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Reader Participation Day: Help Us Name the Best Adventures In the National Park System, Lower 48 Edition

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Published Date

September 29, 2010

Climbing the Grand Teton, which often entails a night spent in the camp on the mountain's Lower Saddle, is one of the best adventures in the National Park System in the Lower 48. NPS photo.

What are the best adventures in the National Park System in the Lower 48? For sure, three weeks floating the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park has to be one, and climbing the Grand Teton in its namesake park is another. But then what?

To help start this list, here are five great adventures in no specific order:

1. Colorado River trip, Grand Canyon National Park

2. Climbing the Grand Teton, Grand Teton National Park

3. Climbing El Capitan, Yosemite National Park

4. End-to-end on the Appalachian Trail, Appalachian National Scenic Trail

5. Wild cave tour, Mammoth Cave National Park

What else, travelers? Are there 50 great adventures? 100?

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Comments

Submitted by admin on September 30, 2010 - 9:23pm.

Some of my favorite hikes: Mist Trail at Yosemite, Delicate Arch at Arches and Hidden Lake at Glacier. However, my favorite national park memory is walking around Biscuit Basin at Yellowstone after an October snow. My husband and I were the only people in sight; steam was rising up through the snow and there was a small herd of elk nearby. Virtually the only sound was that of the bull elk bugling to the females. It was as if we had stepped back in time. Beautiful!


Submitted by admin on October 1, 2010 - 3:01am.

Best adventures don't have to be big tours for the experienced wilderness expert:
One of my best moments in a National Park was my first sunrise in a desert environment ever. It was a morning in early May in the Jumbo Rocks area of Joshua Tree NP (back then as Joshua Tree NM). The night before, with the milky way and all the other stars as bright as it can only be seen in a desert, was great. The morning was spectacular. As long as the sun was below the horizon the indirect light was blue and the air was dry and clear. The morning light coming over the horizon with the silhouettes of the bizarre Joshua Trees was magic. Then the direct sun light slowly set the red rounded rocks on fire.

But they can be:
I'd like to do the "wilderness waterway" in Everglades National Park by canoe sometimes. Or a canoe trip in Voyageurs NP.


Submitted by admin on October 5, 2010 - 3:44pm.

Hiking into Bumpass Hell (thermal basin at Lassen Volcanic NP) by moonlight under the full moon last month. Seemed like I was the only person in the entire park. Eerie and wonderful, an experience I won't forget.


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