All in all, if my count is right, I have now been to 26 of 63 parks. I will likely do some reviews and provide more details about all of them, but I will start with the freshest, aka the new ones I went to this year. After that, I will talk about the ones that I went to in 2026 that I have been before, and then I will carry on with the ones that I went to in the past.
I will be frank; some of the new ones I went to I barely scratched the surface. As in, I saw one tiny section of a very large area, so cannot judge beyond that slice at this point. I will also admit that it does depend on what time of year you visit. Lastly, I am partial to places that I can hike in or get deeper into, and not just jump in and out of a car when I visit. So all of these things will of course affect my scoring, and all scoring will be subjective.
Before I start, let me tell you a little bit about some old dead white guys. The first park (to be discussed later) was established in 1872 by then president Ulysses S. Grant. Luckily, soon after that (1892), my mate Johnny, aka John Muir took a break from bounding around the woods with his notebook and loaf of bread, founded the Sierra club and then in 1903, took Teddy Roosevelt (TR) camping in Yosemite. Apparently TR liked sleeping on the ground so much**, that he decided to focus on conservation as one of his top priorities.
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| They're dead Jim! |
TR went on to sign The Passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906, granting presidents executive authority to bypass slow congressional approvals to instantly protect public lands (yay!). He also went on to create 5 new national parks, 18 national monuments (including the Grand Canyon), 55 wildlife refuges, and 150 national forests. Bravo gentlemen, bravo!! History lesson over! Let's get into the parks!
**I doubt they actually slept on the ground!
The parks I went to this year were:
Glacier Bay (AK) - new
Glacier (MT) - new
Cuyahoga Valley (OH) - new
Indiana Dunes (IN) - new
Theodore Roosevelt (ND) - new
Yellowstone (WY) - new
Badlands (SD) - new
Grand Canyon (AZ) - repeat
Bryce Canyon (UT) - repeat
Yosemite (CA) - repeat
Kings Canyon (CA) - repeat
I am going to split the seven new park and four repeat park discussions into three posts in the order given above. This post will cover:
Glacier Bay (AK) - new
Glacier (MT) - new
Cuyahoga Valley (OH) - new
For each, I will discuss the following (please note that some of this has been found on the internet and I cannot confirm it is 100% correct):
PARK INFO:
Year Established:
Year Established:
Location:
Park size:
Number of visitors per year:
Best time of year to visit:
Miles of hiking trails:
Longest single trail:
General popularity:
Fun fact:
MY VISIT:
Time of year I visited (and whether or not this is ideal):
Time of year I visited (and whether or not this is ideal):
Temperature when I was there:
Time spent in park:
Busyness when I was there:
My hiking experience:
IT IS ACCESSIBLE?
Ease of getting to:
Number of entrances:
Do roads or park close in winter?
Can you spend the night in the park?
MY NOTES/RANKING:
Beauty:
Beauty:
Other Notes:
Overall Score:
And then I will do a quick wrap up at the end! Let's get started!
Glacier Bay National Park
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| Lamplugh Glacier |
PARK INFO:
Year Established: 1980 (was a national monument before that, since 1925)
Year Established: 1980 (was a national monument before that, since 1925)
Location: Southeast Alaska, in the inside passage, just west of Juneau
Park size: 5,126 square miles (6th biggest; 5 of the 6 largest are in Alaska)
Number of visitors per year: 740,000
Best time of year to visit: June - August
Miles of hiking trails: 15
Longest single trail: 10 miles
General popularity*: #29
Fun fact: 90% of people who visit this park never set foot on land. I am one of the 90%.
MY VISIT:
Time of year I visited (and whether or not this is ideal): May; it was great. Cool but not cold, clear and sunny, no humidity or wind.
Time of year I visited (and whether or not this is ideal): May; it was great. Cool but not cold, clear and sunny, no humidity or wind.
Temperature when I was there: ~ 50 F
Time spent in park: 8 hours
Busyness when I was there: I was on a cruise ship, and there were a few others in the bay at the same time, but it did not feel crowded.
Busyness when I was there: I was on a cruise ship, and there were a few others in the bay at the same time, but it did not feel crowded.
My hiking experience: N/A (did not get off the ship)
IT IS ACCESSIBLE?
Ease of getting to: not easy, most people come by watercraft. No public transit.
Number of entrances: 0 road entrances
Do roads or park close in winter? See above re roads, winter severely limits water access but no formal closure
Can you spend the night in the park? Yes, there are backcountry camps and a lodge available.
MY NOTES/RANKING:
Beauty: 10/10 very beautiful, many glaciers, fjords, wildlife, water is very blue, sky was blue, it was gorgeous.
Beauty: 10/10 very beautiful, many glaciers, fjords, wildlife, water is very blue, sky was blue, it was gorgeous.
Other Notes: We saw orcas, sea lions, dolphins
Overall Score: 8/10 due to limited accessibility and hiking options. I would like to go back in my own boat or kayak one day, or a flyover would be really cool.
Glacier National Park
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| Highline trail |
PARK INFO:
Year Established: 1910 (8th)
Location: Northwestern Montana, along the Canadian border
Park size: 1,583 square miles (10th biggest national park)
Number of visitors per year: 3.14 million
Best time of year to visit: July–early September
Miles of hiking trails: 746
Longest single trail: 18 miles — Gunsight Pass Trail
General popularity*: #10
Fun Fact: Glacier National Park has more than 700 miles of hiking trails but only about 50 miles of paved roads.
MY VISIT
Time of year I visited (and whether or not this is ideal): August, can be quite busy, but in the mountains it is not too hot.
