National Parks

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by bro, Mar 29, 2016.

  1. bro

    bro Your Mother’s Favorite Shitposter
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    I am going to be out in Denver this summer and wanted to cap off my trip with a road trip to a national park. Since I will be out west and have a car, I'm willing to drive for an entire day to go somewhere. My initial gut instinct tells me to go to Yellowstone (it'll be late July).

    Fan of big trees and a hike with a great view.
     
  2. fattus

    fattus Well-Known Member
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    How many days will you have to spend at a park?
     
  3. fattus

    fattus Well-Known Member
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    And what kind of car?
     
  4. Pokes

    Pokes Younger, hipper, cooler
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    Yellowstone is awesome
     
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  5. DuckKin

    DuckKin Well-Known Member

    Crater Lake, Oregon.

    [​IMG]
     
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  6. bro

    bro Your Mother’s Favorite Shitposter
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    honda crv (1999, manual baby)

    I'd have a week or 5-6 days for the entire trip
     
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  7. Kirk Fogg

    Kirk Fogg "Tell them what they've won Olmec!"
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    Agree on the Yellowstone assessment, and you'll be coming from the South which means you can also see the Grand Tetons. Might need 2 or 3 days in Yellowstone to see the whole park because it is pretty diverse. Highly recommend that you go all the way to Gardiner, MT, which is the Northern entrance to the park.

    Edit - Also go to West Yellowstone. It has the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, which was pretty cool.
     
  8. fattus

    fattus Well-Known Member
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    Yellowstone is cool but it's going to be a shit show in late July.

    Go to Utah. Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef (my favorite), Bryce Canyon and Zion. Even Goblin Valley State Park is cool.

    P.S. Are you going by yourself? If so, don't hike.
     
  9. bro

    bro Your Mother’s Favorite Shitposter
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    I'll be with a woman
     
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  10. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    Can your mom hike that far?

    BOOM
     
  11. boone

    boone Destination Unknown
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    you definitely need to bone in the woods then.
     
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  12. bro

    bro Your Mother’s Favorite Shitposter
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    how far we talking?
     
  13. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    I'd do Utah like fattus said and you could also make it to the smaller Colorado parks - Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Great Sand Dunes as well.
     
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  14. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    If you've got your heart set on Yellowstone, do a backcountry trip. It's amazing how far away you can seem from the masses just half a mile off the beaten path.
     
  15. NoNatty

    NoNatty Keyboard Cowboy
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    Second Zion in Utah. It's amazing.
     
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  16. blotter

    blotter Aristocratic Bum
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    Rocky Mountain National Park is ~80 miles from denver and beautiful. Depends on whether you want to camp, or have a road trip type trip I guess. Book your campsite when you figure out what you want to do. They fill pretty quick

    RMNP has a few loops that you could do over a few days. Just have to coordinate the back-country campsites via a map and how much you think you'd want to hike per day. Or the option of parking in the thick with a bunch of car campers is there if having a bathroom is your thing. You can do day hikes that way while only carrying your water and a little food instead of a big pack

    Hard to give recommendations based on what you've told us
     
  17. fattus

    fattus Well-Known Member
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    If you're going to camp in RMNP you better make a reservation yesterday.
     
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  18. shawnoc

    shawnoc My president is black, my logos are red...
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    Also within driving distance:
    Carlsbad Caverns & White Sands NM. You can camp at White Sands, but neither is worth much more than a day trip. Also keep going south and you can hit Big Bend, TX.
    But, out of all of them mentioned ITT, I'd still go Yellowstone/Tetons. If you haven't seen the geological features you need to before you die.

    edit - One more that hasn't been mentioned, and I googled the distance for you at 14 hours: Glacier NP in Montana.
    My favorite NP in the US and probably the best one ITT for the time of year you're going (as long as it isn't on fire).
     
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  19. TAS

    TAS 20_ _ TMB Poster of the Year
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    Anybody been to Denali? Could use some pointers for a trip in August.
     
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  20. fattus

    fattus Well-Known Member
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    I have not been to Glacier. It is next up for me, but not until next year as I have no time this year.
     
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  21. Teflon Queen

    Teflon Queen The mentally ill sit perfectly still
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    Yellowstone is pretty fucking far from Denver. The Wind River Range is a good bit closer and badass. The Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado are also really cool.
     
  22. Iron Mickey

    Iron Mickey a guy who posted here like five years ago hates me
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    This. It's a huge waste of prime backcountry time to be driving from Denver to Yellowstone. Drop into Utah and do some combo of the big five.
     
  23. OZ

    OZ Old balls

    This if you would want to hit up more unique land features along the way and overall a better view (central Wyoming can be pretty bland), otherwise the distance is about the same to both.
     
  24. Iron Mickey

    Iron Mickey a guy who posted here like five years ago hates me
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    there is no way canyonlands is the same distance from denver as yellowstone

    arches 350 miles
    canyonlands 362 miles
    cap reef 428
    bryce 556
    zion 605

    yellowstone 534

    so you could conveniently get to 3 of the big 5 with comparable mileage as hitting yellowstone
     
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  25. Teflon Queen

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    And there are no interstates remotely close to Yellowstone coming from the south
     
  26. OZ

    OZ Old balls

    I was talking about Zion and Bryce. The others obviously not. But it really depends on what you are trying to see, Tetons are arguably the most gorgeous mountains in the country and Yellowstone is so unique thanks to its volcanic properties. While Bryce, Zion and the others are completely different and also gorgeous in a different way.

    Different strokes for different folks.
     
