Have you ever visited a national park? / LJWorld.com

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Asked at Massachusetts Street on July 6, 2007

“Yes, a number of them. Acadia National Park in Maine was my favorite. It’s such a different kind of experience than anything here in Kansas.”

— Gwen Wiens, clinical social worker, Lawrence

“Sure; Yellowstone, Yosemite, Gettysburg and the Grand Canyon, among others. I believe Yellowstone is the oldest and is still the best.”

— Paul Markham, professor, Lawrence

“No, I don’t think so. I would like to go to Yosemite if I could because it’s so famous and I’ve heard a lot about it. My husband is a geographer, and he really wants to go there, too.”

— Sangeetha Kelly, graduate teaching assistant, Lawrence

“A long time ago I visited Appomattox in Virginia. I was 10 or 12 at the time, and at that point it seemed pretty boring. Ironically enough, I’m kind of a Civil War history buff now.”

— Eric Weber, territory sales manager, Lawrence

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Martin_D_15 6 years, 9 months ago

Grand Canyon is awesome. So is Yellowstone and Glacier. Mesa Verde is great anytime of year. Arches is way cool. But my favorite by far is Canyonlands, because hardly anyone goes there and it is so remote. I can mountain bike there all day long and never see another person.

Agnostick 6 years, 9 months ago

Here's a quick listing of all the parks:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/parks.html

I know of at least four that I've been to in my 41 years: Big Bend and Padre Island (Texas), Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico), and Estes Park (Colorado).

Agnostick agnostick@excite.com http://www.uscentrist.org

soothing_dragoon 6 years, 9 months ago

Out of all I have visited, Acadia was the favorite.

blackwalnut 6 years, 9 months ago

Check out what they charge to enter a national park. It's an outrage. This is the people's land.

H_Lecter 6 years, 9 months ago

There is no better place to hunt than the national parks. The serenity and scenery are unsurpassed and the wildlife is abundant. Heck, I usually get all I can carry out in a day and it seems as if I'm the only hunter I ever see there. Have you ever tasted Spotted Owl cooked over a roaring campfire? There's nothing like it. Last year I had to leave one of the forests out west in a hurry though. I finished dinner and was hiking out when a forest fire chased me out of there. Turned out to be huge...real shame.

thebcman 6 years, 9 months ago

Bandelier and White Sands in New Mexico Mammoth Caves in Kentucky Niagara Falls Mt. Rushmore

erod0723 6 years, 9 months ago

riverat, I hate to burst your bubble, but the World's Largest Ball of Twine is not the world's largest anymore. Some schmucks in North or South Dakota made a bigger one. Also, I think the ball of twine got significantly damaged by the tornadoes last month.

Wilbur_Nether 6 years, 9 months ago

Each of the Parks in Kansas (as ebbenji pointed out) is worth the effort of getting there. And it requires very little effort to get there.

http://www.nps.gov/state/ks/

sgtwolverine 6 years, 9 months ago

Yes.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 6 years, 9 months ago

National Parks are great, but I still like parking it on my porch best. Bucket O' margarita, some music, its great. During deer season, just add a rifle.

Azure_Attitude 6 years, 9 months ago

I was camping in RMNP in '77 when the big Thompson Canyon flood happened, though we went to the movies in Estes Park and saw Bad News Bears while it was raining so we didn't have to sit in the tent all evening. I've been to the Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore several times. I'm not sure I've been to any other National whatever but there are many I would like to see.

Way to go with the criminal negligence, con 1 . . . NOT!

consumer1 6 years, 9 months ago

I like to take homeless vagrants to the national forest, then drop them off. That way they get a real chance to see nature. And sometimes become bear food.

