Ah
The Great Outdoors
One of the best things about America is the great outdoors, and the best
places to get outside are the National Parks.
The National Parks have been dubbed America's best idea because they took
huge swaths of American wilderness,
protected it from development, and kept it open to the public for their enjoyment.
Last year the National Parks turned 100 years old,
and there's no better time to get out there and experience all 59 parks, but which are the best?
I'm Alex. I'm Marko, and you are watching Vagabrothers, your go-to guide for travel tips, vlogs, and
inspiration here on YouTube.
There're 59 parks. So in this video
we've narrowed it down to our 29 favorites.
Some of the most beautiful and diverse
national parks in the USA. So grab your compass, strap up your hiking boots, and get ready to get outdoors.
Wait....do they have wifi?
Probably not
First up:
Yellowstone in Wyoming. Established in 1872,
Yellowstone was the first natural park in the entire world and certainly one of the greatest national parks in the United States.
Located mostly in Wyoming, Yellowstone spans the Rocky Mountains into neighboring Idaho and Montana,
combining alpine lakes and rivers with wildlife such as bears,
bison and wolves. It also sits on top of the geothermal hot spot, making it the world's largest
concentration of geysirs.. geyser as
we say in the US , including Old Faithful.
Number 2: Yosemite. Not long after Yellowstone,
California's Yosemite Valley became a National Park, thanks to the efforts of the legendary naturalist John Muir.
You might recognize Yosemite's iconic Half Dome from the wallpaper of your Macintosh,
but it's actually a mecca for rock climbers who believe that the
3,000 foot base of El Capitan
Is one of the most technical and challenging rock climbs in the world.
To learn more about the early days of rock climbing in Yosemite,
watch Valley Uprising on Netflix.
But even if you don't climb, you can still hike to the top of El Capitan.
You just have to apply for a permit.
Yosemite is beautiful, but it does get
crowded, so let's talk about some of the other National Parks in California
that don't get the crowds.
Just three hours from Los Angeles and located in the southern section of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains, Sequoia National Park is a gem.
It's famous for its extremely large, sequoia trees, including General Sherman, over two thousand years old,
275 feet and four million pounds of hardwood, it is the largest tree on earth.
In the far northwestern corner of the state,
you have Redwood National Park.
The redwoods are super cool
It is a coastal temperate rain forest, and it has the tallest tree on earth,
which was only recently discovered in 2006
It's 379 feet tall..that's 115 metres tall.
There really is something magical about the redwoods and that may be why George Lucas chose it as the location
for The Return of the Jedi ,the forest moon of Endor.
So if you like Ewoks,
you might want to head to Redwood National Park.
Still in California, next let's go to Joshua Tree, a beautiful stretch of desert just east of Los Angeles,
named after its indigenous tree, the Joshua Tree.
Joshua Tree is an easy 2 hour drive from L.A., and it's super popular for camping, for rock climbing,
for photography or for going on a vision quest,
if that's what you're into.
A lot of people come here right after or
before Coachella because that takes place just down the road.
But it's a lot better in the winter when it's not that crowded
or in springtime when the Joshua tree is blooming.
Just make sure you avoid it in the summertime because it's just going to be way too hot.
Next up: the Channel Islands National Park
For unspoiled California coast, head to the Channel Islands National Park,
five wild and remote islands off the coast of Santa Barbara that only recently became a
National Park. These Islands are the ancestral home of the Chumash people and
they are best explored by either hiking or kayaking.
But to get there, you're going to need
to take a ferry, which leaves from Ventura and Santa Barbara.
On the other side of the U.S., you haveThe Great
Smoky Mountains National Park.
This is the most popular park in the United States.
And that's because it's really easily accessible by car, and it's also the
gateway to the Appalachian Mountains.
We're 95% forests, which means there's tons of places to camp, to hike.
If you really want to get after it,
you can actually hike sections of the Appalachian Trail, which stretches 2,000 miles from
Georgia in the South all the way up north to Maine.
Speaking of Maine, let's talk about Acadia National Park
Maine's only National Park is the oldest national park east of the Mississippi,
and is supposedly one of the best on the East Coast.
It's home to Cadillac Mountain, the tallest mountain on the eastern seaboard, but it's famous for its trail system,
which is the oldest trail system in any national park and has recently restored historic
carriageways that are now great for hiking and walking.
