happy 100th birthday, national parks service!!

To celebrate the 100th birthday of the National Parks Service yesterday, I thought I'd make a post of all the National Parks we've been to! Taking a crazy road trip after graduating college helped us to see a bunch - out of the 50 National Parks in the US, we've been to 11. Before we looked it up, we guessed we'd been to at least half. Oops! Well, that gives us something to aim for anyway. Here they are, in chronological order of first visit!

#1: Grand Canyon National Park



What's even to say about this place? It's something you just have to see in person - like the ocean or the view from on top of a tall mountain. I knew it was supposed to be really amazing and yet I was still surprised by how amazing it was when I saw it in person. We didn't get to do any real hikes here - just walked along the canyon rim. If I ever go back, I'd like to hike to the bottom and back!

#2: Saguaro National Park



Seeing so many huge cactuses (cacti?) in real life was really weird, and special. It was a really nice park, and we visited twice in two days (there are two separate halves in different parts of Tucson). We got to see a lot of the park, between the scenic drive and the nature center. I would love to go back here and do a hike or something!

#3: Petrified Forest National Park





Kind of in the middle of nowhere - the actual pieces of petrified wood weren't that interesting to see in person, but we hiked a highly recommended trail called the Blue Mesa trail and it was pretty outstanding! We only passed two other people on the hike and it was like we were in some strange desert moonscape. Probably wouldn't go back here again unless we were driving nearby, just because it's really not near anything else (except the meteor crater, which we also visited!).

#4: Death Valley National Park



The only photo I have of Death Valley, of us driving up out of it. I'm sure it's beautiful and a great visit at certain times of year...but early June is not one of those times. It was 116F at 11am or so. We didn't get out of the car for longer than it took to walk into the visitor's center. Then, we spent the whole climb out of the valley (it's a deep valley!) worried that our car's radiator was going to overheat. There are emergency pull-offs and water stations the whole way up, so it was a fairly valid concern! The highlight of the whole trip for me was when we finally escaped and there was a weird, lovely shack by the side of the road that sold smoothies & milkshakes. I'd go back - it's pretty close to Las Vegas - but only in the winter!

#5: Lassen Volcanic National Park



We didn't spend much time here at all - it barely counts as a visit. As newcomers to mountainous driving, we were unsettled and turned around. But what we saw was really cool! There's a lot of geothermal activity here and everything smells like sulphur. I'd visit again!

#6: Yosemite National Park









The first time we went to Yosemite, we basically drove in, checked out Bridalveil Fall, parked at the visitor's center, were overwhelmed by the insane crowds, and quickly left. Overall, I thought it was overrated and way too touristy for me. But then we unexpectedly went back seven years later! This time with my dad & stepmom - and it was completely different! We stayed in a rental cottage just outside the park and were able to explore different areas of it. We did a few great hikes (one was recommended by a park ranger who said we probably wouldn't pass another person on the trail, even though it was in Yosemite Valley - and he was right!) and it was all beautiful and definitely not overrated. I'm really glad we had the chance to go back! I'd love to go again and visit parts of the park we didn't get to, like the high alpine meadows.

#7: Zion National Park



Zion was also really beautiful and super unique! It was like the Grand Canyon, except you started out at the bottom of the canyon. It was so strange because the inside of the canyon was fairly lush with trees and plants and then up all around it was desert. We camped here for two nights and only did one hike - I'd love to go back now that we know what we're doing (like, we have actual hiking boots) and see more of the park.

#8: Arches National Park



File this one under "too hot in June, didn't really count as a visit". We walked to the closest possible arch from the parking lot (the famous one! They know how to place their parking lots.) and then left - it was too hot to do anything else. It would probably be really nice to visit in a cooler month, but I'm not sure if I'd go back when there are so many other parks nearby.

#9: Congaree National Park



We stopped in here on our way back from Charleston, SC - there are nice boardwalks through the swamp and it was really interesting. I don't know if I'd go back, because it's pretty small and we saw a lot of it in one visit.

#10: Olympic National Park

















My favorite national park of all - so that explains all the photos! The Olympic peninsula was one of the most beautiful, amazing places I've ever been. The landscape and culture is just so varied - rainforest, high mountains, rocky coast, Quileute Nation (American Indians who have lived in the same spot for 1000+ years), beer and cider makers, tiny coastal towns, hot springs, and lots and lots of great hikes. We were super lucky to go here twice in one year, once in the spring and once in the fall. I would absolutely, without a doubt, go here again and would be more than happy to fly out to the west coast just to visit it!

