Prior to the start of National Park Week 2021, I posted a question on Facebook: “What is your favorite National Park?” I was astonished to learn that Rocky Mountain National Park did not make the top 5.
THe Top 5:
Yellowstone National Park took top honors, which is almost a given considering that it is our nation’s first National Park. Glacier National Park took second place and Yosemite National Park came in third place (John Muir says it best, “No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in its walls seems to glow with life… as if into this one mountain mansion Nature had gathered her choicest treasures….”). Fourth place was Zion National Park, and Grand Teton National Park took fifth place. Grand Teton is my personal favorite.
The Next 5:
Grand Canyon National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and Great Smoky Mountains National Park rounded out the remaining five places of the Top 10 favorite National Parks.
The best answerS:
Here are few of the responses I received as feedback: 1) “It’s like picking a favorite child. I just can’t pick only one..” 2) “They are all amazing.” 3) “I simply can’t choose just one favorite! I tried and then thoughts of the others would pop up in a mental war of ‘Pick Me! Pick Me!'” With that said, I will sum it up with this perfect response: “The one I’m in at the time.”
All of them are beautiful, so how do you chose when each National Park was created for their own respective uniqueness? Everyone has a fondness for their favorite National Park. Additionally, I was glad to see that some of the lessor known or least visited parks received some attention as well, such as Isle Royal National Park, located in my home state of Michigan. And while not in the United States, there was even a shout out to Banff National Park in Canada.
Where do we go from here
As I mentioned above, my (and Stella’s) favorite is Grand Teton National Park, located in western Wyoming. Stella and I are spoiled because we spend about half the year in Rocky Mountain National Park, as it right outside our back door, hence Base Camp @ Grand Lake. I often refer to Rocky Mountain National Park as our ‘playground.’ What we enjoy about Grand Teton is that it presents an abundance of options to explore, by foot and water, in both summer and winter. It seems that snowy winters can always be counted on in Grand Teton.
As we cap off National Park Week, two days before this has posted, we would have visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, a few weeks from now we are off to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. And later in the summer, we are headed to Glacier National Park. All of these will be new adventures for us! Stay tuned for our posts about these trips and enjoy our National Parks.