Plus, it's in Maine which means there's going to be great craft beer
and incredible seafood. While you're out there,
you're going to have to eat a lobster.
Next up: Isle Royale
In the Midwest head to the Isle Royale in the Great Lakes.
It's one of the least visited national parks of the entire country.
That's because it's super isolated Island in the middle of Lake Superior,
essentially three to five hour ferry ride from Upper Peninsula, Michigan.
We have not been in this part in particular, but the Great Lakes are super beautiful
And if you want some unplugged time, it seems to us like the perfect option.
Let's heat things up a little bit and head to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Let's just stop for a second and look at that word
Hawaii Volcanoes
both awesome National Park
amazing yes
Where else can you get a tan in the morning and photograph molten lava at night?
There are two volcanoes in the park,
but don't worry Kilauea Volcano is constantly erupting
so you're going to have lots of opportunities
to watch the earth literally growing an Island.
Do not fall in, okay?
While we're outside the contiguous 48 states,
let's not forget about Alaska, the last true frontier and pure unspoiled wilderness.
the Nellie National Park is most popular site in
Alaska, and that's for good reason: it contains Mount McKinley,
which is the tallest mountain in North America
at over 20,000 feet. That's over 6200 meters,
and it's also the third most isolated mountain in the entire world after Mount Everest in the Himalaya and
Aconcagua in the Argentinian Andes.
So you know the mountain has recently been renamed to Denali
It was named Mount McKinley by a gold prospector in the 1890s,
but it's been called Denali by the indigenous Coe Yukon people for a thousands of years..
Denali is its name now.
But even if you're not going to summit the peak, it's the perfect place to get off the grid and into the wild which oddly
enough is where Chris McCandless, the person from the book and movie Into the Wild
actually went into the wild and lived in that abandoned school bus until his untimely
death in 1992. The bus is still there for those of you who are willing to trek in.
Alaska's other major National Park, Glacier Bay, is on the coast. 3.3 million acres of unspoiled
glaciers, mountains, temperate rain forest and deep fjords.
Part of Alaska's inside passage is one of the last places where you can actually see a
tidewater glacier; that's a glacier that goes all the way down to tideline and
sadly in the era of global warming, they're becoming less and less common. If you're planning on visiting
Glacier Bay National Park, check out the nearby town of Gustavus.
It's a beautiful little fishing town with tons of great bed and breakfast,
not to mention some of the best halibut and salmon fishing in Alaska.
Another great spot to see glaciers is Glacier National Park in Montana.
It's the only national park that spans two countries.
It's connected to the Waterton Lakes National Park on the other side in Canada.
These two parks were joined together to create the
International Peace Park founded in honor of
International Peace Building. Creation of the parks is actually kind of funny because it was actually built by this railroad magnate
He built a hotel in the National Park ,connected the railroad and then petition for the park to become a national park.
And there's actually a ferry that goes to Canada because in the days of Prohibition, you couldn't drink in the U.S.
But you could drink in Canada, Waterton National Park.
Point is if you want to see glaciers,
you shouldn't wait because there're 25 remaining of the original 150 that there were in the 1800s,
and it's estimated that by 2030, all those glaciers will disappear.
Across the country, Florida's Everglades National Park is
perhaps the most geographically distinct park on our list. This 1.5 million acre
wetlands is made up of mangroves, and it basically consists of the entire bottom tip of the Florida Peninsula.
There's tons of wildlife from manatees to turtles and alligators,
which means you probably shouldn't go swimming, but it's perfect for an airboat tour , and
supposedly the fishing's not bad either.
Another distinctive park is the Badlands named for the unique geographical
formation that spans from South Dakota to Alberta and Canada. We've not been to this part,
but we have been it's equivalent in Alberta, and the entire area is beautiful.
These formations were created by erosion
where basically the prairies were peeled back to reveal all the different layers of history dating back
75 million years to the age of the dinosaurs, which means in addition to amazing places for your Instagram photos, there are also
legitimate fossils from this was like the dinosaur Garden of Eden.
Moving to the Pacific Northwest,
don't miss Crater Lake National Park,
easily one of the most impressive national parks on this list.
The epicenter of the park is Crater Lake, a collapsed volcanic
Caldera, which forms America's
deepest lake with water so blue you have to see it to believe it.
All of the Pacific Northwest is super beautiful,
but in Washington state, we're narrowing it down to two really great parks:
Olympic and the North Cascades. But which to choose?
