entries on Sequoia from when we lived in CA and we currently live in MT so I have a TON of entries on Glacier. Lots of pictures and descriptions of our trips if you want ideas

I'm a national park nut, if its not apparent, so if you have any other questions I'll try to answer them. We almost always stay in hotels when doing the parks, but I have camped in Teton and Glacier before. Teton's sites are on a first comes basis, I remember that from last summer. But we showed up at 5pm and still got a site on Coulter Bay. The popular ones, like Jenny Lake, fill up completely by noon if I remember right.

[Moe]

I've been to Rainier, Glacier, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone all in the summer. They were spectacular in the summer (But I have no frame of reference)

I've been to Yosemite and Redwood in the fall. They were beautiful.

I did Glacier, Tetons and Yellowstone all in one road trip (moving from Seattle to Minneapolis). That was a fun way to visit the parks (Included in that trip were the Badlands and Rushmore).

I can't say how much I absolutely loved Tetons and Glacier.  By far my fave.

I went with my DH. We hiked/did sightseeing. We stayed at nearby hotels and lodges.

[LoveTrains]

I spent a summer in college working at Yellowstone. Best summer ever.

The park is huge - bigger than some states - so you will need a minimum if three days IMO. If you want to stay in the park book a year ahead of time. Or you might be ok booking now for September which is the best time to go anyway.

[Susie]

We did Grand Canyon in June 2 years ago. It was so hot that we'd get up around 4am, hike from sunrise until 10am, go back and nap in our tent until late afternoon, hike until 10pm or midnight, and sleep again at night. That was a mixed bag: we did not get to hike down to the canyon floor that way, which we would have liked to do, but it meant that I have amazing sunrise and sunset photos. I did a lot of photography practice on that trip.

We camped on the south rim, in a campground where we shared space with RVs. That was not so awesome. But it was the only place we could get reservations (couldn't get a backcountry permit) on a couple months' notice, so we dealt. We were out west for a wedding and picked a national park based on availability to camp (in large part) to tack on to the trip. I'd have liked to do north rim + Zion instead, but we couldn't get a guaranteed campsite in either place.

[peppermint]

Thank you all for your replies, I'm saving this info to plan out my trips.

@g22, thank you SO much for your extensive reply. I'm off to read and bookmark your blog!

LoveTrains, how cool that you worked at Yellowstone. what did you do?

-Moe- - how long did you spend at each park on your roadtrip to minneapolis? trying to get a feel for how much time i should allot for each park.

Susie - thanks for the tips about getting up early and staying up later to catch the sunrises and sunsets. photography will definitely be important on my trips.

Now I'm even more excited to go to these parks. Maybe a move out of the Midwest will follow...

ETA: Tagging @g22 down here since it won't let me fix it above.

[peppermint]

@g22 now i'm freaking out...i'm reading your blog AND YOU'RE IN OHIO EATING SCHULER'S DONUTS. i am from springfield!!!

ETA: p.s. you're adorable.

[G22]

May 16, 2014 15:23:25 GMT -5 peppermint said:

@g22 now i'm freaking out...i'm reading your blog AND YOU'RE IN OHIO EATING SCHULER'S DONUTS. i am from springfield!!!

ETA: p.s. you're adorable.

No way?!? I'm originally from Springfield and my family all still lives there. I married a military man so we live out in MT now so crazy!

Sorry about the tagging. I changed my name so the tag isn't the same.

[G22]

Also so glad to see you survived the tornado weather you guys got earlier this week! I went to college in Cedarville and panicked when I couldn't get ahold of my family right away. Scary stuff!

[peppermint]

May 16, 2014 15:37:34 GMT -5 G22 said:

May 16, 2014 15:23:25 GMT -5 peppermint said:

@g22 now i'm freaking out...i'm reading your blog AND YOU'RE IN OHIO EATING SCHULER'S DONUTS. i am from springfield!!!

ETA: p.s. you're adorable.

No way?!? I'm originally from Springfield and my family all still lives there. I married a military man so we live out in MT now so crazy!

Sorry about the tagging. I changed my name so the tag isn't the same.

Oh my gosh, this is so funny! Your blog is great - love all the pictures and have it bookmarked now to help plan my national park trips

How long have you lived in Montana? Are you close to Glacier NP?

