How many national parks have you visited?

[bcla]

Oh there is definitely more than the NPS, but the NPS has my heart!

We visited Mount St Helens on a trip 5 years ago and enjoyed it immensely.

I definitely didn't say that I have visited all of the sites!!! I said that I have been to 33 National Parks and dozens and dozens of other sites run by the NPS. I'm not exactly sure how many, I'd have to sit and count them out!

NPS has over 400 sites now, but some are a little bit nebulous on what is or isn't a site. I downloaded the NPS app in anticipation of a visit this summer (great for downloading info for use later without internet access) but they have a list of sites. Some aren't really designated units, like Alcatraz as part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, along with some places that are managed together even though they have separate designations. Like Sequoia and Kings Canyon, or Golden Gate National Recreation Area which manages Muir Woods and Fort Point.

And certainly it's very difficult to visit the parks in the western US without coming into contact with Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management areas. I visited Timpanagos Cave National Monument and had to go through fee station at Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest to get there, although it looks like a fee is no longer required if one says they're going there. Many of the major national parks in the west are surrounded by national forests and BLM lands. And occasionally they administer national monuments together. I even remember visiting a few NPS visitor centers where they actually had Forest Service Rangers stationed as a cooperative effort. And of course they have Smokey Bear.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

15 designated as National Parks and 70 total with national monument, lakeshores, etc. The NPS has a great app where you could create a list of where you’ve been. We also do the passport stamp books. It’s our goal to hit all designated NP’s. However, some are very hard to get to. A few in Alaska you have to do a charter plane that will land in the park.

 

[Scotgirl]

My daughter works as a keeper at Highland Wildlife Park here in Scotland which is part of the Cairgorms National Park.

A photo of the scenery and one of some Polar Bear training!

 

[bcla]

15 designated as National Parks and 70 total with national monument, lakeshores, etc. The NPS has a great app where you could create a list of where you’ve been. We also do the passport stamp books. It’s our goal to hit all designated NP’s. However, some are very hard to get to. A few in Alaska you have to do a charter plane that will land in the park.

Apparently National Park of American Samoa is the least visited US national park for most years. It's remote and rather expensive to get to. It's also a very different experience than almost any other national park.

Kobuk Valley National Park in Alaska can be visited by plane, boat, snowmobile, or even dogsled from a relatively nearby town. I'm not sure who would want to visit during the winter, although it's supposedly relatively warm for that far north in Alaska.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Apparently National Park of American Samoa is the least visited US national park for most years. It's remote and rather expensive to get to. It's also a very different experience than almost any other national park.

I have read that as well. That surprised me as I figured one of the AK ones would have hit #1. I also recall reading it was the least visited with the next one having like 4-5x the annual visitors.

I think visiting American Samoa in general would be interesting so a great excuse to go visit to throw in the NP!

 

[bcla]

I have read that as well. That surprised me as I figured one of the AK ones would have hit #1. I also recall reading it was the least visited with the next one having like 4-5x the annual visitors.

I think visiting American Samoa in general would be interesting so a great excuse to go visit to throw in the NP!

I understand having cultural sensitivity is one thing, especially since it's created as a place where people still live and weren't forced out. I think the federal government technically even own most of the park in order to protect the inhabitants. But I'd have a difficult time there since there's an expectation of following local customs, which apparently includes being expected to participate in religious activities.

There's been controversy over the years because the creation of national parks has resulted in residents being removed quickly or over time - especially natives. That includes Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Shenendoah, and others.

https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/historyculture/displaced.htm​

In the 1930s, Shenandoah National Park was pieced together from over 3,000 individual tracts of land, purchased or condemned by the Commonwealth of Virginia and presented to the Federal Government. In the process, at least 500 families -described as "almost completely cut off from the current of American life" were displaced in what was considered by some to be an humanitarian act. To restore, or rather create, a 'natural' landscape out of the patchwork of recently abandoned settlements, Civilian Conservation Corps volunteers dismantled buildings and obscured the detritus of human habitation with the purity of imported vegetation. The only exception was Nicholson Hollow, where a number of log structures were spared in a selective nod to the park's human history. By 1995, 14 buildings still retained above-ground wooden components, albeit in ruinous condition.​

 

[adkkev]

There is a pretty good display in one of the Shenandoah visitor centers that describes how the park was created from the various parcels of land. There are still some old cabins standing within Smoky Mountain NP along with a number of old cemeteries.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Counted from the list and came up with 21, which is exactly one third of them. Many of them I visited as a child on family road trips out West. And like many here, have also been to a significant number of national historic sites, monuments, battlefields, recreation areas/seashores, etc.

Some of my favorite parks are Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountains, Glacier Bay, and Haleakala. Was fortunate to visit the Grand Canyon 3 times in my life, both the South and North rim. Also multiple visits to both Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountains, with a special appreciation for the fewer parks in the Eastern US, closer to home. Such diversity of natural beauty in this country!