Trip Across America

I try my best to avoid reading clickbait articles, but every once in a while, I ignore my better judgement. Today was one of those days. Included in my list of Google recommended articles, was one titled, “National Sites No One Wants to Visit Anymore”. Ordinarily I would ignore such a ridiculous title, but this one I couldn’t pass up. There are 423 sites managed by the National Park Service, and all of them are worth visiting. At this point I’ve visited over 150 of them, and I fully intend on seeing all 423. Given that background, I was naturally curious about the article’s content.

You can read the article for yourself, but you may end up losing a few brain cells. The article looked at the percentage change in visitation from 2020 to 2021, and compiled the list of parks with the largest yearly declines into, “National Sites No One Wants to Visit Anymore”. That’s it, nothing else. To say that their methodology was sophomoric, is an understatement. Not only did they pick a sample period where there was a global pandemic, but visitation statistics have very little correlation with the quality of National Park sites.

247tempo.com/national-sites-no-one-wants-to-visit-anymore

I should have stopped reading after I saw the methodology, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m glad I didn’t, because the rest of the article was hilarious. After the introduction, you’re taken through a slide show, highlighting the 28 NPS sites with the largest year over year decline in visitation. Included in the list are the Washington Monument, Lassen Volcanic National Park, North Cascades National Park, Katmai National Park & Preserve, Valley Forge National Historic Park, Fort Donelson National Battlefield, and last but not least the White House.

Nobody wants to visit the Washington Monument anymore? Great!! Now I don’t have to book tickets 30 days in advance. Lassen Volcanic National Park? Did something change since I was there a few weeks ago? That place is awesome. North Cascades National Park, are you joking? I’ve got a draft going, detailing my visit to North Cascades, but short story is this place is amazing. Katmai National Park, well you probably know this one from the Instagram videos of grizzly bears eating salmon. Last time I checked that’s still pretty cool. Valley Forge National Historic Park and Fort Donelson National Battlefield? If you made me Education Czar, every child in America would take a field trip to Valley Forge and Fort Donelson. Make me Dictator, and I’ll make their parents go to. The White House? Again, are you joking? Not only was the White House on the list, but it was ranked number 1, with a 87.6% decline in visitation.

Now this is obviously a ridiculous list, but it got me thinking. There are quite a few NPS sites with relatively few visitors, that are really cool. Everyone knows about the 63 National Parks, but what about all the other sites in the National Park System. There are 84 National Monuments, 62 National Historical Parks, 73 National Historic Sites, and 31 National Memorials. What about the National Battlefields, National Seashores, and National Recreation Areas? There’s so many wonderful sites managed by the National Park Service, that if you are focusing on just the 63 National Parks, you are surely missing out.

When I began my trip, I was overly focused on the 63 National Parks as well. But somewhere along the way I realized that the other sites comprising the National Park System were just as cool. Homestead National Historical Park in Nebraska, Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve in Idaho, Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, Minute Man National Historical Park in Massachusetts, just a couple examples of NPS sites that I’ve written about recently, and which are most definitely worth visiting. In fact, if I were to rank all NPS sites from 1 to 423, the first 63 spots would not all be National Parks. You have to remember that these designations are the result of the political process, and often aren’t indicative of a park’s quality. Designations also change over time, there’s lots of National Parks that started out as National Monuments, and were later re-designated.

While some of the parks with less prestigious designations are of exceptionally high quality, they don’t benefit from the publicity that comes with being a National Park. As a result, some of them are little known, despite their merits. I’d be willing to bet, that most people have a National Park site near their home, that they’ve either never been to, or never heard of. If you’re curious, check out the map of National Park units below (use the link to zoom in). I literally check this map every day, ensuring that I don’t accidentally pass up a NPS site.

https://www.nps.gov/carto/hfc/carto/media/NPS_UnifiedRegionsMap.jpg

The bottom line is there are 423 wonderful National Park sites, and all of them are worth visiting. Like anything else, individuals will have ones they like more and less, but they all have value. For anyone who is interested, I’ll include a few links below, for posts I’ve written on different National Park sites, just to give a more concrete example of what’s out there to explore.

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument – Explore The Most Iconic Battle of The American West

Craters of the Moon National Monument – Idaho’s Land of Lava

Manhattan Project National Historical Park – Hanford Site – B Reactor

Minute Man National Historic Park – Where It All Began

Colorado National Monument – Experience The Grandeur of Western Colorado

Devils Tower – America’s First National Monument