US National Parks

John Roberts

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This is a cut-and-paste from a post of mine in Sven's inspirational "A bit of Inspiration" thread, it seemed appropriate to start a fresh thread even though it covers the same ground in some repects.

I'm looking for suggestions for, umm... say, the best four or five National Parks to vist in a four week tour, starting in San Francisco and spending a few (three/four?) days there to get over the jet-lag. Yosemite is a must, as well as the Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone and a slot canyon somewhere, Zion, Monument and ... oh dear you can see my problem, too many attractions, and all soo good. Reading about all the various sights is puddling my mind and I'm finding it impossible to decide, all suggestions welcome. :)
 
You can visit alot of Nat Parks in 4wks you lucky boy.

My favorites were Bryce Canyon, [plan time to walk among the Hoo Doo] Arches and Canyonlands. Moab being a nice base for the last two.
 
So how long is a reasonable time to spend in a National Park? We spent about nine hours total in Yosemite and Tuolumne Meadows, about four on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, I have a vague idea that Yellowstone would take a few days because it's, because it's ... big I suppose. We didn't spent too much time in Yosemite because we were en-route to somewhere else, perhaps if it was a destination then we would have budgeted for more time there. On the other hand we spent three days in the Mercantour National Park (OK, I know, that's in France) so that's why I'm finding it hard to plan a schedule.
 
Mike O said:
Don't miss going to Glacier Point in Yosemite
Click to expand...

Indeed so. There's a Park Ranger lecture up there, at sunset on most evenings during the summer. The view from Glacier Point is quite possibly the best in the whole of Yosemite.

DPF64.JPG



See the National Parks now before the bastard Republicans sell them off - http://reverbpress.com/news/senate-republicans-vote-to-sell-off-our-national-parks/
 
We were in the states on the bike last year (NewYork to LA). I will post a link to the ride report on another forum after. We managed to get to several of the parks and my pick would be: Yosemite, but its huge and quite busy for USA. Death Valley - just riding through was good enough, and Escalante - not sure this is a NP but the scenery and roads are brill.

I think the best days ride we had was from near monument valley, through the Valley of the Gods, and on to the Escalante area via some pistes. I can get more detail if you want. Valley of gods is awesome.
 
Mike O said:
Also, don't waste time acclimatising to jet lag - get on the road and it'll sort itself out...
Click to expand...
Ooh, not sure about that, there's a LOT of time difference between home time and California time, I can't handle it too well (though a whole lot better than I handle the trip back to Blighty which is inevitably followed by a long drive home from Manchester Airport or- perish the thought- Heathrow.)

Spending some time in San Francisco of all places will be no hardship, in fact we are looking forward to having a few days there, we also plan a further couple of days there on our return from the tour. We have stayed there before and are looking forward to trips to Nappa Valley, Sonoma, Sausalito, Oakland, perhaps as far as Monterey (not checked that distance yet, though.) Oh, and sitting on the Dock of the Bay will be nice, too. :cool:
 
You will be able to spend plenty of time time in all the NP's on a 4 week trip.

Don't forget Lassen and Crater Lake just north of SF which are well worth a visit on your way over to Yellowstone. You could easily go across to the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore before heading south towards Moab, Zion and Bryce. You would also have time to go to Monument Valley and there is a lovely little know canyon just south east of Monument called Canyon de Chelley which is a Navajo spiritual canyon. Very moving in there when you learn the story of what happened as couple of years ago.
 
Bryce Canyon is my favourite, but I also loved the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, Arches and Canyonlands (probably in that order fo preference too) :thumby: I hated the Yosemite Lodge, so that spoilt my trip to Yosemite :(

Antelope Canyon (slot canyon) was very inpressive, not as impressive as the above IMHO
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far. Right, Glacier Point and Canyon de Chelley are now included for sure, my wife would like to see Mount Rushmore but it does seem a lot of extra distance so that isn't a definite at the moment.

