As an outdoors fanatic, I feel there is nothing comparable to visiting and hiking through a national park. Luckily, there are so many national parks across our beautiful nation with exquisite scenery for all to enjoy. With this article, I would like to give you my opinion on what the five less visited national parks in the United States to witness.
Today, there are 59 National Parks; each is unique and spectacular in their own way. Last year, the National Park Service recorded over 307 million visitors to the 59 parks. The most popular parks, as measured by most visitors, are the Great Smokey Mountains NP, Grand Canyon NP, and Rocky Mountain NP. If you can only visit one or two of these gorgeous parks, you can visit the best of the best.
5. Olympic National Park
Olympic NP is the most popular of the parks in Washington, as seen by the largest population of 3,263,761 people visiting in 2015. It is an 82.5-mile drive from the Seattle’s city center. Now, Olympic National Park is very unique in that it has three different ecosystems contained in its 1,442 square miles of outdoor heaven. You can choose to walk on either the Rialto or Kalaloch beach alongside the Pacific Ocean, or you can hike in Olympic Mountain range between glaciers! If either of those still doesn’t encourage you to visit, you can also hike through the Olympic National Forest, composed of 628,115-acres of varied landscapes surrounding the national park. If you would like to experience these three environments, hike through Ruby Beach, Sol Duc Falls, and Lake of Angels. Ruby Beach is a very easy hike, and is only 0.5 miles round-trip. It has been argued by many to be the best beach in the park. Sol Duc Falls is only 1.6 miles round-trip, and offers views of the some of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world! The Lake of Angels is hidden away deep within the national park, and is an 8-mile round-trip hike. It offers one of the most exquisite outlooks of the park through the everlasting views of glaciers, waterfalls, mountains, lakes, and rich marmot and mountain goat populations.
4. Mount Rainer National Park
Mount Rainer NP is the closest national park from Seattle with only a 64.8-mile drive from the city center. In 2015, 1,237,231 people visited the park. Mount Rainer is the tallest mountain in Washington with an elevation of 14,416 feet. With that said, the most popular hike to complete in this park is to climb to the peak of Mount Rainer. Many individuals across the United States, and the world, strive to climb to the crests of the tallest mountains in all 50 states; and one of the most favorable peaks is Mount Rainer. However, it is quite strenuous. For the average hiker, I would recommend the Carbon Glacier Trail. It is 17 miles round-trip, and takes approximately 9 hours to complete. The iconic part of this hike is to walk alongside Carbon Glacier, which supplies the water to form the Carbon River. However, this glacier is the lowest-elevated glacier in the adjoining 48 states. It is phenomenal to witness.
3. Mammoth Cave National Park
Located in south-central Kentucky, Mammoth Cave is the largest cave system in the entire world! The national park encompasses over 405 miles of passageways of the cave, which is over twice as large as the second largest cave in the world. The park was established in 1941, and offers tours throughout the caves. If you are daring enough, spelunking is also available.
2. Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton National Park holds the iconic view of the Teton mountain range. Located just 10 miles south of Yellowstone, Grand Teton offers over 200 hundred miles of hikes ranging from easy to strenuous difficulty. The most popular hike is the Hidden Falls Trail, which goes through the Cascade Canyon. On the way, you are more than likely to encounter moose, deer, and grizzly bears.
1. Sequoia National Park
As the second national park to be established, Sequoia National Park offers the rare beauty of the largest trees in the world. To see the largest tree in the world, one should hike the 0.8-mile Sherman Tree trail. If you would like to wander through dozens of sequoias, the Soldier Loop offers beautiful views.