#11: Cuyahoga Valley National Park



The only park I can say I visited before it was a national park! ...Because that change happened pretty recently. Since it's so close to Cleveland, I'd definitely go back here when visiting family!

Honorable mentions - the National Parks Service also administers lots of other lands that aren't national parks - including national monuments and national historic places

White Sands National Monument



Lewis + Clark State & National Historic Parks



...and one from about 20 years ago!

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore



(and of course, on the island where I work! Governor's Island National Monument!!)

Next Up...

Here are the next five national parks on my list, in no particular order!

1. Acadia (we have no excuse, Matt's parents only live a few hours away!)
2. Glacier
3. Grand Teton
4. Joshua Tree
5. Great Smoky Mountains

Hiking : Hurricane Hill

To get to Hurricane Ridge, you drive from the town of Port Angeles into the mountains and go up and up and up until you've gone 17 miles and are suddenly on top of the world in the middle of the mountains. You can basically drive up there, take a photo, go to the gift shop, and leave, but we wanted to do something slightly more memorable, so we went on a hike! We wanted do it back in April, but we would have needed snowshoes to do it then (and apparently it can stay snowy through July!). Luckily, we didn't have those problems in early September, although it was pretty chilly when we started our hike in the morning! 

The trail basically follows a ridge out to a high point, where you can get an even better view of the mountains than at the visitor center. For that reason, it's only 3 miles roundtrip but 950' in elevation gain - so basically straight up from the parking lot. Our hiking book warned us of crowds of tourists, so we started out as early as we could and didn't see many hikers on the way out. We did have plenty of views, though, and they were incredible! All along one side of the ridge were the huge Olympic mountains (including Mount Olympus itself). On the other side was the town of Port Angeles, the strait of Juan de Fuca, Vancouver Island, and mainland British Columbia. The picture below pretty accurately sums it up - - - 

Not bad, huh? 

Well, we huffed and puffed our way to the top (it wasn't that bad...and I blame the 6,000' elevation for any puffing!) and were rewarded with a panoramic view of everything all at once. We walked close enough to some deer to pet them - and heard the calls of the Olympic marmot! It was a little exciting, since before moving here, I didn't even know what a marmot was.

We had a snack at the top, noticed that the deer family had followed us up, stared at the mountains until we couldn't stare anymore, and headed back down. The throngs of people our book had warned us about were coming the other way - so we were happy we set out earlier! (See the tiny tiny dots of people on the left in the above picture? That's because we're so much higher than them, even though it looks flat!) It was a perfect hike and we were so happy we did it - we got to experience being in the mountains without being super knowledgable backpackers. Someday, we might try that, but for now it was nice to do something more accessible. 

Here's one last photo, a panorama I put together in Photoshop - - - click on it to see it full size! 

Hiking : Lake Crescent

We decided earlier this summer that before we left to go back east, we needed to visit Olympic National Park again! It was so nice when we visited in the spring, and it has lots of things that we can only see out here - like huge mountains, elk, and the Pacific Ocean! Our second trip was a quicker trip - two nights instead of four - so we concentrated on one small corner of the park. When we visited in the spring, two of the places we wanted to visit weren't open yet for the year - Lake Crescent Lodge and Hurricane Ridge. 

Lake Crescent is a big lake carved by glaciers that's so clear and blue, it reminded us of the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Pacific Northwest. The lodge was really cute, but we didn't stay for long since we wanted to do a hike along the lake. The trail we went on was called Spruce Railroad Trail - it followed the path of an old railroad that was once used for logging. Our hiking book rated it highly, and we'd never hiked on a trail along a lake before, so it was settled! It was a little bit confusing because the main trailhead was closed and the other trailhead wasn't completely clear, but after a bit of driving, we finally arrived!

The trail started out wide, flat, and paved but eventually became more of a real trail through the woods. The forest was really pretty and the lake was even better! We saw the lodge again, from way across the lake. We pretty much just marvelled at the perfect water the whole way. Luckily, there weren't too many obstacles in the path to watch out for! We only passed a few people the entire time and felt lucky that we had the whole thing to ourselves. Well, us and some deer - - -