National Trails Day 2024 is on Friday, June 7, 2024: Which national park is your favorite?

Friday, June 7, 2024 is National Trails Day 2024. National Trails Day National Trails Day

Good evening Jess,

I hope you had a great day. I have been to many national parks because I love to hike, camp and fish. Many national parks, like the Grand Canyon and Bryce, I would classify as beautiful and spectacular but I would not want to see them again. They have no varieties of beautiful.

The Mighty High Sierra Nevada Mountain range contains three (3) national parks. The first time I hiked the John Muir Trail through the Mighty High Sierra Nevada Mountains was in 1960. I was fifteen (15).

(U.S.)

We lived off the land and saw three people in two months. In 1995, we saw over a hundred people in one week. Today people have set reservations lasting for years. The trash and waste is so bad that park rangers have decided to close many of the inner lakes.

Other national parks, like Yellowstone and Yosemite, are simply beautiful but today they are nothing but parking lots with thousands of people. The waiting line to get inside is over a mile long. Camp reservations can take a year or more.

Trash trucks continuously pick up trash and waste. What is worse, the parks are too overcrowded with people. The overcrowding of people has caused an explosion in the rat/mice population. The rats/mice carry diseases and virus. Today as I write, thousands of people (over 10,000 people) have been warned about the Hantavirus in Yosemite. Most of our national parks are in the same condition, overcrowded.

My third favorite park is Sequoia National Park. I visit Sequoia National Park at least every other year. I believe this is truly God’s country. I walk with giant Redwood Trees born before Christ. I have been praying and thanking General Sherman for brings me back from Vietnam for over forty years. Not even fire can destroy General Sherman in Sequoia National Park.

My second favorite park is Death Valley. Death Valley is breathtaking. There is no place on earth like Death Valley. Death Valley is three (3) million acres of multicolored rock layers with sand dunes and rocks. It is the hottest, driest, and lowest point (below sea level) in the United States. There are rocks that move on their own. It is a land of extremes.

I return every four or five years and especially after the once every ten (10) year rains. Millions of wild flowers get an opportunity to show off their blooms after the long sleep. I love Death Valley National Park, especially the night sky. The view of the heavens is indescribable. But even today the lights of Las Vegas are affecting the night sky. Scientist calls it “light pollution”.

Mankind is slowly destroying all.

So what is left? My favorite National park is “The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The National sanctuary runs along the California coast for 276 miles and covers 6094 square miles of ocean. In my opinion it is what a park should be doing, saving beauty and animals for future generations. Because of this concept, the park has a major effect on inland animals and the land surrounding it for miles.

You can enjoy watching California Gray whales with their young, otters raising their young and playing as a family, while seals play in the surf beside you with giant California Condors and eagles flying high in the clear sky. Most of these animals have come back from near extinction. Inland there are fields filled with thousands of wild flowers and thousands of Monarch Butterflies flying through the branches of 2000 year old Coastal Redwood Trees.

Jess, if you take your time and go through the website below you will understand why this is my number one pick. Read what Henry Miller states half way down the website on the right hand side. Click on the ecology of Big Sur at the bottom.

Thanks for your question. You and your family have a beautiful day. Peace from Los Angeles.

Best places to see in Olympic National Park (2 1/2 day excursion)?

Olympic National Park offers a ton of potential for hiking (both day and overnight) along with an extended shoreline and bountiful mountains. The park is separated into two areas, the main portion which includes the mountains and notable valleys, and the shoreline. Here are some of my recommendations:

-For a 2 1/2 day trip I would working your way around highway 101 counter-clockwise starting with either a ferry ride across the sound or by driving up through Olympia.

-A drive up Hurricane Ridge is always a great way to get up high in the mountains quickly and offers a good visitor center at the top along with some hiking options such as Hurricane Hill and Cirque Rim.

-A relaxing afternoon as Lake Crescent is always appreciated along with a trip to Sol Duc Hot Springs, which is also a good place for camping.

-Day two I would spend hiking deep into the Hoh Valley, straight out of a Tolkien book.

-You will also be on the west side of the park now and can easily access the shoreline beaches either at Rialto, or a full day hike from Ozette Lake to Cape Alva.

-Make sure to check out the tidalpools!

-The other half day can pick up another short hike around Lake Quinault on the way back east

enjoy!

What's a good trail for a 5-day backpacking trip in Olympic National Park in Aug?

The Hoh will not get you to the beach. There is SO much to see in the ONF, that it would be tough to get everything in on one trip. I would highly recommend the Enchanted Valley hike (It skirts along the east fork of the Quinault river). It's 13 miles from the trail head to Enchanted Valley (an enchanted place, indeed) I was there a summer or two ago and saw loads of bear (including a mating pair) and a bobcat. The Hoh trail will get you up to Blue Glacier (high alpine) but if my memory serves, it's a long hike in and out (about 40 miles round trip). There are a few coastal trips, but the coast hikes are not accessible from the mountain hikes. The coast areas of the National Forest are separate from the more inland areas. I've done the Ozette coastal hike and it was great. It's a 9 mile loop...it's basically a triangle. You start at trail head and hike three miles to either Sand Point or Cape Alava. From there, it's a 3 mile hike on the beach to either Sand Point or Cape Alava...from there 3 more miles back to the trail head. It was a great hike.

If you click on this link and then click on 'wilderness trail and campsite map' you will get a pretty good map of the trailheads and the back country campgrounds as well as info on each back country campground (bear wire or not, privy or not, reservations or not, etc.)

Good luck! It's a great place to backpack!