Hi all! My GF and I are planning a National Park trip in Colorado/Utah this May - we are looking at the following parks, with a start and end in Denver:

Great Sand Dunes
Mesa Verde
Canyonlands
Arches

Any suggestions for the parks/how long to spend in each one/things to do etc? Is Mesa Verde worth it? (Skipping would cut at least 2 hours off our total drive time and at least one night of lodging.) We already have sandboarding down for Great Sand Dunes, but best places to do it would be appreciated!

Thank you! And sorry if this is formatted wrong, its my first reddit post lo

Hi, as the title said, I'm planning a trip to go to some national parks for the first time and wanted some opinions about my current plan options. For reference, I live in South Jersey and would be driving for the first two plans, but flying for the others. my biggest want for a national park trip is great views and hiking, especially mountains, lakes, and wildlife. I was planning on lodging instead of camping. I was thinking of going in mid-May but have seen some parks are better later in the summer which I'm fine with too, and I'm, planning on an about week long trip but fine with a little longer. I made these plans based on some brief research and trying to group nearby parks together, and avoiding any California parks because of flying cost. Any advice is appreciated! Currently, my possible plans are:

Plan A: Shenandoah National Park, Luray Caverns, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Mammoth Cave National Park, New River Gorge National Park.

Plan B: Acadia National Park.

Plan C: Glacier National Park.

Plan D: White Sands National Park, Carldbad Caverns National Park, Guadalupe National Park.

Plan E: Olypmic National Park, North Cascades National Park, Mount Ranier National Park, Trillium Lake.

Hey! I am in vegas for a weekend with limited time so can’t go to Zion!

My choice is between either valley of fire state park or mojave national preserve (teutinoa peak trail)

Would anybody be able to reccomend which would be more enjoyable for a roughly 1/2 hour hike? Cooler sights to see etc?

Thanks in advance!!

I am trying to get my partner into visiting national parks, but she finds that most of the standard activities blend together, things like hiking, camping, wildlife viewing, kayaking, horseback riding, etc. She finds much more enjoyment in more unique activities. However, I am having trouble finding unique things because they get drowned out in internet searches by the more tradational activities.

But for example, one unique thing I found was a cowboy cookout and musical right outside of Theadore Roosevelt National Park, with a great view of the park. Rarely do you get such a good view for a musical. She was excited about that. She also was excited about horse drawn carriages through Arcadia, another relatively rare experience in a national park.

I'm going to guadalupe national park,white sands national park and carls bad caverns i was wondering if it's a good idea to stay in el paso since it's like in the middle of everything and im only going to white sands once and carlsbad once then the rest of the week will be guadalupe mountains

I am in the early stages of planning a trip out to Washington state for this coming fall. The dates are going to be around the time of the Ohio State at Washington football game on September 27th, which I am planning/hoping to attend. I have thought about flying in the weekend prior, either Friday or Saturday and staying until the Sunday after the game. In the meantime, I am planning to visit numerous National Park sites. One of my bucket list goals is to visit not only every National Park, but all of the 400+ units in the System. Within the Seattle area, I've identified Olympic NP, Mount Rainier NP, North Cascades NP, Ross Lake NRA, Lake Chelan NRA, Ebey's Landing NR, San Juan Island NHP, and Klondike Gold Rush NHP as all being within realistic traveling distance.

My questions are:

• Is it feasible to visit each of those spots within ~9 days?
• What would be the best/worst days to visit locations?
• Suggestions for an order to visit?
• Can multiple places be checked off in one day? (Ex. Could I do San Juan Island and Ebey's Landing on the same day? I know Ross Lake Runs right through North Cascades.)
• How much time to spend at each spot?
• Best tips and strategies for car rentals?
• Advice on where to stay?
• Are there any must-do things or must-do guided tours?

I recently completed a 9 day roadtrip from Cleveland to Key West and back, where I was able to see a dozen differ NPS sites, so the prospect of lots of driving isn't too daunting for me.

Any advice that you would be able to give me would be greatly appreciated! If you think of any good questions that I didn't mention above, feel free to post it and/or answer it. Thanks!

Looking to find some books about the creation and formation of the national parks service and the national park locations. Any recommendations are appreciated!

Currently planning a family vacation with our 7&9 year old boys to Utah for mid-June. Here’s our current itinerary: Arrive in Vegas late, rent a car and head out the next morning. Stay 2 nights in Springdale to visit the main loop of Zion Stay 2 nights in Tropic to visit Bryce Canyon Stay 3 nights in Kanab - possibly visit GC North Rim, east side of Zion, Pink Sands, and/or peekaboo slot canyon (likely wouldn’t do all of these, but keeping our options open depending on weather) Stay 2 nights in Vegas

That itinerary leaves us with 1 extra night to spend somewhere. We prefer not much more than 3 hours of consecutive driving. What are your thoughts on the best place to spend the extra night?

I have been to 44/50 US states and the ones I have listed are the ones in the contingent US that I haven’t been to. I want to try and get all of these states in one trip and I want to explore some national parks but maybe there are some that are underrated or that people don’t talk about very often that are actually really cool. Suggestions?

So I’m actually local here lol but planning on hiking this weekend. I’m having trouble trying to find hikes that are accessible throughout winter or accessible right now, I know a few trails are closed. Any recommendations for something around 3 miles or so round trip?

Hi everyone!

I’ve been dreaming of visiting Olympic National Park for so long, but I’m not sure what the weather is like in mid-March. Has anyone been there around that time? Is it still worth it, or will the weather make it difficult to explore?

If you’ve been and have any tips or advice, I’d love to hear them!

Alternatively, I’m open to other outdoor destinations around the same time. I’ve already been to Utah, Arizona, Hawaii, and California, so I’m looking for something different. Any recommendations for beautiful nature spots or national parks in March would be super helpful.

Thanks in advance! 😊

I have 5 days free between two work trips, the first in Seattle, WA and the second in Great Falls, MT. I'd like to spend some time at one of the National Parks and was wondering what my best bet would be. The only kicker is it's March 29 - April 2, so I'm wagering snow is going to make my options pretty limited. Looking at a map, it seems Olympic, Mt. Rainier, North Cascades, and Glacier are all options. Any recommendations? Any must do hikes that'll actually be accessible during this time? (I'm okay with backpacking or day hikes) Also open to non NP suggestions. Thanks!

Hey all! The wife and I are planning a trip this year to see Bryce Canyon and Zion. We’ve been told it’s pretty easy to explore both of them in a trip.

Hoping to get some advice as to when to go and where to stay. We are thinking late May or mid June to avoid heat.

Should we lodge at BC and travel between the two parks? We were hoping to lodge at BC mainly to see the night sky and then drive to Zion each day for a few days. Or should we stay somewhere in the middle? Any advice or tips would be great. Thanks.

I have multiple trips planned to national parks this year, Redwoods and Crater Lake in May, New River Gorge in October, but the one I’m most worried about is Isle Royale in September - obviously there’s a cost associated with just getting there, I also will have to buy some backpacking equipment.

I’m just wondering with the current political state of the country if I should just plan to carry on business as usual, I know no one can really know for sure but I’m having a hard time proceeding with confidence that the parks are going to be operating as we know now then.

Hi everyone, I know you probably get this question a lot and after a little research I still kind of want to hear more opinions on where we should take our 1.5 yr old this September. The favorite we have right now is Acadia. We live in Orlando, FL and are okay with that flight length, I don't know if we'd want to go much longer. We plan on going to Everglades and Biscayne another time as well but for this trip we want to go bigger. Are there other parks in that 3-3.5 hr flight radius that may be underrated and great for kids? Thank you in advance!!