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  27. High Cotton

    High Cotton Where does this fall in our Christian walk?
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    Zion is my favorite NP, hike the narrow canyons. It's amazing and one of those stand out from the crowd memories from childhood.

    I'll be going to Tetons again this summer as my Mom is a seasonal NPS worker and that's where she'll be.
     
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  28. fattus

    fattus Well-Known Member
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    I did arches, canyonlands, cap reef and goblin valley SP in 3 days, 2 nights.

    Day 1: Drive from Denver and set up camp on BLM land near Goblin Valley, cathedral loop in cap reef, back to camp and sleep
    Day 2: Break camp, GV, canyonlands, set up camp on BLM land between CL and arches, hike a bit until sleep time
    Day 3: Break camp, arches, drive back to Denver
     
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  29. Teflon Queen

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    Leadville, CO would be a great place to go poke around
     
  30. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    Big Bend is so underrated.
     
  31. LuPoor

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    If you're leaving from Denver just do RMNP IMO IYAM. Spend your time hiking instead of driving. Unless you want to drive Trail Ridge Road which is great fun.
     
  32. shawnoc

    shawnoc My president is black, my logos are red...
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    You could make a 7 day trip out of it - hit Carlsbad Caverns/Guadalupe Mountain on your way down to Big Bend, stay a day or two, hit White Sands/Santa Fe on your way back up.

    Maybe stop in Juarez and get murdered as well. Somewhere down there is a village of pueblo/mud huts too - I can't remember where, though.
     
  33. Iron Mickey

    Iron Mickey a guy who posted here like five years ago hates me
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    Tetons is my favorite NP, just saying that I think in his circumstance he's better served heading to Utah or staying in CO than heading up the boondocks of Wyo.

    Zion is truly elite. I was there in October and fiddling around in the Narrows when a storm came. Managed to get out just as hail hit. The trams froze, everything flooded, it was intense. I have some good pictures of water pouring down out of holes in the canyon walls in torrential spouts.

    Always amazes me how few people you see in the Chisos.
     
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  34. George Costanza

    George Costanza It's not a lie if you believe it
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    I would say you can do more driving through Colorado and then seeing the parks in Utah with the amount of time you have. I'm hoping to get out to a few of the parks in Utah this summer.
     
  35. Iron Mickey

    Iron Mickey a guy who posted here like five years ago hates me
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    Cap Reef was way underrated, IMO. I did several good hikes without seeing much of anyone. I thought Arches was a little bit of a letdown, but of course it's still badass. Thanks, socialism. Thanks, not-myopic, actual conservatives who like to conserve things.
     
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  36. fattus

    fattus Well-Known Member
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    Cap Reef isn't as accessible as the others. Hell, there wasn't even a paved road to it until the 60s. You don't run into many folks off the highway.

    Arches is very cool but also crowded as fuck.

    P.S. Don't try to get a flat repair in Moab on a Sunday.
     
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  37. animal_mother

    animal_mother Well-Known Member
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    Definetly a day's drive from Yellowstone but Glacier is by far and away my favorite park. The most visually stunning place I've ever been in the US...
     
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  38. (Z)

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    Been. What do you want to know?

    I'd plan on several days in the area to do it right. And definitely take one of the bus rides. It may sound boring, but it's really really good. Take one of the earliest ones too, that way you can get off on stops and explore some and not have to get right back on, but can wait on subsequent ones.
     
  39. BTH

    BTH The most precious possession...is your own people.
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    Glacier is the GOAT National Park.
     
  40. Teflon Queen

    Teflon Queen The mentally ill sit perfectly still
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  41. shawnoc

    shawnoc My president is black, my logos are red...
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    Bike or car flat?
     
  42. Cornelius Suttree

    Cornelius Suttree the smallest crumb can devour us
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    Reading this thread has me so excited for summer

    :smug:
     
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  43. OZ

    OZ Old balls

    Not a national park but one of the coolest, if not the coolest, places I've seen is St. Helens National Monument.

    Space obviously does this on a larger scale, but nothing hits you so directly than staring at a mountain 17 miles away and seeing 150 foot trees snapped like toothpicks. Most powerless I've ever felt and most awe-inspired by nature.
     
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  44. bro

    bro Your Mother’s Favorite Shitposter
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    Ya but i live in Nashville so I am willing to drive the extra hours if worth it.

    Not a huge camper.

    Never know when ill have a car and be out west so I don't want to mail anything because it is 4 hours closer
     
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  45. Whiskers McSchitty

    Whiskers McSchitty Who ate the cat?
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    Rocky mountain national park
    Great Sand Dunes National Park.
    Or head west into Utah.
    Royal Gorge

    Plenty to do, enjoy
     
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  46. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    One of my goals this summer is to learn the backcountry of GSM and find where all those wild brookies are hanging out.
     
  47. Teflon Queen

    Teflon Queen The mentally ill sit perfectly still
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    If you're not camping in Yellowstone then you'll be in a lot of traffic and among mongol hordes. It's really awesome, but that's two long days of driving for one day in the park.
     
  48. bro

    bro Your Mother’s Favorite Shitposter
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    Not against camping if in my best interest.

    Just trying to get the best experience possible while there. Love to hike.

    Seems like yellowstone is the best park for wildlife
     
  49. Cornelius Suttree

    Cornelius Suttree the smallest crumb can devour us
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    This is right near the top of my travel plans list

    Will be driving through CO and NM to get there so will be able to stop in tons of awesome places along the way

    We've got a Bammer in Taos too MB123
     
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  50. Teflon Queen

    Teflon Queen The mentally ill sit perfectly still
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    A lot of elk, deer, and bison...probably have a better shot at seeing a griz in the Winds