One, possibly major, worry is that of accommodation. My first attempt at finding somewhere in Yellowstone is discouraging, entering a date in mid-September only brought up a couple of hotels with all the others showing no rooms on that date. I then tried three nights in case they couldn't be bothered with single night stays but that made no difference. Then tried the same thing with one month earlier, two, three months earlier but still nothing available. Some say to phone- which I will- but it's just after midnight there now. In the meantime can someone please reassure me that getting a room in the National parks is indeed really possible.

Dammit, I know it must be possible FFS, but it is a little disconcerting. Will somebody please tell me that it really won't be a problem? Please?
 
John

We had no luck getting anywhere inside Yellowstone, so stayed in Gardiner at the north entrance which was a nice little town with a few decent restaurants and bars (the pizza place and Mexican were very good). West Yellowstone was horrible.

Mt Rushmore was more interesting than I thought it would be and the Black Hills are lovely, but it was a long way to Yellowstone from there, although visiting Little Bighorn battlefield on the way was very moving. The Devils Tower was a bit underwhelming.
 
Thank you, Sven, that's a relief. Did you find it was necessary to book ahead or was it possible to just look for accommodation at the end of the day as you went along? We're going in September by the way, it ought to be a lot quiter by then, of course. :)
 
We were there May and June 2014 and didn't have any problem getting hotels - Super 8, Comfort Inn etc. We never tried inside a park though except on the Skyline Drive which was, no surprise, the most expensive night. We also picked up a discount voucher book at the nearest Tourist Information place as we crossed into each state - basically a book full of offers for most of the main hotel/motel chains. Central Las Vegas super 8 for $45 anyone :) (was ($150+) and other similar but not quite so dramatic reductions. Even if you don't have a discount voucher 10-20% discount should be achievable just by asking at the desk. I just said I was a government employee (I am, just not the US government) or in the American AA. If you are ex- military you get even better discounts or upgrades but as I am not and it felt very immoral to say I was, i didn't.
 
Always stay just outsized the parks as it's way cheaper. Most of these little towns offer decent motels at decent prices and good restaurants. In the parks you will be surrounded by tourists and paying the tourist price. If you are going into Yellowstone via the east entrance, there is Cooke City which is a great little town which cheap motels. You are right at the end of the season though so you may struggle a little so it really is worth putting a call in to see if they are open.

If you are going in September, be prepared for a some bad weather as it will start getting cold. We were in Yellowstone in early September last year and missed the snow by a couple of days so take some warm clobber.
 
Thank you Sarge, I hadn't thought about how high Yellostone was, just found it's between five and eleven thousand feet with the temperatures accordingly a lot lower, between 30 and 66 Farenheit in September. It seems wise to schedule Yellowstone earlier rather than later in the trip then.

PS, Cooke City: noted. :thumb2
 
John, check out the fantastic BBC 3-part Yellowstone documentary 👍 That shows how long and harsh the winter is 😱
 
John Roberts said:
Ooh, not sure about that, there's a LOT of time difference between home time and California time, I can't handle it too well (though a whole lot better than I handle the trip back to Blighty which is inevitably followed by a long drive home from Manchester Airport or- perish the thought- Heathrow.)

Spending some time in San Francisco of all places will be no hardship, in fact we are looking forward to having a few days there, we also plan a further couple of days there on our return from the tour. We have stayed there before and are looking forward to trips to Nappa Valley, Sonoma, Sausalito, Oakland, perhaps as far as Monterey (not checked that distance yet, though.) Oh, and sitting on the Dock of the Bay will be nice, too. :cool:
Click to expand...

I've just been to San Francisco and I thought the jet lag on the way to the US was not too bad. Make sure you plan a flight that arrives sometime during the day, that way your day will be long but at least you'll be able to sleep at night. The way back is much worse, 'cause you'll miss out on one night.

But: you should absolutely spend some time is San Francisco! It's an amazing ciy. Make sure to do a trip around the Bay Area, you can get around by driving over the bridge to Oakland, then to the north via another bridge and come back via the Golden Gate.

When it comes to national parks, I can absolutely recommend Canyonlands. It isn't as crowded as the Grand Canyon during the week days, if you show up until two pm you should be able to get a camping spot without problems. Also, don't miss out on the Arches National Park for the best view at sunrise/sunset!
 
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