Favorite or Nicest Parks you've ever been to?

[WildcatFan]

Did you climb down and then back up that nearly vertical dune in Sleeping Bear Dunes?

We did the dune climb all the way to Lake Michigan. I’m not a climber or anything and it wasn’t terribly hard, if you’re thinking about going. It’s really worth the views of the lake.

[westofyou]

Yosemite Valley is the real life Garden of Eden. The place even smells great, like fresh baked cookies.

I’ll let you know about Zion. I think I’ll like it more than Yellowstone, but we’ll see. When you make it to Yellowstone, be sure to travel 45 minutes to the Tetons. It’ll blow you away. Don’t bother to go to Yellowstone in March. It’ll be frozen so….enjoy AZ.

Regarding the snow in the fall, south Utah is a desert and doesn’t getting a lot of snow so I wouldn’t worried about it. Yellowstone on the other hand, don’t bother after late October. We went there for fall break in mid-October and it was still fine. Mid-50’s most days, but it changes so fast in the mountains.

I love the valley floor, but only in the late Fall, it's usually too crowded for my taste. But the gem of the park to me has always been the high country towards Mono Lake, just beautiful and quiet.

The Moab area is one of my favorite places in the world, it's easily the best terrain I've ever mountain biked on and it looks like no other place in the world. The desert is a special place that many don't sync with, but I love it

[Betterread]

We did the dune climb all the way to Lake Michigan. I’m not a climber or anything and it wasn’t terribly hard, if you’re thinking about going. It’s really worth the views of the lake.

I’ve done the dune climb. It was one of the highlights of the visit. It did take me a lot more time and energy to go back up the dune than the run down the dune to the lake.

[KoryMac5]

Watkins Glen State Park...looks like scenery out of the Lord of the Rings movies...

Nice thing about the Fingerlakes is you could hit 3-4 parks in 2 days easy...Buttermilk, Treman, Taughannock Falls.

[Ohayou]

Steamboat Springs, Colorado (Summer, where Winter is their most popular time as we are at the top of a ski run), Smith Rock (has the famous "Monkey Face", and this is taken from East of Monkey Face), and the Columbia Gorge Scenic Area where there are literally 1000's of places to hike and swim.

The Columbia River Gorge is definitely one of the most beautiful regions in the country to visit. So much diverse scenery. I have to shoutout westofyou for recommending me tons of beautiful places to visit in Oregon when I first visited in early 2016. Damn, time flies.

[Redhook]

I love the valley floor, but only in the late Fall, it's usually too crowded for my taste. But the gem of the park to me has always been the high country towards Mono Lake, just beautiful and quiet.

The Moab area is one of my favorite places in the world, it's easily the best terrain I've ever mountain biked on and it looks like no other place in the world. The desert is a special place that many don't sync with, but I love it

Agree. We drove into Yosemite that way so that was my first impression and it was so peaceful and beautiful. We went in mid-October so the weather was absolutely perfect and it wasn’t crowded at all I would like to go back when the waterfalls are stronger, but I know it’ll be much more crowded then so that’s a bit of a conundrum.

Moab is a great town and Arches and Dead Horse Point State Park are both really cool. I haven’t mountain biked yet, but I don’t doubt it’s one of the best places in the world to do so. Utah is an amazing underrated state with so much variety.

[Kingspoint]

Redhook, recognize this?

[Kingspoint]

....and this was in the parking lot of the Strawberry Hot Springs...

[Redhook]

Redhook, recognize this?

Hmmm….well, it looks like a daisy….lol. Maybe it’s in the picture below ? We found a nice hike near Steamboat at Rabbit Ears pass. Our hike featured a ton of flowers in the meadows. And, you can see the “rabbit ears” in the photo and, unfortunately, one of the ears broke a few years back.

[Kingspoint]

Hmmm….well, it looks like a daisy….lol. Maybe it’s in the picture below ? We found a nice hike near Steamboat at Rabbit Ears pass. Our hike featured a ton of flowers in the meadows. And, you can see the “rabbit ears” in the photo and, unfortunately, one of the ears broke a few years back.

You missed it like I missed it when I took the picture. There's a Rocky Mountain tick on the daisy. I didn't notice until a few days later when I looked at the photo that I was sticking my head and hair really close to that flower to get the picture, basically inviting that tick to jump into my hair. That Daisy was at the top of the Ski Lifts.

[Kingspoint]

Again, there just aren't favorite places for me as everything outdoors is great to me. But, a place I visit frequently are the 10 Falls of Silver Falls State Park south of Silverton, Oregon, where the roots of my ancestors are from. So, I do feel a kindred Spirit from the area, no doubt.

This used to be the outflow through the Cascade Range of the Columbia River Basin before the Missoula Floods carved out the Columbia River that is the Columbia Basin's outsource today between Mt Hood and Mt. St. Helens/Mt. Adams.

There is a 6-mile trail that goes in a circle around the inside bowl of the park that enables you to see all 10 Falls. It's accessible in the Winter, too, which is nice, though some of it can be treacherous in the snow and you could be limited to just a few of the Falls. But, Falls in the snow and ice is a beautiful site.

[RedsBaron]

My favorite national park is Yellowstone National Park, followed by Grand Tetons National Park. The whole Jackson Hole area is breathtaking.
I also really like Rocky Mountain National Park, The Great Smokey Mountains National Park, and Shenandoah National Park. I've also been to the Grand Canyon a couple of times, Glacier National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, the Badlands in South Dakota, Redwood National Park and the New River Gorge in West Virginia.

[westofyou]

My favorite national park is Yellowstone National Park, followed by Grand Tetons National Park. The whole Jackson Hole area is breathtaking.
I also really like Rocky Mountain National Park, The Great Smokey Mountains National Park, and Shenandoah National Park. I've also been to the Grand Canyon a couple of times, Glacier National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, the Badlands in South Dakota, Redwood National Park and the New River Gorge in West Virginia.

The Badlands are great, underrated destination

[Strikes Out Looking]

The Badlands are great, underrated destination

The only problem I had with the Badlands is the earworm of a song that wouldn't stop while I was there.

[Sea Ray]

My favorite national park is Yellowstone National Park, followed by Grand Tetons National Park. The whole Jackson Hole area is breathtaking.
I also really like Rocky Mountain National Park, The Great Smokey Mountains National Park, and Shenandoah National Park. I've also been to the Grand Canyon a couple of times, Glacier National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, the Badlands in South Dakota, Redwood National Park and the New River Gorge in West Virginia.

The prettiest national parks I've ever seen are in Canada. Banff National Park. Jasper National Park and in between, Lake Louise is the prettiest lake I've ever seen