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One of the top things that travelers love to do when they visit the United States is to embark on a great American road trip, filled with plenty of stunning national parks.
From Yellowstone’s thundering herds of bison to Yosemite’s towering granite walls, there’s no shortage of natural wonders inside the millions of acres of American parkland.
Of course, with 63 different parks to visit, it’s inevitable that some won’t be a slam dunk for every single visitor.
I spent the entirety of 2020 visiting all of the US national parks, and although most were absolutely spellbinding, there are several that I won’t be rushing back to anytime soon.
Below, I’ll get into four of my all-time favorites — plus three let-downs that some travelers might want to skip.
I truly love Grand Teton National Park.
Rising up from the Snake River Valley like a gaggle of shark’s teeth, the Teton Range is one of the most impressive landscapes on the planet.
Plus, the park is just a stone’s throw from Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s famed cowboy-town-turned-ski-haven. As such, there are loads of phenomenal restaurants nearby and chic lodges to bed down in when you’re not hiking its hundreds of miles of trails.
In summer, grab your bear spray and spend a day hiking to Trapper Lake. If you’re visiting when it’s snowy out, book a wildlife-viewing trip with Jackson Hole Eco Tours for a chance to photograph moose and wolves.
Gates of the Arctic National Park is unlike any place I’ve ever been.
Yes, it’s one of the most remote national parks of the bunch, but Alaska’s massive Gates of the Arctic is one of the few places on earth that completely upended what I thought a wilderness area could be.
Home to thousands-strong caribou migrations, wild rivers, and the imposing peaks of the Brooks Range, this far-north site is well worth the time it takes to get there.
Alaska Alpine Adventures is one of the few tour operators that’ll bring guests to this Arctic Circle expanse. Choose between a backpacking trip to the Arrigetch Peaks or a river-rafting tour — either way, you’ll be privy to the park’s otherworldly solitude and miles of verdant tundra.
Big Bend National Park truly offers something for every kind of traveler.
Tucked away in remote West Texas, Big Bend offers a scenic escape from the state’s mostly flat landscapes.
It’s also a fantastic park for those of us with short attention spans — choose between scenic drives (like the boulder- and cactus-strewn Ross Maxwell), riverside hikes (like Santa Elena Canyon), or rafting adventures along the Rio Grande.
When you’re not out adventuring, be sure to take a dip in the park’s steamy Langford Hot Springs.
There’s a good reason Yosemite National Park is so popular.
Made even more famous by films like “Free Solo,” Yosemite has always been renowned for its roaring waterfalls, stellar Sierra Nevada hiking, and sky-high cliffs of glacially-polished granite.
Yosemite National Park is surrounded by striking, mountainous landscapes, forested hillsides, and quaint gateway towns.
Sure, it’s one of the more crowded national parks, but I’ve always found it easy enough to escape the throngs by trekking in the area’s high country, road tripping over to Hetch Hetchy, or visiting in autumn (when most kids are back in school).
On the other hand, Indiana Dunes National Park left me feeling underwhelmed.
It can be fun to spend half a day tottering around on Indiana’s famed lakeside sand dunes — unfortunately, I found this site to be small and city-bound.
While exploring Indiana Dunes National Park, hikers are routinely greeted by views of power plants and Chicago’s copious skyline.
Also, the dunefield used to be much larger than its current sprawl — sadly, much of its mass was carted away by glass companies and manufacturers in the early 1900s.
I found the park itself to be a reminder of why we need to preserve important landscapes before they are overly developed by corporate interests. To me, this park is more of a symbol of Western industrialization than a pristine piece of nature.
Gateway Arch National Park hardly feels like a real park.
More glorified cityscape than nature preserve, Gateway Arch was established as a national park in 2018, after a Missouri senator sponsored a bill to redesignate the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
The move followed a $380 million renovation of the site, refurbishing the arch and adding an underground history museum to the downtown St. Louis property.
Although the space-age architecture of the arch itself is impressive, I found this to be the most surprising national park of my quest.
With its manicured lawns and paved pathways, it doesn’t feel like a typical national park. Even an acting deputy director of the National Park Service has said that the small site fits the department’s definition of a national monument much more than a park.
Unlike most public lands, Gateway Arch charges additional funds for important attractions once guests enter the premises, like going up inside the arch, which can feel like a Disneyland-style cash grab.
I wasn’t very impressed by Dry Tortugas National Park.
Maybe I just got a bout of bad weather on the choppy boat ride out to Florida’s Dry Tortugas, but I found this to be the least impressive of America’s beachy national parks.
Its snorkeling areas felt small and relatively uninhabited by marine life during my visit.
Although the park’s Civil War-era fort is an impressive feat of engineering, it feels much more like a national monument dedicated to our country’s history than a blissful island escape.
Like most of my least-favorite national parks, access to Dry Tortugas is largely controlled by a private tour operator, meaning that most travelers will have to pay for a ferry ride from Key West to this small cluster of islands.
In my opinion, you could visit nearby Biscayne National Park or jet set to the Virgin Islands for a more immersive tropical park experience.