Time of year I visited (and whether or not this is ideal): August, can be quite busy, but in the mountains it is not too hot.
Temperature when I was there: 35 - 60 F
Time spent in park: 2 days, about 6-8 hours each day
Busyness when I was there: Slightly busy, but not as bad as expected
My hiking experience: Hiked Grinnell Glacier and Highline Loop day hikes. Both were great, and I would love to go back! (small note: to camp overnight you have to get a permit, but they do not issue many. We tried to get one and failed). Day hiking trails are busy.
IT IS ACCESSIBLE?
Ease of getting to: Can fly to Kalispell and drive, or take the Amtrak to the West or East Entrances. Parking is limited, and lots often fill by 7 am. There is a shuttle, but it also fills fast and is often unavailable/booked up. There is a lot of traffic on Going to the Sun Road, sometimes so much that you are stopped.
Number of entrances: 4 - West, St. Mary, Many Glacier, Two Medicine (last three are all on the east side)
Do roads or park close in winter? Yes, major roads close, including Going To The Sun road, which is a main route through the park.
Can you spend the night in the park? Yes, there is backcountry camping, but permits are very hard to get. There is also car camping and several lodges but reservations are difficult to get (FYI when I was there, I could have stayed in the lodge near Many Glacier for about $300. It must have been a recent cancellation though!)
MY NOTES/RANKING:
Beauty: 10/10 Very beautiful. Sweeping mountain views, snow topped peaks, lakes, glaciers, and many animals, including bears, mountain goats, bighorn sheep and moose. You can see why it is number 10; I am guessing it would be even higher if it were more easily accessed.
Beauty: 10/10 Very beautiful. Sweeping mountain views, snow topped peaks, lakes, glaciers, and many animals, including bears, mountain goats, bighorn sheep and moose. You can see why it is number 10; I am guessing it would be even higher if it were more easily accessed.
Other Notes: You can ride a bike on Going To The Sun road, both when the park/roads are open, AND for a few days after they open the road to cars, they let bikes go on without cars. Also, it was very smoky when I was there, which I believe is why it was not as busy. However, this also meant that we did not see many animals, and the scenery and mountains were not visible for much of the visit too!
Overall Score: 9/10 due to difficulty of getting backcountry permits, and some traffic on GTTS road. Otherwise, very beautiful. I could also take one point off for smoke, but I have chosen not to. Note that often there are fires in the summer so there could be a chance of smoke.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
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| Ledges Trail |
PARK INFO:
Year Established: 2000 (was a national recreation area before that, since 1974)
Location: Northeastern Ohio, between Cleveland and Akron
Park size: 51.5 square miles
Number of visitors per year: 3.03 million
Best time of year to visit: May–October; October for fall foliage
Miles of hiking trails: 125+
Longest single trail: ~34 miles — Buckeye Trail segment within the park
General popularity*: #11
Fun fact: Cuyahoga Valley is one of the few national parks located next to a major metropolitan area, sitting between Cleveland and Akron.
MY VISIT:
Time of year I visited (and whether or not this is ideal): August. It was a little bit too hot and definitely too humid for me.
Time of year I visited (and whether or not this is ideal): August. It was a little bit too hot and definitely too humid for me.
Temperature when I was there: ~80s - 90s F
Time spent in park: 2-3 hours
Busyness when I was there: Not busy at all.
Busyness when I was there: Not busy at all.
My hiking experience: Ledges trail, which was very stunning. There are some very cool rock formations, and most of the trail is in the shade. The trail was nice, and not technical, and there were even some caves that were kind of cool (literally and figuratively)!
IT IS ACCESSIBLE?
Ease of getting to: Very easy (see above re metro area), some public transit to park, can ride the historic Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad within the park.
Number of entrances: No formal entrance/gate (and no NP pass check!), many entry points.
Do roads or park close in winter? No, the park and its trails and roads remain open for the most part.
Can you spend the night in the park? Yes, there are many guesthouses both in and near the park, but interestingly no camping is allowed.
MY NOTES/RANKING:
Beauty: 8/10 The part that I saw was very nice! However, the ground I covered was probably in about a 4 square mile area, so not even a tenth of the park. There are lots of trees and fun rocks!
Beauty: 8/10 The part that I saw was very nice! However, the ground I covered was probably in about a 4 square mile area, so not even a tenth of the park. There are lots of trees and fun rocks!
Other Notes: There is a train, many cycling trails and kayaking as well, but I did not try any of them.
Overall Score: 8 /10. Lowered due to lack of sweeping vistas and higher humidity, but increased due to some hiking options, ease of access and lack of hordes of people! I will definitely be back to do more research!
Overall thoughts:
I think that the "popularity" is often more about accessibility, as in, how close it is to a metro area, do you need a pass to enter, are there many entrances etc. where the barrier to entry can lower the number. However, I am not in any way saying that places with a better popularity rating are not cool.
The other thing is that what makes me like a park and what makes you like a park could be completely different. I saw many people at Indiana dunes enjoying time at the beach, whereas that is not really the reason that I am there.
*Note on the popularity ranking: This is 2025 recreation-visit rank among the 63 U.S. national parks, based on NPS visitation statistics. #1 is the most visited and #63 is the least visited. It is not a subjective popularity rating, and it measures visits rather than unique visitors.
My ratings so far:
Glacier 9/10
Glacier Bay 8/10
Cuyahoga Valley 8/10
Have you ever been to any of these and if so, what did you think? Do you disagree with any of my ratings? Do you want to try to guess which park out of all 63 is the most "popular" aka most visited?
Stay tuned for part two! Also, don't worry Canada! I will also be talking more about the PPs I have visited!
