The original goal of my trip was to drive along the Pacific coast from border to border. Since I would have to drive back the other way too and wanted to take different roads, I eventually decided to visit as many of the Western States as possible. In drawing the route on a map, it became clear that I would be driving through a few National Parks and by changing the route just a little bit, I could get to more of them. Eventually I chose 12 National Parks that weren't too much out of the way.
Every National Park gives out a brochure when you enter. I didn't really pay attention to this until I had reached the third or fourth one, then I was glad that I had gotten one from Joshua Tree where there was nobody present. These brochures have maps of the park, descriptions of the plants and animals that you'll see there, and descriptions of the places you should visit.
Since visiting National Parks was third on my list of important things to do on the trip, and I didn't have a lot of extra time. Most of them were only visited for about three hours. This is almost unforgivable. If you visit any of these National Parks, you should spend a full day or two there and a whole week in Yellowstone. I hope to get back to many of these parks again to see them in more detail.
Here's a quick summary of each park. Click on the brochure to go to the point in my trip notes where I entered each park.
Before I saw Joshua Tree National Park on the map in between San Diego and St. George, I didn't even know it existed. It was fairly obvious from the map that it had something to do with desert, since it's in the middle of the California Desert. There are many interesting rock formations and lots of very interesting desert plants that I had never seen before. I didn't see much wildlife, but I wouldn't expect them to be out in the heat of the day, and it was very hot when I went through there. The temperature was over 100 degrees. I'm sure it gets quite interesting at dusk and dawn.
The map has 12 areas that are recommended to see and many more exhibits where there are descriptions of the plants or rock formations. I want to go back in the winter and spend a couple of days seeing everything.
This was my second visit to Zion National Park. Both times I was on my way to somewhere else and didn't spend much time really looking at things. At least on this visit, I was able to go for a short hike for a spectacular view. On the quick trips through Zion, you get to see the magnificent rock formations. Spending a bit more time allows you to see the plant and animal life as well.
It would likely take most of a day to drive through the three separate roads to get to all of the points you can drive to. Highway 9 goes through the park and is the shortest route from St. George to Mt. Carmel. There is plenty to see just on that one road. This is a great place to be driving a convertible, because most of what you want to see us upwards and would be hard to see with a roof in the way. Of course, you should stop and have a look as frequently as possible. It is very awe inspiring to look a thousand foot vertical cliff. I was fortunate enough to see many from the bottom and one from the top.
One of the coolest things in Zion is the tunnel up through the rock. It was built in the early 1930's through solid rock for nearly a mile. Cars can go through both directions at once, but motorhomes, busses, and all other large vehicles have to wait and go one direction at a time. Since there are so many large vehicles in the park, it is rare that you don't have to wait to go through in either direction.
Bryce Canyon is an amazing sight, but I think you need to hike down into the canyon to fully appreciate it. I've only been down about 100 yards so far out of two trips there. You need to see it from several different lookout points and it looks different at different times of the day. I got to see it as the sun was going down, which may be the most beautiful time of day there.
The erosion that makes Bryce Canyon look as it does is a continuing process. You can hear dirt and rocks falling just about all of the time. I went quite a few miles out of my way (130 miles) and took an extra three hours to see Zion Canyon, but it was worth it.
For some reason, I had never been to the Grand Canyon. I wanted to make up for that by visiting both the North and South Rims. Unfortunately, the North Rim is closed for the winter and was not set to open until two days after I had hoped to see it. I had scheduled Thursday for the Grand Canyon and it opened on Saturday. So I just went to the South Rim, which has many more lookout points and is more developed.
The Grand Canyon is so big, that it is hard to take a photograph that can capture the feeling you get there. Fortunately, my camera has a panorama mode where you can take several pictures and stitch them together into one bigger one. Still, you would need a poster about six feet high and twenty feet long to approximate the view there.
There were more visitors at the Grand Canyon than any of the other parks that I visited, with Yellowstone coming in second. I have no desire to hike down into the Grand Canyon, but one of those donkey rides might be fun. As with Bryce Canyon, I went quite far out of my way to see the Grand Canyon, but I had to go see it. It was definitely worth the trip.
Mesa Verde National Park is different from all of the others in that the main attraction is Indian ruins, not rock formations or plants and animals. From about 600 A.D. to 1300 A.D. a group of indians built homes high up in the cliffs where they could protect themselves. You have to hike down into the canyon and see them up close to really appreciate the ruins. I've done this before, so I didn't bother on this trip. There are still wild animals in the park, like deer, so there is more to see than just the ruins.