75x55 6 years, 9 months ago

"Still fun, but the traffic in Estes Park is crazy." Riverrat

In season - but on an individual level, the real nutjobs are RV drivers on that micro-width park road going over the divide. It's gotta be the thin air or something...

acg 6 years, 9 months ago

yep, too many to count

The_Original_Bob 6 years, 9 months ago

"Still fun, but the traffic in Estes Park is crazy." Riverrat

Yes sir. I went there as a kid every summer then went last year for the first time in probably 20 years. It was like a completely new city that wasn't designed to handle the traffic. Thankfully, we just stopped in for lunch and skedaddled back out again.

preebo 6 years, 9 months ago

I went to College in Boulder, and spent much of my time in Rock Mtn. Nat'l Park, especially on Long's Peak. I took my 5 year old Son there for the first time in May. The family and I are planning a trip to Glacier in Montana this summer as well. I still would like to visit all 58 Parks at some point. I just hope there still there.

purplesage 6 years, 9 months ago

Made the mistake of walking down into the Canyon 3 summers ago. It was 106 and a long, very difficult climb out. I would never have imagined that walking could be arduous. Also enjoyed RMNP and have a faint remembrance of the Great Smoky Mountain NP as a 4 year old.

I have lived around 2 national recreation areas and as blue harleystated been on other sites that were battlefields (like Gettysburg) and historic sites.

BorderRat 6 years, 9 months ago

Went to Rocky Natl. Park and climed Long's Peak with a High School group years ago. Had such a good time, I've been back many times. Interesting to see the changes and impact people have had on the park in the last 35 years. Still fun, but the traffic in Estes Park is crazy.

sunflower_sue 6 years, 9 months ago

Wow! According to my trustly little passport book, there are 29 different classifications of "National Whatevers."
My list just got way longer (including all the whatevers): ...

JackRipper 6 years, 9 months ago

Right on riverrat!!! Mike Hayden seems to be working hard for better access, seems to be a pretty darn good in his current position. The Kansas Wildlife magazine really shows how beautiful Kansas is. The National Park system is really one thing that makes the Federal government look good. I haven't had a bad experience at any of them. It would be nice if they had a noise ordinance on motorcycles. Having to listen to Harley's from miles away while enjoying Yellowstone is rather unfortunate. To bad access wasn't limited to trains only.

prospector 6 years, 9 months ago

Yes, I have been from the smallest to the largest. The Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, OK to Yellowstone. One of my favorites is the Natchez Trace Parkway, a road that follows an Indian/frontier trail from Natchez MS to Nashville TN. Used by boatmen that floated their frontier goods for sale to Natchez who then walked back to the Appalachia area with their money. Bandits abound and Meriwether Lewis was murdered on it. Andy Jackson marched his army down it to get to New Orleans to whoop the British to end the War of 1812. It has many points of interest and entrances are 20-30 miles apart. Like all parks, no commercial vehicles or billboards allowed.

sunflower_sue 6 years, 9 months ago

Lets see...Badlands, Wind Cave, Rocky Mtns, Grand Canyon, Black Canyon, Smoky Mtns, Mammoth Cave, and Hawaii Volcanoes. I've also visited numerous National Monuments and memorials including Rushmore, Lincoln's boyhood home, Agate Fossil, Jefferson Natl Expansion, Devil's Tower,yadda, yadda...

The National Park Service has these passport books that they sell at all stops. Visit a Natl Park or monument and you get a cancellation stamp for your book. We've done this with the kids for quite a few years and it is fun for them (and me) to grab the backpack (where the passports live) before vacation and see how many more stamps we can get. It's a great way to quickly remember where you've been, and you might end up going places you might not have gone, otherwise.

Flap Doodle 6 years, 9 months ago

BTW, we are getting rained on like crazy right now. I just saw a catfish swimming north on Fannin Street. He was heading for higher ground.

The_Original_Bob 6 years, 9 months ago

Snap -

I did Long's as well. We had to dodge lightning bolts from God. We didn't really dodge them as much as God decided not to hit us. One of the few times while I was out stomping around in the wilderness that I was actually scared and wanted to be inside.

Flap Doodle 6 years, 9 months ago

Rocky Mtn National Park is great. Keep in mind they have serious weather out there. I was going to walk up Long's Peak one time. Got to the trailhead about midnight & it was raining. Decided to sleep a couple of hours & see if it was going to let up. When I woke up, there was snow on the ground & lots more coming down. I headed home at that point. Two guys froze to death on Long's Peak later that same day.

The_Original_Bob 6 years, 9 months ago

Dumb.

