How were your adventures in the National Park System last year?/NPS file of Great Sand Dunes National Park.
It's late January, you're already thinking about next summer or the fall somewhere in the National Park System. But what about last year? How was your visit to the parks?
Was the experience everything you hoped it would be?
Were the parks crowded?
Were the lodgings accommodating and worth the cost?
Were the dining rooms up to your expectations?
Were the campgrounds clean and quiet during the quiet hours, or noisy and smoky?
Were rangers visible and filled with great information to help you get the most from your visit?
Overall, what grade would you attach to your 2023 national park travels?
Share your thoughts, travelers, and help your fellow travelers know what to experience.
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Comments
In 2023, I visited over 48 NPS sites. I went to Mammoth Cave, Shenandoah, Indiana Dunes, Isle Royale and Cuyahoga Valley NP's in 2023. Overall most of these parks were not crowded with the exception of Mammoth Cave on Labor Day weekend. One of the most impressive things I've consistently encountered about the NPS is the rangers. They are incredibily heplful and full of knowledge about their NPS site. They are truly the best.
Overall, my experiences were solid last year and not much to complain about.
I'm a low consuming, low impact visitor to nat'l parks and nat'l forests. so I have no basis to evaluate most of the amenities. I do use campgrounds and did so in 2023.
The older parks tend to have campers on top of each other, while the newer ones spread things out. This alleviates some of the noise and smoke. Grand Teton this past year, while busy, was the expected outdoor experience. Outhouses/vault toilets there are well, not "adequate"--NEVER, NEVER use one without your own backup supply of TP.
In the future, I predict more crowding, less oversight by NPS management, more experiences requring more and more money paid to rec.gov, and more chaos. And of course, more whining by NPS for more funding that has not translated to meaningful improvements on the ground at our parks.
I visited Wolf Trap, Shenandoah, and Great Smoky Mountains, and they were all great. The NPS were visible and doing great work. I was not able to go camping this year unfortunately. I did see a bear in Cades Cove and that made my year.
I visited quite a number of parks in 2023. I found - as often - the lesser-known parks to be more rewarding. For example I had a great time at Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS, Knife River Indian Villages NHS and FDR Home NHS. I mostly stayed away from the bigger parks, although I enjoyed my first visit to Theodore Roosevelt NP.
My biggest let-down was Canyon de Chelly NM. I've been there before, but the state of this park in 2023 was really disappointing. A bare-bones visitor center without any interesting exhibits, no brochures, the only trail to White House closed indefinitely, the overlooks without any signs or information plaques - at times I was standing at the overlook not knowing what I was seeing. This park could be a so much better experience.
Also disappointing - but then again I didn't expect much in the first place - was First Ladies NHS. I still don't know why this is a NPS site. Not much to see or do there.
A trying year in 2023 for Sequoia NP, lots of damaged roads from the winter of record for the past 125+ years in the Southern Sierra, the Generals Highway didn't open until July (oh how the AirBnB vulture capitalists in Three Rivers howled!) and everything floral was delayed about 6 weeks, and when the FTD bouquet was revealed, perhaps the best wildflower year ever, oh so bountiful, along with water, water everywhere.
You couldn't really get anywhere in the backcountry for quite a time getting over passes, as they were clogged with snow, but eventually everything melted out.
A lightning strike fire that initally was 15 acres in the vicinity of the backcountry Redwood Meadow Sequoia grove was turned into a prescribed burn and eventually 2,500 acres were given the torch, one of the biggest Sierra Nevada conflagrations in 2023, and a perfect purposeful pyre.
A trying year in 2023 for Sequoia NP, lots of damaged roads from the winter of record for the past 125+ years in the Southern Sierra, the Generals Highway didn't open until July (oh how the AirBnB vulture capitalists in Three Rivers howled!) and everything floral was delayed about 6 weeks, and when the FTD bouquet was revealed, perhaps the best wildflower year ever, oh so bountiful, along with water, water everywhere.
You couldn't really get anywhere in the backcountry for quite a time getting over passes, as they were clogged with snow, but eventually everything melted out.
A lightning strike fire that initally was 15 acres in the vicinity of the backcountry Redwood Meadow Sequoia grove was turned into a prescribed burn and eventually 2,500 acres were given the torch, one of the biggest Sierra Nevada conflagrations in 2023, and a perfect purposeful pyre.
We visit national parks every year and visited Death Valley, Lassen,Yellowstone, Arches, Canyonlands, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Mesa Verde, the Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountans. The rangers are always polite and helpful.
Crowds can be a real problem, but the Recreation.gov system (which benefits a private company mainly) needs to be revamped, improved and more flexible. No corporate welface. The concessions should be re-bid. I am not impressed generally by Xanterra. They could be better.
All that said, we saw some amazing things!
"vulture capitalists in Three Rivers howled!"
I've been through Three Rivers,CA many times. And yes, it is centered and focused on tourism--tourism confined to 3-4-5 months of the year. So yes, prices are inflated in those months so as to carry the owners over until the next tourist season--that's not "vulture capitalism", it's common sense economics.
Now, if one were to regulate or otherwise mandate that the prices in 3 Rivers be adjusted to "nonvulture capitalism", it will inevitably lead to the closure of those facilities YEAR 'ROUND! Then what?
Then, you would have more thousands of folks fleeing Commie Newsom's California.
See, we can all be outrageous.