I had been to Arches before it was a National Park. Back then, you drove on dirt roads to get around. It's much easier to see things now. However, you still need to hike to see Delicate Arch, which is sort of the symbol of Utah right now. It appears on their license plates and on all of the "entering Utah" signs. I was behind schedule, so I didn't take the time to go see Delicate Arch again, and I'm sorry I wasn't able to see it one more time.
Arches National Park should really be seen while hiking to as many arches as possible. If you visit this National Park, take some good hiking boots, lots of water, and plan to spend two days or more hiking to as many of these amazing wonders as possible.
I don't know how I missed it, having lived a few decades in Utah, but I had never been to Canyonlands before this trip. I found the views similar to that of the Grand Canyon, just not as deep. There are many dirt roads that are down in the canyon a ways. Someday I want to come back with either a 4-wheel drive vehicle or dirt bikes to see all of the view points that you can't get to on a paved road. I'll leave the hiking to the more serious hikers.
If you come in the north entrance, you also need to drive out to Dead Horse Point State Park to see another very beautiful view. It's one of my favorites in all of Utah.
Another thing I really liked about Canyonlands were the roads. They were great in a sports car. There were very few places where they made the road straight when they could put a few curves in it. As hard as I tried to respect the speed limits in all of the National Parks, I went a bit faster here and loved it.
I've driven past the Grand Tetons at least half a dozen times, but it was always while traveling to some other place, like Yellowstone National Park, or to the Snake River. I consider the Tetons to be some of the most beautiful mountains anywhere. I had always seen them later in the year when there was less snow on them. There are many glaciers, so the mountains are never completely free of snow, which adds to their beauty. You have to hike or take a boat to see much more than you can see from the road.
When I think of National Parks, Yellowstone is what first comes to mind. It was one of the first ones and is probably the most unusual. I think it is also the largest one. When I went there as a kid, you saw bears everywhere. Now that we're more safety conscious, you hardly every see any bears there. However, you don't have to look very hard to see elk, bison, moose, deer, antelope, and many other types of wildlife. You don't even have to be real good at scanning the sides of the road to see them. Just wait until you come to a group of cars parked along the road and stop to see what they're looking at. You'll see a lot of wildlife that way.
You can see wildlife in other National Parks, but it's the geysers and hot springs that really set Yellowstone apart from anywhere else in the world. I want to go back and spend a week hiking to as many natural wonders as possible.
Glacier National Park is another one that I had never visited. It was just too far away. It's on the Canadian border and is called Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. I had planned to just drive from the east entrance to the west entrance, but the middle section of that road was still closed in May. Therefore, I drove in and out of both entrances and had to go around the south end of the park.
The mountains in Glacier National Park are very rugged and beautiful. It was raining while I was there, but still very beautiful. These are the kind of serious mountains that I really love. Since this National Park is not really close to anywhere, you would have to make arrangements to stay at one of the lodges or camp to spend more than a day there.
Olympic National Park is the one I felt I saw the least of because it was raining the whole time I was there and foggy up on Hurricane Ridge. This is another very large park. There are rain forests, rugged mountains, wildlife, and most of the other things that make a National Park such a great place to visit. This is a great place for the serious hiker.
After Yellowstone, I would rate Redwood National Park as the biggest shame to see in a hurry. I had been there twice before and had hiked through it, so I didn't feel too bad about missing that part. You really need to hike for a mile or two through the ferns, and another mile or two through the big trees. These trees really make you feel insignificant.
One thing that is a bit confusing is that about half of the Redwoods is a California State Park and the other half is a National Park. There are places where you can camp on the beach, since the park extends out into the Pacific Ocean. If you are ever within 500 miles of Redwood National Park, find a way to go there for a day or two. It will be worth it.
Lake Mead is not a National Park, but a National Recreation Area. I only went through it to avoid having to drive on freeways, and to bypass Las Vegas. At the gate, they said that it was "just as good as a National Park". I'm not sure it's quite as good as a National Park, but it definitely had the best roads. Driving north along the lake was wonderful. I was tempted to go back and drive through again once I got to the north end.
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Copyright (c), 2001 by Scott R. Nelson
Page last updated July 9, 2001
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