Choose Olympic National Park if you're looking for
geographical diversity.
You've got everything from the Pacific Coast where you'll see
big beaches full of driftwood up to snow caps alpine peaks and even a temperate rain forest..
all within one park. By contrast, North Cascades have some of the best backcountry backpacking in the States....
pure undeveloped wilderness of mountains,
forests and glaciers. If you're going down Mexico way in Texas, check out Big Bend National Park, which has some of the best preserved
Chihuahuan.
Wha-wha-Wha one desert in the United States. It's right up against the border with Mexico
It goes right along the Rio Grande River. It contains natural hot springs,
ancient pictographs that've now been taken over by wildlife.
Also in the Chihuahuan Desert in nearby New Mexico are the Carlsbad Caverns-
Over a hundred caves full of incredible limestone stalactite and stalagmite formations.
If you're closer to Kentucky, you could check out the Mammoth Caves National Park with over
400 miles of caves to explore.
Pretty mammoth. It's pretty mammoth.
It's actually the world's largest cave system.
Generally speaking the Southwest of the United States
is where you're going to find some of the most beautiful scenery in the whole country,
especially around the Four Corners area,
which is the border between Utah, Colorado,
New Mexico, and Arizona.
First up: Arches National park in Utah. Arches has the world's largest
concentration of sandstone arches...
over 2,000 of them, resulting from the salt left over from a 300 million year old sea.
This is where a Devinsupertramp film That Crazy Rope Swing video. It's just north of Moab, Utah,
which is the birthplace of slick rock mountain biking and close to another great part called Canyonlands.
Canyonlands is all about dramatic
colorful landscapes carved by the Colorado River.
It's possible to drive, canoe,
bike or hike some seriously remote wilderness.
Next up you have Ion like a lion in Zion, National Park.
Famous for its canyon is pinkish red sandstone that make it one of the most picturesque
National Parks in the Southwest. Of course we can't forget the
granddaddy of National Parks: Grand Canyon,
which is over a mile deep. It so wide that at no point can you see its entirety. The views are incredible,
especially from Horseshoe Bend where you've got take that obligatory Selfie.
But if you really want a full experience, get up close by hiking down.
You could stay at Phantom Ranch at the bottom or if you're
really doing some cool, you could canoe or raft the Colorado River, which would be excellent.
A less crowded version of the Grand Canyon is the Black Canyon at Gunnison National Park,
which is insanely steep,
gorgeous and receives less than 200,000 visitors a year.
Also in Colorado is Rocky Mountain National Park,
which is within day trip distance from
Denver as the single best place to experience America's best mountain range.
Other parks on this list are also in the Rockies,
Glacier, among others.
But none are as high as Rocky Mountain National Park.
It's famous for its thirteeners or mountains over
13,000 feet or 4,000 meters.
If you're ambitious, hike up to 14,000 foot longest peak, but you can also do a car
ride, see them from a distance, easier, better photos. Kind of probably what I would do.
One of the most rewarding experiences in the
Southwest is learning more about the native American cultures that have long called this part of the United States home, and one of the best
places to do that is at the Chaco Culture National Park,
the ancestral home of the Hopi and Pueblo people with a wide variety of historical sites.
It's also a dark sky park, which is perfect for
astrophotography and for getting
good glimpse of the stars behind the local legend.
And last but certainly not least is Mesa Verde.
This is one of the most beautiful and fascinating places in the entire national park system.
It's the ancestral homeland of the Pueblo Tribe.....
Basically houses they built into the cliff face over 700 years old.
You can take a tour of all the houses, even go into some,
and it's a great place to visit any time of year.
But when we were kids we went there in the wintertime when the snow was falling over the whole
area making it look just beautiful.
Goes to show you why preserving places like these
and all the National Parks we mentioned is so important to preserving America.
So thank you all for watching and thank you all for supporting the National Park System.
If you've enjoyed this video,
you know what to do: give it a big thumbs -up, share with your friends.
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If you visit these beautiful places,
please leave them cleaner than you found them. Be a good custodian;
do not go off the paths; pick up trash, and generally treat these places like they are your home because
for all of us, they are.
Pack it in and pack it out.
And if you feel very generous, you can support the National Parks Charitable Fund.
We'll leave a link in the info box.
I'm sure they would appreciate your contributions.
As always stay curious, keep exploring, and
we will see you guys on the road or on the trail,
hopefully somewhere out in the great outdoors.
Peace.