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I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

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Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#91

Post by jeffbee »

ekr____ wrote: post #27
visiohex wrote: post #7

The ironic thing about the "best" national parks these days is that they are so overcrowded the experience can be genuinely miserable. I would gladly take a "sub-par" or boring park where I can actually be alone with nature over sitting in a two-hour traffic jam in Yosemite or Yellowstone just to see a tree.

TL;DR. Explore Yosemite on foot. I don't know Yellowstone, but the situation with Yosemite is a bit complicated. There are basically two congestion issues: 1. Congestion in the park itself. 2. Traffic. Yosemite is huge, but the only places that are really built out are Yosemite Valley (where most people go) and Tuolomne Meadows (where a lot of climbers go). Most of Yosemite is backcountry and just accessible by foot.…

Yeah I always come in Yosemite from the south. I can hike all day and see nobody.

Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#92

Post by bombcar »

ekr____ wrote: post #68
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #26

“I’m pretty content to say that North America absolutely mogs the rest of the world in national parks. “ This is exactly what a European friend remarked to me years ago. He thought us Americans were a bit unaware of just how good we had it compared to the rest of the world.

I mostly agree with this, but... if you're a hiker or a trail runner the alps really are amazing, and the infrastructure is far better than in the States. Once you get outside of really built up places like Yosemite Valley, the trails in the US basically are out in the middle of nowhere and so you're carrying all your stuff. For example, if you do John Muir Trail, there's basically nothing between Muir Trail Ranch an…

Alps is probably the only real "mogging" of the US (and things like the Himalayas, etc) - we have "one" real impressive mountain range and it has an entirely different feel, being relatively isolated from humans.

Europe and Asia have had tens of thousands of years to make alpine mountains inhabitable, and it shows.

But outside of that, the US has amazing diversity partially because it's basically an entire continent, but also because of an accident of settlement and weather patterns that large swaths of the west were available to preserve.

There was an article recently about how in the UK it's all about restoration because everything is or was inhabited, but in the US it's about preservation because so much was simply never developed at all.

Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#93

Post by paradox460 »

BenFranklin100 wrote: post #26

“I’m pretty content to say that North America absolutely mogs the rest of the world in national parks. “ This is exactly what a European friend remarked to me years ago. He thought us Americans were a bit unaware of just how good we had it compared to the rest of the world.

Well, we kind of started them. Easy to be the best with a head start

Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#94

Post by bsimpson »

I'm from the West Coast. My national park experience includes Yosemite, Volcanoes, Arches, Zion, Bryce, Redwood, Crater Lake, and Lassen. (I've technically also been to the Grand Canyon, but it was so foggy, it was more like going to the Sears Portrait Studio - you couldn't even see the canyon.)

I used to say "I've never been to a national park and wondered why it's a national park - they all have an obvious and immediate majesty to them."

Then I went to Pinnacles, and Acadia. I'd honestly forgotten about Pinnacles until I started writing this comment. It's also one of the newest parks, so even though it was underwhelming, it didn't impede my belief in park majesty.

Acadia, though, just doesn't have the magic. It's an island, which is strange because that means there's a town in the park where people live. Honestly I think I liked the coffee shop I had breakfast in more than the rest of the park. There's a summit you can take photos from and a hike that goes along the rim of the island. That seemed to be it. As a West Coast boy, it didn't have the same specialness as the other parks I've seen. Even my Mainer friends say "we don't know why Acadia is a park - there are so many other places in Maine that are at least as pretty."

If this guy thinks Yosemite, Zion, Arches, and the Grand Canyon are among America's worst parks, he's bonkers or trolling.

Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#95

Post by awakeasleep »

I would have appreciated the writer sharing more about their personal context.

"The problem with the Grand Canyon is you drive up to it, go 'ooh! ahh!' for maybe a maximum of 15 minutes, and then you’re done"

Are they disabled? I don't know how to interpret it.

Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#96

Post by [deleted] »

isatty wrote: post #88
oliver236 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no one is an idiot. no one has that identity. people do not have more or less value. we are all worthy of respect. someone can act with idiot tendencies, but they are NOT an idiot.

Some people are idiots and deserve to be called out.

[deleted]

Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#97

Post by librasteve »

john_strinlai wrote: post #74
oliver236 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh.

people agree with the top comment, so they are totally cool with the insult and will downvote anyone calling it out. if they disagreed with the comment, everyone would flag it for having an insult and you'd be getting upvotes instead.

what about people who get confused by the nested comments, can we comment?

Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#98

Post by [deleted] »

isatty wrote: post #88
oliver236 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no one is an idiot. no one has that identity. people do not have more or less value. we are all worthy of respect. someone can act with idiot tendencies, but they are NOT an idiot.

Some people are idiots and deserve to be called out.

[deleted]

Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#99

Post by BigTTYGothGF »

oliver236 wrote: post #67
oliver236 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no one is an idiot. no one has that identity. people do not have more or less value. we are all worthy of respect. someone can act with idiot tendencies, but they are NOT an idiot.

oh.

You're not supposed to write down the unwritten rules.

Re: I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to

#100

Post by sizzzzlerz »

microtonal wrote: post #50
jackconsidine wrote: post #13

> Can you hike in the Grand Canyon? Yes, technically. You can walk along the rim, but the view won’t change; same damn canyon on one side, same damn parking lot on the other. There are trails that go down into the canyon, but they’re a trap. They are featureless steep inclines formed into endless switchbacks, and when they finally end, there’s nothing to do except go back up, which will be just as boring but three ti…

We went a lot to the US in my teenage years. I have been to the Grand Canyon two or three times (you start losing counts at some point). One time we were there with our family and my aunt/uncle + kids. We hiked down the canyon because my dad was sort of the group leader and he goes on such adventures without necessarily thinking it through. So we went down with a small amount of water and food. I heard sometime years…

The NPS has large signs posted at the Bright Angel and Kaibab trailheads on the south rim warning visitors about the dangers of the trail, the heat, the steepness, the lack of shade. It is made abundantly clear that even a modest hike requires conditioning, water, appropriate shoes, and protection from the sun. They even have rangers patrolling the trails assessing hikers they pass and questioning those they believe are going to have trouble. Unfortunately, they can only recommend, not enforce. With all that, people run into difficultly and have to be hauled out. Sometimes, they die. As Ron White has said, you can't fix stupid.
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