Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, Great Smoky Mountains preserves some of the last old growth forests in the Eastern U.S.
Glacier National Park is one of the grandfathers of the National Park Service and continues to stand the test of time as one of the best national parks in the country.
Surprised? Good! Redwood's misty forests, wild coastline, pristine streams, and valleys teeming with wildlife are one of the best kept "secrets" in the national park system.
There was a time when Yosemite would have been #1 on our list, alas John Muir's "grandest of all temples" is reckoning with major crowding issues. Nonetheless its beauty is unsurpassed.
John Muir described it best, "The most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings”
Grand Teton National Park is truly iconic and, thanks to strong management and foresight, has been able to avoid the crowding that plagues many other popular parks.
Olympic has everything from lowland forests, high mountain ranges, alpine lakes, wild rivers, temperate rain forests, iconic wildlife, and over 50 miles of wild coastline!