A Great Smoky Mountain National Park Fanboy Ranks His Favorite National Parks
If you think about it, it’s a bit strange to grow up with the most visited national park in the country in your backyard. Last year, 12.2 million people visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I could be there in 45 minutes, 30 if I get good traffic. As a kid, I went to high school with the granddaughter of the last person to live in Cades Cove – maybe even the park itself, Kermit Caughron, aka the Bee Man. Summers meant friends and family coming from all over to visit and we’d inevitably end up in the park.
You try not to take it for granted, but being human how could you not? The wonder and the splendor and the beauty just become a part of the fabric of your daily life.
And so, for me, it almost takes getting on the road and getting away from home to truly appreciate a national park. The lands we have set aside and determined that they are to be preserved for generations to come.
There are 63 national parks, and I cannot claim to have visited them all, so I can’t claim this ranking to be the ultimate list. Although, even if I had been to them all, I don’t know that I would be qualified to rank them all. They are (almost) all beautiful in their way and worthy of our wonder and attention.
So, this ranking is not the best, merely our favorites, picking a handful of jewels from a majestic crown.
Our Top 5 favorite National parks
1. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Located on the Big Island of Hawaii, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park may be the most fascinating place on Earth. With two active volcanoes providing a peek into dynamic forces at play under the crust of the Earth, Volcanoes Park would be extraordinary if the only thing it offered were the crater rim and possibility of eruption viewing. But there is so much more. It’s like the Volcanoes National Park is three or four completely different parks wrapped in one.
Consider the Kahuku Unit, a rolling, green pastoral landscape that might remind one of Ireland if it wasn’t for the red clay under the green grasses. Located on the slopes of Mauna Loa, the Kahuku Unit was once home to massive cattle ranching operations that provided beef and hides for more than 150 years.
Or travel to the edge of the park where the Pacific greets the land and peers out over the dark cliffs at the Holei Sea Arch, a natural lava rock formation cut into the cliff more than 500 years ago. You can view ancient petroglyphs carved centuries ago by the native peoples. Or you can walk the Devastation Trail, where the landscape was burned by a 1959 eruption and is still in the slow process of recovery. It is as close as you’ll get to a Martian landscape on Earth.
2. Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Do you think I was going to forget about the home team? At this point, the GSMNP is like a part of my family. I love its trails, its view, and its picnic areas. I love that it’s so accessible to such a large part of the country. That’s surely part of the reason it’s roughly three times more visited than any other national park. In the spring and summer, when the wildflowers contrast with the lush greenery, it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. But in the fall, it is almost surpassed by the kaleidoscope of colors produced by the trees as they prepare for winter.
And, thanks to the people of Tennessee, the GSMNP is a real deal. The only National Park that doesn’t charge an entrance fee, although the recent parking fee has come close. Maybe I’m crazy, but I believe there’s enough money in the federal budget to cover our national park expenses without reaching into each visitor’s pocket. These are public lands and should be available to the public at no charge.
3. Yellowstone National Park
Do you know how majestic a place must be to make the people of the mid to late 1800s decide to preserve it? These people would have clear-cut their grandmothers for profit. They hunted animals out of existence and made pollution the national pastime. The Lorax would have hated these guys. But Yellowstone? It was so beautiful that in 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant made it the first National Park in the world.
Massive, beautiful and full of wildlife and interesting geological features, the first park in many ways remains the gold standard. You know how groundbreaking Yellowstone was? It predated the National Park Service by nearly 45 years. It remains one of the most popular family vacation destinations in the country despite being located in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. It’s a beautiful country, but it’s much harder to get to Yellowstone for most people than the Smokies.
4. Grand Canyon National Park
I took geology in college and found the subject fascinating. The formation of the wonders of the world is really interesting stuff. I wasn’t smart enough to pursue it for a career, but my appreciation has lasted these ensuing decades. Carved through the edifice of time, the Grand Canyon may well be the most well-known geological formation in the world.
The inverse of the world’s great mountain ranges, instead of looking up at the Rockies or the Smokies or even the Himalayas, you look down into the Canyons and try to comprehend the meaning of words like eon and epoch. You will never feel more awed but less significant than when standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon. It is a lesson in comprehending the time and space and majesty of the world in which we live.
5. Everglades National Park
Truth be told, I like a good swamp. I like to get out away from the world and see the thing as it was known to the native people of Florida. I like to put myself in the mind of the Europeans, making their way across the ocean to finally find land only for it to be as angry and inhospitable and filled with more things that can kill you than any place in Europe.
That is, unless you count the various diseases, but that seems unnecessarily dark. Gators, crocs and panthers, oh my. I would have put the Everglades higher on my list. But I’m kind of terrified of the invasion of the non-native pythons. I can deal with bears and gators, crocs and panthers, but 12–to 14-foot snakes slithering through the water? That’s where I draw the line.
What is your favorite national park? Let us know in the comments! Are you planning a trip to the Smoky Mountains soon? Make sure to check out our coupons page before your trip!