Of course, people will ask the expected questions at the end of a voyage. What areas did you love the most? Where else would you live? Which states continue to leave you unimpressed? Will you gain 20 pounds by going back to New Hampshire during the holidays, eating your weight in rich food and not hiking at the rate your body is used to?
So to help, this is my analysis. (Don't worry, the boy will be supplementing this report with details on how we spent the final two months.)
We visited 42 state and national parks on this trip and hiked or ran a total of 647.37 miles! Just an incredible amount of beauty that most will never get to see. So to make the selection for your next vacation a bit easier, I have, of course, implemented a decision matrix to determine the top parks. (see below for a portion) For those who don't know how such a matrix works, you determine what's most important to you (ex. scenery) and rate it a ten followed by factors that mean a bit less to you. Then you score each item (in this case, parks) on the different categories and it tallies a final score for you. The non-numbers people are asking, "but why can't you just say which ones you liked the best?". Well, because that's not analytical enough and serious analysis such as this must be backed by data!
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| This is how my brain works. You're welcome. |
- Scenery/Landscape = Was it pretty?
- Hiking Experience = Well, how was the hiking? Good trails? Amazing views?
- Dog Friendly = Did they allow dogs on any of the trails? If not, did they have a decent place to take your dog in the park?
- Wildlife = Was there wildlife? Was it super cool? Did it kill me?
- Solitude = Was it a cluster to get around or on the trails? Did you see another human being?
- Hospitality = How were the services? Were you treated well?
- Cost = Was it covered by the annual pass? Were campsites insanely expensive?
- Diversity = Did you have to stare at the same beautiful scenery for days on end or did it have surprises around every corner?
Anyway, the top five are as follows:
- Cape Breton National Park, Nova Scotia, Canada (I know, right?)
- Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, Canada.
- Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota
- Sierra National Forest, California
- Olympic National Forest, Washington
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| The Acadian Trail in Cape Breton National Park |
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| This was what we found on the way down. Awesome! (well, not if you asked the baby moose) |
Gros Morne was a stunning surprise. I'm not sure I even knew Newfoundland existed before this trip OR that it had a national park. Go there. Immediately. Look at waterfalls from the top of Gros Morne Mountain, bring your pup on ten mile hikes through geological wonders. Stay in primitive campsites with the most stunning sunsets you've ever seen. I dare ya.
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| Sunset from our primitive campsite |
Ah, the Black Hills. Again, a huge surprise. And this one didn't just take third because you can hike to Mount Rushmore without seeing another human but because truly its network of trails are outstanding. In fact, it puts South Dakota on the map of places I would consider living should New Hampshire not be the gem it is.
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| Keira at the top of Harney Peak in the Black Hills. She slept for six days after this hike... |
Sierra and Olympic National Forests were absolutely stunning. And I'd like to take a moment to advise you dog owners on a nifty trick in this country. National Forests are different from National Parks in that they are still seen as a sustainable resource. They were created, in part, to provide sustainable logging. Before you groan at the thought of thousands of trees falling down, let me shed some perspective on this. First, they do a damn good job. I've never been in a National Forest and felt it was over logged. Second, logging equipment = awesome trails. They cut these amazing dirt and rock roads through the forest which are perfect for trail running with your pup. So while I don't advise bringing your dog on a short vacation to a national park (he can't do anything there), if you plan to see one that sits next to a National Forest, it changes everything.
National Forests are considered "multi-use" meaning people can ski, snowmobile, hunt and otherwise frolic in them without too much stress and dogs are more than welcome. And while I love National Forests, I would advise knowing the seasons of other sports. For example, and even though I have no moral issues with most hunting, hunters are selfish and take some of the best months of the forest away from me. In NH, Oct 15-Dec 15 = you might get shot. Having said that, put on some orange, give your dog a bell and in my experience, you won't die. I actually find snowmobilers more annoying because of their excessive noise and the times that I've been careening down a hill on xc skis only to meet a snowmobile around a corner. I tend to avoid the forests during winter weekends for this reason.
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| Orange vest + bell collar = no dying |
Sierra National Forest made the short list because it sits between King's Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park. That meant Keira got wonderful off-leash time on alternate days of our hikes in those parks. Olympic National Forest also fits that bill as does Dixie National Forest just outside of Bryce Canyon. And since no one seems to care much about National Forests, they are almost always empty. Just miles and miles of empty and well maintained trails for you to wander.