OldEnuf2BYurDad 6 years, 9 months ago

Go to Rocky Mountain National Park on spring break, and rent some snow shoes. In the mid-Spring the trails are reasonable, but there is still a lot of good snow for snowshoeing. I'm not a Grizzly Adams type, but anyone can enjoy snowshoeing, and Spring Break is very off-season (during the week). We've done it during that time, and it was almost like we had the park to ourselves. Profoundly memorable. A tree-hugger's wet dream.

If you've got the $$: Ram's Horn Village Resort.

Joe Hyde 6 years, 9 months ago

The National Park Service needs a regulation that prohibits vehicles bearing Kansas license plates from entering National Parks.

Our state has five rivers that are pre-registered with the National Park Service for inclusion in the federal Wild & Scenic Rivers system. "Wild & Scenic" means these rivers are recognized as being among the most beautiful streams in the entire nation. W&S is as good as it gets.

Yet because of property rights arguments backed by trespass laws that harken back to the paranoid range baron days of statehood, no U.S. Representative or Senator from Kansas has ever proposed these rivers for Wild & Scenic inclusion by vote of the Congress.

Here it is 2007 and Kansas still has the most repressive stream access laws this side of the old communist Soviet Union.

On land, our state has many breathtaking vistas that are admired for their beauty. Admired from a distance only. As yet we have allowed no National Park to be created in our state, where such vistas can be protected from unsound land practices and over-development, and returned to natural condition where damages have begun.

Given our state's sad history of property rights paranoia and selfishness, it would be only fair if the National Park Service officially banned Kansas residents from entering and enjoying parks in other states. The logic is simple: Because we vigilantly keep people out of our most beautiful places, other states are ordered to vigilantly keep us out of theirs. Anyone from Kansas, KEEP OUT.

This really wouldn't be so bad. For in-state family vacations our kids would still have The World's Biggest Ball of Twine to fire their imaginations.

amazonratz 6 years, 9 months ago

Don't forget two of the closest: the Tallgrass Prairie National Park in Strong City, KS, and Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, CO. Both gorgeous.

mom_of_three 6 years, 9 months ago

According to the South Dakota website, Mt. Rushmore is a National Park, which is where we went last year. Also drove through Badlands National Park, which I would not recommend during a summer heat wave. We also drove through the Black Hills National Forest, and went to the Wind Cave. it was all a must see.

The_Original_Bob 6 years, 9 months ago

Yep. Bunches of them. Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, and I guess the Ft. Larned National Historic Site. Ahhh, jr. high field trips.

preebo 6 years, 9 months ago

I've been to several, but I would suggest visiting Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Glacier above the rest. However, they are all beautiful. For these three though, no more beautiful in America.

BABBOY 6 years, 9 months ago

Gettysburg: Very cool and historic. Still do not understand why they ran up that hill on the last day. Very open field with no where to hide.

Went to park in Hawaii on the big island I think called Volcano National Park or something like that which was out of this world cool.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 6 years, 9 months ago

I have seen a little bit of Teddy's legacy...

Eric Beightel 6 years, 9 months ago

I think I would consider anything under the authority of the National Park Service to be a "National Park", the NPS does. As such, any National Battlefield, National Historic Park, National Historic Site, National Lakeshore, National Monument, National Military Park, National Memorial, National Park, National River, National Recreation Area, National Recreational River, National Seashore, National Scenic River, National Scenic Trail, Parkway, etc. would qualify.

There are five locations in Kansas that are under the supervision of the National Park Service: Tallgrass Praire National Preserve, Nicodemus National Historic Site, Fort Larned National Historic Site, Fort Scott National Historic Site, Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site.

You pay for these areas, get out and visit them! They are essential pieces of the American experience!

75x55 6 years, 9 months ago

Rocky Mountain National Park is a must.

trinity 6 years, 9 months ago

i want to go to jellystone. :)

happyhappy friday! :)

jonas 6 years, 9 months ago

Mesa Verde is quite cool. That's the one with the city on the cliff, isn't it?

blue73harley 6 years, 9 months ago

Well, I was going to say yes and my favorite was Mount Rushmore but looking it up I find that it is classified as a National Monument not a park. There are 58 National Parks. There are also National Historic Parks and National Battlefield Parks. It's all too confusing this early in the morning. So I will just say yes.