The most popular and least popular US national parks

I was looking at the National Parks Service website and it has intersting stats on all the 58 national parks.

Here are the top 10 most popular:
1. Great Smoky Mountains, TN
2. Grand Canyon, AZ
3. Yosemite, CA
4. Yellowstone, WY
5. Olympic, WA
6. Rocky Mountain, CO
7. Zion, UT
8. Grand Teton, WY
9. Cuyahoga Valley, OH
10. Acadia, ME

And the top 10 least popular:
1. Kobuk Valley, AK
2. Lake Clark, AK
3. Gates of the Arctic, AK
4. Isle Royale, MI
5. North Cascades, WA
6. Dry Tortugas, FL
7. Wrangell-St. Elias, AK
8. Great Basin, NV
9. Katmai, AK
10. Congaree, SC

I was really surprised that North Cascades NP in Washington state was one of the least popular.

I would have to guess that some on the least popular are either just not well known or slightly more difficult to access. There are some on there that I've never heard of. Isle Royal, MI is one we've talked about quite a bit on here. It's a really unique and beautiful island. But I'd bet most folks haven't heard of it and access is by ferry or sea plane only.

Thanks, Tunick. That's a really good post.

Some aren't well known. Access is probably another reason. I'll bet the parks in Alaska that are on the list are beautiful, but remote. As far as North Cascades - isn't access an issue? I may be thinking of a different area, but I thought roads were closed about 4 or 5 months out of the year.

Few things more satisfying than telling a hard core Greenie about how much fun it is to hunt in the National Parks.

Hopeak, that is to funny

The real joke is that I am so old that they were not "National Parks" when we hunted in them. They were just pretty places with lots of game, and still are.

North Cascades National Park WA. popularity is probably linked to inaccessibility

http://www.nps.gov/noca/planyourvisit/directions.htm

Edit: Which is how I like it btw. The less people, the better. Nice and quiet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ridge Wolf

North Cascades National Park WA. popularity is probably linked to inaccessibility

http://www.nps.gov/noca/planyourvisit/directions.htm

Edit: Which is how I like it btw. The less people, the better. Nice and quiet.

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DITTO: for Gates of the Arctic, Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks. I Lived on Lake Clark for many years, awesome fishing.......:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hopeak

DITTO: for Gates of the Arctic, Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks. I Lived on Lake Clark for many years, awesome fishing.......:)

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:cool::);)

I thought that I remembered the N Cascades road was closed in winter. I used to spend alot of time skiing in the Cascades - mostly Stevens Pass and Crystal Mt. Beautiful area. In the summer time the N Cascades highway was one of my favorite motorcycle rides.

Isle Royale is the least popular at only 15,000 per annum, but it is the MOST POPULATED per square mile. Except for some of the northern, tougher trails, you'll be seeing many people each day... and then the northern trails you see about one person a day. Kinda sad.

I loved hiking in the Cascades and Olympic Mts. One of my favorite hikes was in the Olympics to Upper Lena Lake. Found some pictures that somebody posted that brought back alot of fond memories. http://www.davidjamie.com/2004/upper_lena.html

Crash, I've got a picture of Stevens pass the week-end they opened the road. The little ski house down on the road had about 17 feet of snow on top of it. All you could see was the front peeking out of the snow.

When I first moved up to that area (transfered from Hawaii) we were taking a mortorcycle ride through the mountains. We stopped for a break and asked one of my buddies "what are those tall poles along the road every 20 yards or so"? He told me it's so the snow blowers know where the edge of the road is in winter. I was thinking he was yanking my chain. I mean these poles were tall - maybe 20 feet or so. First trip up in the middle of winter - yep - wonder why there's a bunch of 4 foot high poles every 20 yards or so?

Wow! What a change from Hawaii!!!! I was out there on business and another guy was in the car with me and I asked the same question. He gave the same answer. I pulled out my cell phone and called my boss.

"Hey, did you know they have these huge poles along the road out here so the snow plows know where the edge of the road is?"

"Yeah. They're big aren't they."

"Wait. You knew that and you still sent me out here?"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mitch.chesney

Isle Royale is the least popular at only 15,000 per annum, but it is the MOST POPULATED per square mile. Except for some of the northern, tougher trails, you'll be seeing many people each day... and then the northern trails you see about one person a day. Kinda sad.

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Good point. ;) They were saying Isle Royale is only 572,000 acres. By comparison Yellowstone NP and some of the ones in Alaska are millions of acres.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tunick001

I was looking at the National Parks Service website and it has intersting stats on all the 58 national parks.

Here are the top 10 most popular:
1. Great Smoky Mountains, TN
2. Grand Canyon, AZ
3. Yosemite, CA
4. Yellowstone, WY
5. Olympic, WA
6. Rocky Mountain, CO
7. Zion, UT
8. Grand Teton, WY
9. Cuyahoga Valley, OH
10. Acadia, ME

And the top 10 least popular:
1. Kobuk Valley, AK
2. Lake Clark, AK
3. Gates of the Arctic, AK
4. Isle Royale, MI
5. North Cascades, WA
6. Dry Tortugas, FL
7. Wrangell-St. Elias, AK
8. Great Basin, NV
9. Katmai, AK
10. Congaree, SC

I was really surprised that North Cascades NP in Washington state was one of the least popular.

---

Stands to reason. I've never heard of least popular numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, and 10. I am surprised Smokey Mtns is number 1 in popularity. Marketing alwasy makes Yellowstone or Grand Canyon to be more popular. Go Smokies. I'm glad.

Gates of the Arctic is a fantastic park.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Montana_Musher

Gates of the Arctic is a fantastic park.

---

Yep, About 70' or 71' I was fleshing a Grizzly hide and there were 119 wolves laying around watching, about 20 were with-in 25 yards, they were happy to just lay in the sun and watch. The night be for they ate the body of the bear and the caribou it was feeding on. This was on the upper Noatak near the Ambler.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hopeak

Yep, About 70' or 71' I was fleshing a Grizzly hide and there were 119 wolves laying around watching, about 20 were with-in 25 yards, they were happy to just lay in the sun and watch. The night be for they ate the body of the bear and the caribou it was feeding on. This was on the upper Noatak near the Ambler.

---

Most people would find this post unbelievable...but if you've been to Gates of the Arctic.....you have a different understanding of wilderness, and this seems realistic.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Montana_Musher

Most people would find this post unbelievable...but if you've been to Gates of the Arctic.....you have a different understanding of wilderness, and this seems realistic.

---

It was not a park in the early 70's. Shaky Shannahan out of Bettles would fly my hunting partner and I in there for a 6 week walk'about.

I think the only worse name for a pilot than "Shaky" would be "Crash".

Thrill'em-spill'em-no'kill'em Gilliam (Maybe the second greatest pilot ever).Harold Gilliam about 1920's 30's

Speaking of bush pilots. Years ago I was reading in some aviation magazine a story about Alaska bush pilots (got a lot of respect for what you do Hopeak). The conversation between the pilot and tower went something like this.

Pilot - Requesting clearance to land and turn on the runway landing lights.
Tower - Negative. Weather is too bad. Fly on heading...........
Pilot - Repeats request.
Tower - Negative. We are snowed in with zero visibility. The runway is closed.

ten minutes pass by with silence on the radio, then....

Pilot - Request you turn on the lights!
Tower - I've told you no - it's impossible to land in these conditions.
Pilot - I'm already on the ground. Just gotta figure out where to get some hot coffee.

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