[peppermint]

May 16, 2014 15:41:38 GMT -5 G22 said:

Also so glad to see you survived the tornado weather you guys got earlier this week! I went to college in Cedarville and panicked when I couldn't get ahold of my family right away. Scary stuff!

Yes, it was super scary. Sounds like your family is okay too. I hate tornado season SO HARD.

[G22]

May 16, 2014 15:41:46 GMT -5 peppermint said:

[Source]

No way?!? I'm originally from Springfield and my family all still lives there. I married a military man so we live out in MT now so crazy!

Sorry about the tagging. I changed my name so the tag isn't the same.

Oh my gosh, this is so funny! Your blog is great - love all the pictures and have it bookmarked now to help plan my national park trips

How long have you lived in Montana? Are you close to Glacier NP?

Aw thanks We've been in Montana for 3 years, and have 1 more year to go until my H gets sent elsewhere. I love living here! We're a little over 2 hours from Glacier so I drag my H up for day trips as often as I can.

And every time I come home I get Schuler's no less than 2 times. Last time I had a few I put on my carry-on for the trip home. My H isn't originally from there so he doesn't get my obsession with Schuler's. We don't have any good donut places here.

[peppermint]

May 16, 2014 15:49:25 GMT -5 G22 said:

May 16, 2014 15:41:46 GMT -5 peppermint said:

Oh my gosh, this is so funny! Your blog is great - love all the pictures and have it bookmarked now to help plan my national park trips

How long have you lived in Montana? Are you close to Glacier NP?

Aw thanks We've been in Montana for 3 years, and have 1 more year to go until my H gets sent elsewhere. I love living here! We're a little over 2 hours from Glacier so I drag my H up for day trips as often as I can.

And every time I come home I get Schuler's no less than 2 times. Last time I had a few I put on my carry-on for the trip home. My H isn't originally from there so he doesn't get my obsession with Schuler's. We don't have any good donut places here.

I'm sooo jealous a) that you live in Montana and b) that you're 2 hours away from Glacier. So awesome.

Haha Schuler's is THE BEST. I live 2 hours away from Springfield now but always get it when I go home, no matter what!

[G22]

May 16, 2014 15:52:34 GMT -5 peppermint said:

May 16, 2014 15:49:25 GMT -5 G22 said:

Aw thanks We've been in Montana for 3 years, and have 1 more year to go until my H gets sent elsewhere. I love living here! We're a little over 2 hours from Glacier so I drag my H up for day trips as often as I can.

And every time I come home I get Schuler's no less than 2 times. Last time I had a few I put on my carry-on for the trip home. My H isn't originally from there so he doesn't get my obsession with Schuler's. We don't have any good donut places here.

I'm sooo jealous a) that you live in Montana and b) that you're 2 hours away from Glacier. So awesome.

Haha Schuler's is THE BEST. I live 2 hours away from Springfield now but always get it when I go home, no matter what!

Its been an awesome experience. Growing up my family trips were to national parks every summer so I absolutely love being out west where all the big ones are! I'm going to Washington later this year and want to try to swing day trips to see Mount Rainer and Olympic NPs. I haven't been to those yet.

[peppermint]

May 16, 2014 16:02:03 GMT -5 G22 said:

May 16, 2014 15:52:34 GMT -5 peppermint said:

I'm sooo jealous a) that you live in Montana and b) that you're 2 hours away from Glacier. So awesome.

Haha Schuler's is THE BEST. I live 2 hours away from Springfield now but always get it when I go home, no matter what!

Its been an awesome experience. Growing up my family trips were to national parks every summer so I absolutely love being out west where all the big ones are! I'm going to Washington later this year and want to try to swing day trips to see Mount Rainer and Olympic NPs. I haven't been to those yet.

I was just in Washington earlier this year for the first time and it was BEAUTIFUL. Too short of a trip to fit in Mt. Rainier or Olympic, which was disappointing, so I'll look forward to your blog post once you go  Yes, I've been thinking of moving out west for many reasons, and the proximity to the parks would just be icing on the cake! I've only been to 2 NPs so far, I think...Smoky Mountain and Mammoth Cave.

[LoveTrains]

The summer I worked in Yellowstone I worked for the park concessionaire (not the NPS). At the time it was Amfac but I think now its Xanterra?

