Which of the U.S. national parks in this image do you think is the most worth visiting? There are three exceptions.

We’re talking about a vacation this summer so we can plan ahead. My mother (who will pay for it) said she’d love to go to Yellowstone, but it looks like it’s about a 24-hour drive for us. Still, I like the idea of going to a national park. We’re in Indiana, so this image shows about the limits of where we’re willing to drive. Maybe 14-15 hours at most, which puts most of the ones in the image in range.

However-

• We’ve already been to Indiana Dunes and Gateway Arch.

• My daughter is scared of caves, so Mammoth Cave is out.

Out of the rest, which would you most recommend so I can suggest it to my mother?

Is there anything not in Indiana that is within this area that you think is more worth visiting than a national park that also would take a decent amount of time to visit and see different things? (Not a city, obviously.)

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

name_NULL111653,

Breaks interstate Park between WV and KY is pretty nice. I also very, very highly recommend smoky mountains, I live in the region and have gone every year. Ik you said no cities but Gatlinburg area can be nice to check out after the trip if you wanna see Smoky Mountain Knife Works and all the small businesses in the rural parts of the mountains.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks, this is the sort of advice I was hoping for!

NakariLexfortaine,

The Artisan’s Market is worth going to Gatlinburg, but avoid the main strip of the city unless you’re looking to eat. There’s maybe 4 unique shops, the rest are the exact same touristy shit under a different name.

The Knife Works will be busy, also. It doesn’t slow down. Parking will be ass. It’s totally worth it just to go into the downstairs Relic Room.

dhill,

+1 for Smoky Mtns. So much to explore, Clingmans Dome, waterfalls, elk, bears, restaurants close by, but you can get as far away from the tourist-ty stuff as you like. Secluded cabins to downtown hotels. Dollywood for the kids is good. I live in Georgia, but try to get up there with the family every year or two. Also Smoky mountain knife works is worth it if you’re into knives, outdoors, camping…

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

It’s looking the most promising right now just due to all the things to do in Gatlinburg as well. We can’t help it, we enjoy a good tourist trap.

Nokinori,

Adding to the smoky mountain suggestion, the Gatlinburg area has a lot of fun touristy places to go. I haven’t seen the Apple Barn mentioned yet, but they and Cruze Farms Ice cream are both top notch dessert places. And I’ll 2nd The Local Goat for some good food.

A_Union_of_Kobolds,

Here’s another for the Smokies. I’m about an hour and change east of Gatlinburg, it’s a great area to spend a few days for sure. Dollywood is surprisingly awesome, the Aquarium is great, mountains like Clingman’s Dome are beautiful.

name_NULL111653,

+1 for the apple barn, definitely eat there while you’re in town! Like what cracker barrel should be if it was real food and actually good.

name_NULL111653, (edited )

Also, if you’re into blacksmiths and actual hand-forged knives, definitely check out Viking Blade Forge, it’s a small place in the middle of nowhere with a few similar shops nearby. Definitely worth it. Contact us page w/ address

Pohl,

Isle royal isn’t very easy to visit. But the parks department operates 2 “national lakeshores” in MI that everyone should see. Sleeping bear dunes is west of traverse city and is super accessible and close to lots of lodging in TC. Pictured rocks is perhaps my favorite place on earth. But, driving up to the UP is a bit of a trek.

Vanth,
@Vanth@reddthat.com avatar

Voyageurs stood out to me as similar. It’s a fishing, canoeing, “fuck off into the woods and get away from it all” kind of park. It’s the opposite end of the spectrum from the Gateway Arch.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Just looked it up. From us to Copper Harbor (the farthest port) is less than 11 hours by car and I wouldn’t really count the ferry in the travel time because that would be part of the experience, so honestly that doesn’t sound too bad. Also, we’d drive through both Chicago and Milwaukee if we wanted something to do on the way there or back. It’s not a terrible idea, although @Null’s suggestion of the Smoky Mountains is appealing since I’ve driven through them and it was beautiful, but it would also be cool to go somewhere none of us have been. Thanks!

nuachtan,

If you are considering either sleeping beat dunes or pictured rocks I would suggest taking the MI route instead of Wisconsin. Less traffic through Chicago and Milwaukee. The drive up the coast on US131 or US31 follows Lake Michigan the whole way and has beautiful scenery.

ShittyBeatlesFCPres,

Shenandoah is really nice. None of the East Coast parks are going to be as mind-blowing as the famous ones out west. And you can also go to the Great Smokey Mountains area if you plan the route correctly.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, that’s the real shame. You can’t really compare with something like Yosemite. But it’s just too far away. Great Smokey Mountains is sounding like the best bet so far. There’s stuff in Gatlinburg I know we would like to see as well. My daughter loves any aquarium anywhere and it has one, and there’s a pinball museum. My daughter and I both love pinball. I can tell it’s a tourist trap, but between that and the national park, I think we’ll have a lot to do.

