INN Member
The easiest way to explore RV-friendly National Park campgrounds.
Here’s the definitive guide to National Park System campgrounds where RVers can park their rigs.
Our app is packed with RVing- specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 national parks.
You’ll also find stories about RVing in the parks, tips helpful if you’ve just recently become an RVer, and useful planning suggestions.
Comments
Can anyone really be done with a park? There is so much to see and experience that it's not possible for me to be done. When traveling great distances I want to get the feel of a park in the day or two before I move to the next. I am tempted to go back to my favorites but I just have to move on to the next park and experience that one.
I think it depends upon the park. Some parks after a couple visits, I've felt that I had "done" them, and don't feel that additional visits will bring significantly new experiences or feelings. Others, even after numerous trips into remote backcountry areas, I still don't feel that I've "done" them, I still want to go back and do more. Examples of parks I don't feel I'm "done" with are Grand Canyon (Have one the inner canyon from Desert View to Boucher on the South Rim. Have done North Bass and Thunder River/Tepeats Creek. Have not done Royal Arch Route, Elves Chasm, Nankaweap, Kanab Creek, Tuweep). At Grand Canyon, I have not done a George Steck and done a it end to end on both sides of the river (Not sure I really want to do that either.) Zion, could spend a lifetime there. Chaco Canyon, have hiked all the open parts, but am not done with it because of the feelings I get, say sitting a Casa Rinconada or Pueblo Bonito at dusk. Tetons and Yellowstone, not done with. Yosemite and SEKI, not done with. Mt Rainier, not done with. I'm sure I will be unable to ever be "done" with some of these places, well after I am physically unable to venture into the areas I would like to go.
Usually only when I run out of money or time. (Usually money, darn it.)
Could John Muir have ever said, "Been there. Done that." and never returned to Yosemite? Like John, I don't think I have ever "done" a park until I am "one" with the park. Although I have visited many, some more than once, I have neither done any nor yet become one with any. Alas, so few have the privelage.
I do not think you can ever be done with a park. Each time you visit, something new is there to see, wether it is a season change, wildlife, waterfalls, crouds. I love Yosemite in the winter, since there are no crouds and it is beautiful, but also love it in summer, where I can go anywhere all day long. Never done..
Death Valley is my favorite, visited five time for a total of nine weeks, painted over 100 paintings, and there are still so many places I haven't been. I love that folks get so loyal to their park, we were in Big Bend for the millenial new year and every one there has been coming for new year's for years, they knew so much more that new poor new rangers! Loved it.
After I work at a park at least 4-5 seasons, then I'm usually done with it. for a while. Yet this will be my 5th season at Grand Canyon's North Rim and I've barely begun to know this place. Could take a lifetime.
Our National Parks are living, breathing, natural preserves, and as such, they are constantly changing (seasons, natural or man made disasters, better weather years, worse weather years, etc.). So even the relatively smaller parks can never be "done". Heck, this might even apply to some of our heritage parks. Can anyone really say after 1 or 10 visits they have seen and done everything at Gettysburg or Antietam? Or maybe this is just my excuse for going back again and again.....Goodness, we love all the parks!
Easy to answer for some parks, but impossible to answer for others. I spent 4 days at Arches, photographing every arch and hiking a number of trails. I've 'done' Arches. On the other hand, I've been to Grand Canyon more than a dozen time, backpacked in from the north and south rims and even did a rim to rim hike - each time spending a week in the back country. And I don't think I have enough time left on earth to have 'done' this park.
We've been to Yellowstone 4 times in three years and it seems like we have only scratched the surface. I would hope to never feel like I've seen it all-- that would be kind of depressing to me??
Dick, I've been going to Yellowstone for, oh, about 25 years now, and my trip back in September to the Bechler Region was my first there and opened up an entirely new window into the park for me.
Next up: The Thorofare!
2011 was our third trip to Glacier National Park. We ended up spending almost 6 weeks in Glacier this last time and hiked about 250 miles for our website: http://www.hikinginglacier.com/. I still feel like we only scratched the surface of what Glacier has to offer. There are still so many more trails to hike, but so many I'd like to do again. When you find someplace that captures your heart, I'm not sure you've every say you've "done" it.
And it isn't even just the large or notable parks. I visited Saugus Iron Works NHS a couple of years ago and spent a couple of hours in that small park. It was a rich experience and I know I didn't 'get' everything. If I'm back in the Boston area again I'll try to stop by again. Needless to say, I could spent the rest of my life returning to and embracing the larger wonders I've seen, like Mt Rainier, Yellowstone, National Park of American Samoa, North Cascades, the Chilkoot Trail, and more.
I guess you're never done until you're done, and at that point spread my ashes.
I'm done when I have done everything I physically can do in that park. I haven't been there yet, but when I do get to Yosemite, I will not be 'done' until I have hiked every trail I possibly can and have seen every inch I can. Since I cannot rock climb, I will be done when that is the last option for seeing things that I haven't yet seen.