They run all the hotels and restaurants in the park. I worked at Mammoth Hot Springs (northern part of the park) and I worked in the reservations call center. This was in 2001, so it was a different era, and I'm not sure if we had online booking for hotel rooms. So people would call the call center (aka me!) to book hotel rooms and campsites for their visit to the park.

I cannot tell you how many people were disappointed because we were all booked for that summer. I mostly booked reservations for the following summer. The nice thing about being in Mammoth was that it was easy to get out of the park if we were bored, although I never truly was. We worked four 10 hour days with three days off in a row, and we lived in dorms set back behind the hotel. We had room and board subtracted from our paychecks and it was basically all college kids working there. It was a great time, we explored the park, went back country camping, visited Glacier, etc etc.

[LoveTrains]

peppermint my blog is mostly about trains, but I do have these two posts about visiting Olympic National Park in Washington. It was gorgeous.

trainsacrossamerica.blogspot.com/2012/07/seattle-to-sequim.html

trainsacrossamerica.blogspot.com/2012/07/hurricane-ridge.html

[peppermint]

May 16, 2014 16:22:22 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

peppermint my blog is mostly about trains, but I do have these two posts about visiting Olympic National Park in Washington. It was gorgeous.

trainsacrossamerica.blogspot.com/2012/07/seattle-to-sequim.html

trainsacrossamerica.blogspot.com/2012/07/hurricane-ridge.html

First of all, I want your job at Yellowstone. It sounded awesome!

Second, thanks for the links! I rode my very first train in March this year when I was in Washington. We took the train from Seattle to Vancouver and decided we only wanted to ever travel by rail from then on, LOL. It was really, really cool with awesome views and a great crew!

[LoveTrains]

peppermint you might have been to more national parks and don't even know it! National Parks don't have to be big. They don't have to be rural.

We have a national park in my city and its itty bitty. And its in the city. It has like one picnic table and a parking lot. And a vegetable garden and a historic home. And park rangers. There is a similar, urban national park in Boston and another one in Salem, MA, too.

[G22]

May 16, 2014 16:12:07 GMT -5 peppermint said:

May 16, 2014 16:02:03 GMT -5 G22 said:

Its been an awesome experience. Growing up my family trips were to national parks every summer so I absolutely love being out west where all the big ones are! I'm going to Washington later this year and want to try to swing day trips to see Mount Rainer and Olympic NPs. I haven't been to those yet.

I was just in Washington earlier this year for the first time and it was BEAUTIFUL. Too short of a trip to fit in Mt. Rainier or Olympic, which was disappointing, so I'll look forward to your blog post once you go  Yes, I've been thinking of moving out west for many reasons, and the proximity to the parks would just be icing on the cake! I've only been to 2 NPs so far, I think...Smoky Mountain and Mammoth Cave.

If you ever get the chance, Acadia NP up in Maine is another awesome park. We go up and stay on Mount Desert Island every 4-5 years. The entire island is so beautiful and its closer than all the NPs out here.

[peppermint]

@g22 Acadia is definitely on my list, too. so many parks, so little time, heehee.

[ginkgoleaf]

May 16, 2014 13:44:32 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

I spent a summer in college working at Yellowstone. Best summer ever.

The park is huge - bigger than some states - so you will need a minimum if three days IMO. If you want to stay in the park book a year ahead of time. Or you might be ok booking now for September which is the best time to go anyway.

Me too! I was at Canyon the summer of 2003.

OP, the Tetons and Yellowstone can easily be done in the same trip. Weather is best in the summer. My parents have a place in Jackson, let me know if you want restaurant recs.

[peppermint]

Awesome ginkgoleaf! Good to know I can do them both in the same trip and I will definitely take you up on restaurant recs! Thanks!

[brewco]

ginkgoleaf - I'd love your restaurant recs, I will be in Jackson in July. Thanks!