Zerlyna,
@Zerlyna@lemmy.world avatar

I have lived near Smoky Mountains for years. Especially if you have kids, they will not go bored and the park is nice and not infested with people. (You just gotta go through the people to get to the park). Make sure to get to Clingman’s Dome for nice pics. There’s lots of trails for all experience levels too.

Mike85k,

Ripley’s aquarium is in Gatlinburg, we went there last year during our vacation to the Smokey Mountains and thought it was awesome. We haven’t been to a lot of aquariums, but it’s the best I’ve been to.

grue,

There’s stuff in Gatlinburg I know we would like to see as well. My daughter loves any aquarium anywhere and it has one

Depending on how much driving around you want to do, it might be worth heading down to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. (Take this route for a scenic drive including the Tail of the Dragon and the Cherohala Skyway.) You’re also kinda within striking distance of the Georgia Aquarium (the largest aquarium in the US and the 4th largest in the world), although the drive isn’t nearly as scenic.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Awesome. Thanks!

Sequentialsilence,

Having been to all but voyageurs go to either the smokey mountains or new river gorge. I was going to put mammoth cave on that list but, you know fears and stuff. I will say mammoth cave does not feel like your typical cave, it’s way larger, and has been adapted for tourists.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve been to Mammoth Cave before myself and really loved it, but she doesn’t care how big the cave is. She says she just doesn’t like the idea of all of that rock above her head. We tried to convince her a couple of years ago, but she’s dead set against it. Smokey Mountains sounds like the best choice.

pewgar_seemsimandroid,

based on name: isle Royale

AlternatePersonMan,

Sounds cool. Isn’t that neat. It’s a little island on the Canadian border that you need to take a ferry to get to. It just kind of looks like the rest of the Northern Minnesota shoreline.

I love the state parks in the area though. Much easier and cheaper to get to.

GrabtharsHammer,

Not national parks, but Elephant Rock and Johnson Shut-Ins in Missouri are both pretty neat.

PhlubbaDubba,

Personally I’m partial to looping them all into a trans continental high speed rail network, make them all visitable in simple order

dual_sport_dork,
@dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world avatar

If you’re willing to go as far as Kentucky or West Virginia anyway, you should consider the Red River Gorge area in Daniel Boone in KY, or the Spruce Knob/Seneca Rocks area in WV. Neither are national parks – they’re both national forests.

Both will be considerably less touristy and less crowded than (at least the popular) national parks, and you don’t have to pay just to get in, either. These two areas have some of the most bodacious geology on display on the East Coast, in my opinion, and if you’re into that sort of thing it’s well worth checking out.

The heyday of the Seneca Rocks region seems to have passed and getting accommodation there that’s not camping is trickier than it was a few decades ago, since most of the motels and hotels around the region have folded. But you can rent cabins if you plan in advance from various outfits, and there are two quite nice national forest camp sites there plus oodles of commercial/independent ones. Seneca Rocks itself is a quite striking geological feature you can hike up and stand on top of, and Spruce Knob is just a hop, skip, and a jump away and is the highest point in WV with some great and very easily accessible views from the top. Don’t forget to stop by Yocum’s general store and pet the cats when you’re there.

Dispersed camping is no longer allowed within the Seneca Rocks/Spruce Knob sphere of influence, but it is in the rest of the adjacent greater Monongahela National Forest, including in the Dolly Sods wilderness if you’re into that sort of thing. Backpacking in Dolly Sods is quite possibly the best way to see the most varied terrain anywhere east of the Mississippi within the span of a weekend and without owning a private jet. The north, east, south, and west extremities of it may as well be on different continents; it’s pretty wild.

Dispersed camping is allowed in Daniel Boone if you go there. You have to buy a permit to leave your car anywhere overnight to go backpacking but it’s only a couple of bucks. The Red River Gorge area in Daniel Boone has some incredible sandstone formations including massive arches (some of which you can climb), shelter caves, cliffs, and overlooks. It’s also home to the Nada Tunnel which is pretty cool but maybe not so appealing to people who are afraid of caves because it’s basically a cave with a one lane road you can drive straight through. (It was actually originally a railway tunnel. I cannot possibly conceive of what it must have been like to cram a coal burning steam locomotive through that tiny passage, and if you see it you’ll know why. But that’s what they did back in the day.)

Civilized accommodations are easier to come by there including plenty of cabins and motels, and also hotels you can find near the interstate. If you’re into rock climbing there are also a ton of climbing routes all over the Red River Gorge.

Forget Yellowstone. Yellowstone is so popular and yet so fragile and so dangerous that the entire place is on lockdown. You spend your entire stay there on rails, pretty much literally. Everything is boardwalks and pavement and everything else that isn’t is cordoned off. Yes, this is so dumbasses cannot fall into geothermal features and be boiled alive. But it also has the net effect of causing you to take the exact same route in the exact same way and take the exact same pictures that everyone else already has. So you can have the same experience by just finding some rando’s Flickr album or whatever and looking at their pictures, because they’ll be just the same as yours. Plus the whole place stinks. Sulfur, don’t you know.