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| Do you see all the national forests around these two parks? Go to them all! |
One last note about National Forests. Dispersed camping is almost always allowed anywhere off a road. That means for zero dollars you can park your camper or put up your tent at the beginning of a trailhead or the side of the road. Anywhere. Two of our most magical nights on the trip were parked at a trailhead in Sierra National Forest, inches from Kings Canyon, alone with the bears and not a car in sight. *sigh*
Now, I know some of you are saying, "Lindsay, I don't have a dog nor do I care where I can take one" so I've controlled for that variable in my scoring to provide the National Park top five. They are as follows:
- Acadia National Park, Maine
- Pictured Rocks National Seashore, Michigan
- Glacier National Park, Montana
- Kings Canyon National Park, California
- Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
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| Oh Pictured Rocks. No one knows you exist which made for quieter trails. |
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| Glacier National Park. Where beauty defies logic. |
- Am I allowed?
- Can I run off-leash?
- Can I chase things?
- Are there other dogs?
- Can I swim?
- Is it too hot?
- Do mom and dad seem stressed?
- Will I die? (ex. careening off a cliff while chasing a squirrel)
- Olympic National Forest, WA
- Sequoia National Forest, CA
- Mt. Hood National Forest, OR
- Dixie National Forest, UT
- Black Hills National Forest, SD
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| Happy dog in Mt. Hood National Forest |
And of course, I would never leave you without some of our other relevant (to whom?) statistics.
In total, we spent 197 nights on the road. Of those, 77 were spent at campsites. We actually increased this in the last month as the weather started to turn and we were less comfortable freezing in a parking lot. Sixty seven nights were at the mercy of friends and family. Thank you for letting us shower, for filling us with food and most importantly, for disrupting your Tuesday evening after a long day at work to laugh the night away with us. We boondocked a total of 19 nights and both agree we could have done this more if we knew then what we know now (mainly to find residential neighborhoods and apartment buildings which are much quieter than Walmarts). Eleven nights were spent in the beauty of a Walmart parking lot. I advise you to splurge on the $2 fee for a redbox movie on these nights to drown out the sound of the parking lot parties. We stayed at eight farms and wineries including a lavender farm and spent a full week in the driveways of strangers through Couchsurfing.
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| Sunset from our campsite on the Olympic Peninsula |
While it started out a bit disconcerting that we never knew where we were staying each day, it quickly became one of the best parts of the trip. I will never again plan every minute or day of a vacation. I will, instead, arrive at the destination, ask some questions, see how I feel and go from there. Yes, it's true. Jim's fear of making any kind of decision has leaked through my overly planning brain and I now find myself a bit anxious to tie myself to plans. What if the weather sucks? What if all the hoopla about this place doesn't pan out?
When visiting National Parks, my recommendation is the following: Arrive in the morning, get the park map, go to the visitor center (if it happens to be close to the entrance which most are), ask the ranger questions (any trail closures, how's the weather the next few days, any dispersed camping allowed, any dog friendly areas, favorite trails, etc.). Have lunch and then do a short hike that afternoon. After the hike, get to a campsite in the park and relax. Get up early the next day and do a longer hike and follow that routine until you feel you've experienced the park. For some, it took just 1.5 days for others, it took many more. (I could easily have spent two weeks in Glacier if it wasn't about to snow). Having said that, we noticed an interesting trend that four days in our favorite parks felt right. So don't feel like you need a two week vacation to enjoy them. In four days you can feel like you've scratched the surface.
Of course, no annual report would be complete without tallying how often we took showers. The results are in and October was our smelliest month. (sorry to those of you who hosted us) We only took 11 showers over the course of 31 days. To our credit, we spent the month hiking through the Pacific Northwest and California where showers don't seem to exist. Our longest stretch without bathing? Six days. Good times.
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| This picture in Yosemite is amazing because you can't smell me. |
Lastly, in terms of statewide beauty, there are only three that I would consider living in compared to the beauty of New Hampshire. Oregon, Utah and South Dakota. Everywhere else was either relatively okay or just plain ewww. If I can give NH a bit of a shout out here, it truly has everything. Lakes, ocean, mountains, forest, rednecks. And the real beauty is no one seems to realize these facts so it remains blissfully uninhabited. The White Mountain National Forest is one of the most stunning spots in the country but because people assume they are short mountains, they stay in their overcrowded trails in the Rockies and Cascades forgetting that while the mountains may only reach 6,000 feet, they start at 2,000 feet thereby creating amazing vistas even at their short height. But don't take my word for it. In fact, don't come here. I like my quiet trails. :)
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| Keira agrees. The White Mountains kick $@% |
We have spent seven months getting to know the ins and outs of this country. So the next time you roll your eyes at the state of our nation, remember there is still real beauty out there if you can block out the CAFO's, political signs and monoculture farms on the highway. Now get out there and enjoy!
“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the
squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall
shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know
ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.”
~D. H. Lawrence