[ginkgoleaf]

Here's an old thread with some info about Jackson and the Tetons: pandce.proboards.com/thread/194607/jackson-hole-yellowstone Trying to dig up another post I know I had somewhere with more recs...

brewco, peppermint

[ginkgoleaf]

Here's from another thread, and I've added a couple recs:

Restaurants in Jackson Hole:
Rendezvous Bistro (consistently great food in a nice atmosphere)
Local (had a delicious vegetarian entree there on a date with DH last year)
Snake River Brewery (great local beers, good place for lunch)
The Bunnery (breakfast/lunch)

In the Tetons:
lunch at Signal Mountain - sit on the deck, beautiful view of the lake and mountains
boat tour or rent a boat at Signal Mountain
hike and picnic at String Lake, great place to wade a little
Cottonwood Creek for wading, plus beautiful river rocks

brewco, peppermint

[jaime183]

I have been to most of those parks- I love national parks!
Arches- it gets hot there from June-Aug/Sept and there is no shade at all. The delicate arch hike is the best but you need to go really early to beat the heat. It also gets really cold at night if you are camping. The whole Moab area is really pretty
Zion- beautiful park. You can't drive in, must take their bus. The narrows are cool (you hike through the river), Angels Landing is an awesome hike but you have to start early (sunrise) to beat the heat
Yellowstone- I would combine with Tetons and stay in the town of Jackson. It's a cute town and you can walk to bars and restaurants and the parks are both close by. There's so much to do there, it's beautiful and summer is perfect. The crowds get bad though. If you want to stay in a great place they book really early!
Yosemite- also book way in advance
Crater Lake- go during July or August. any other time the snow is still too high. You want to do the hike down to the water and take the boat out on the lake. It's a very beautiful place and far from everywhere but you don't need to spend too long there (not much to do).
Denali- we went this summer. we learned that most people do not get to see mt mckinley (it was fogged in). You must take a bus in (or walk) and it's an all day tour on a school bus. If you don't get to see what you want then too bad, you missed your chance (or need to pay again to do it the next day). Unless you are into backcountry hiking there isn't much to do there so dont spend too many days. if you do like to hike- you must hike on the road so it's not very private. the hotels are very touristy and mostly owned by the cruise lines. We did see some great wildlife but a lot of it was far away
Glacier- go in July or August, beautiful place.
Grand Teton- see Yellowstone notes
Grand Canyon- book 1 year in advance. It gets really hot in the summer. If you plan to hike to the bottom you need time, if not, there isn't a ton to do there.
Mount Rainier- I actually havent been here and it's probably the closest to us
Redwood, and Sequoia- both pretty, hiking. we camped and didnt stay too long.

most of the parks are so far from an aiport and make a great roadtrip. The ones in Utah can be combined into an incredible roadtrip

Read more: pandce.proboards.com/thread/326122/national-parks#ixzz3256wPN9g

[brewco]

May 17, 2014 20:52:25 GMT -5 ginkgoleaf said:

Here's from another thread, and I've added a couple recs:

Restaurants in Jackson Hole:
Rendezvous Bistro (consistently great food in a nice atmosphere)
Local (had a delicious vegetarian entree there on a date with DH last year)
Snake River Brewery (great local beers, good place for lunch)
The Bunnery (breakfast/lunch)

In the Tetons:
lunch at Signal Mountain - sit on the deck, beautiful view of the lake and mountains
boat tour or rent a boat at Signal Mountain
hike and picnic at String Lake, great place to wade a little
Cottonwood Creek for wading, plus beautiful river rocks

brewco, peppermint

Thank you! I can't wait for our vacation- H and I have never been to the western US and we're going to be able to spend time in Glacier, Yellowstone & Grand Tetons. We've gotten a ton of good recs so far from here!

[peppermint]

Thanks so much for the tips ginkgoleaf and jaime183 !!!

[lahoagie]

May 18, 2014 10:37:12 GMT -5 jaime183 said:

Denali- we went this summer. we learned that most people do not get to see mt mckinley (it was fogged in). You must take a bus in (or walk) and it's an all day tour on a school bus. If you don't get to see what you want then too bad, you missed your chance (or need to pay again to do it the next day). Unless you are into backcountry hiking there isn't much to do there so dont spend too many days. if you do like to hike- you must hike on the road so it's not very private. the hotels are very touristy and mostly owned by the cruise lines. We did see some great wildlife but a lot of it was far away

Not sure what you mean by this... You can hike anywhere you want in Denali. There are no trails so you just start hiking. There is one area that is off limits, but everywhere else is open. You can ask the bus driver to drop you off and then when you are done hiking you just flag down a bus to take you back. We never had any issues picking up a bus. The highlight for us was seeing a lynx from about 20 feet. At least that was how things were when I went two years ago.