Oh, and you get to contend with access roads clogged by all the dimwits from the midwest who stop dead in the middle of everything to try to fit baby bison into their minivans, or whatever the fuck else. I went once and that was enough. I came, I saw, I bought a mug. I have no desire to go back. (Nearby Shoshone National Forest, however, is friggin’ awesome. So is Big Horn. Be sure to check out Shell Falls while you’re there and annoy your nearest creationist.)

Canopyflyer,

As someone that has been to the tops of Cloud Splitter, Grays Arch, Chimney Rock, Half Moon, Indian Staircase, and dozens of others I cannot remember at the moment, Red River Gorge is the single best place in all of Kentucky.

I would go as far as it’s the only reason why Kentucky should continue to exist at all.

FlyingSquid, (edited )
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks. I’m doing some research now. Daniel Boone we could probably do over a long weekend, so that could be a separate trip. Seneca Rocks looks really beautiful in photos, but I’m not convinced there would be enough to do there to sustain a week’s vacation. As far as a cabin, my daughter always balks at renting one when we’ve suggested in the past for some reason. I don’t know why. We did it at a nearby state park when she was younger and it was fine, so I don’t know what her deal is there.

Can_you_change_your_username,

If you wanted to extend a Red River Gorge trip there's some interesting Civil War era stuff in Winchester and Lexington. Fort Boonesborough was rebuilt as a Civil War fort and they do history presentations and era accurate crafting demonstrations. They have a working blacksmith, a soap maker, that kind of thing. The Henry Clay Estate is interesting and the Cassius Clay Estate (the abolitionist, General, and Diplomat not the boxer) is great. There's also the Kentucky Horse Park and Keeneland. You will also be passing through the Bourbon Trail if you're driving down from Indiana and by Big Bone Lick if you're coming down 65.

Nemo,

I’ve only been to Indiana Dunes and Voyageurs, but they’re both nice enough. Voyageurs is like, bring a canoe and camping supplies, though, not necessary a day trip.

Consider some state parks! Turkey Run in Indiana is gorgeous, and Pipestone State Park in Minnesota is beautiful, historical, and unique.

FlyingSquid, (edited )
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

We’re pretty close to Turkey Run and we always tell people to please go to Turkey Run and do not go to that horrible Shades State Park which is definitely not nicer in pretty much every way imaginable and will have an unpleasant lack of a giant line of people going down the trails.

Nemo,

Haha fair. I really liked Turkey Run when I went there, is all.

But seriously, check out Pipestone.

Rubisco,

Gateway Arch? I think you meant to say City Museum.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

City Museum is awesome, but we’ve been there twice.

Rubisco,

Yeah it is! And in that case, my recommendation is Shenandoah. Tube down to Harper’s Ferry and climb Maryland heights. Find one of those trails in the hills that follows a stream that slides down long smooth rocks into cool, clear pools.

ozmotear,

Shenandoah and the Great Smokey mountains.

Drive the blue ridge parkway. it’s about 4 days with plenty of great sights off the side of the road.

jcrabapple,
@jcrabapple@infosec.pub avatar

This! It’s beautiful in late summer, early fall. Lots of great easy and moderate hiking. Hit up Front Royal, VA for some food and booze.

QuarterSwede,
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

Definitely this. Great areas.

Jackcooper,

I think the Smokeys are the #1 most visited park

Xabis,

Specifically, Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge.

A bit touristy though if that is what OP is going for… but also no real need to go in town either and can just enjoy the park on its own.

Renting a chalet for a weekend also makes for a good time, too.

Zarxrax,

It’s the most visited because everyone who needs to drive through that area is visiting it.

growsomethinggood,

Not a national park and kind of on the outskirts of your radius, but any thoughts on the Finger Lakes region of NY? Lots of hiking, waterfalls, lakes, etc.

Ithaca

Watkins Glen

Bahnd,

Note on Yellowstone, Grand Teton is just south of it, and is much smaller, but significantly more dramatic (If you expect to summit anything there without a ski lift, good luck).

As for the east coast, New River Gorge WV is very active with guided activities, last I checked. One of the good places for rafting, also the Greenbank National Radio Observatory is within a days drive. If the Virginia(s) is your direction, in addition to the national parks, you also have the estates of some of americas founding fathers in the area, along with old battlefields that are open to the public, if history is on the menu. I would argue that the best park for hiking on the US east coast is White Mtn. State Forest in NH. Middle of ski country for the winter and summer is peak hiking for the best section of the AT (the Presidentials will kick you and your cars ass, Mt. Washington is up there and you can drive to the weather facility at the top)

orcrist,

Shenandoah tends to be very very packed. It’s cool but it’s full of people. The Smoky Mountains also can be quite busy depending on the exact season that you’re visiting.

And then it just depends what you want to do. National parks are national parks for a reason but then again there are a lot of great state parks that might suit your interests.

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