Favorite National Park?

126,472 Views | 693 Replies | Last: 29 days ago by mpl35
mpl35
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BSD said:

Nice! We are heading to Death Valley again in about a month. We had to cancel last years trip out there because of the freeze. Thinking of heading up to the Racetrack this time. We'll see what happens…


Racetrack is a long drive. I found it worth it.
Head Ninja In Charge
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Reason #639 why national parks >>>
nosoupforyou
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BSD said:

Marauder Blue 6 said:


Did you go through an outfitter for this?


Yes. We hired a guide too since being way out there with me having little backcountry experience didn't sound too smart to me. St. Elias Alpine Guides. The guy filling up the bottle was our guide. He (and the company) was awesome.
which adventure did you do?

I love the idea of reasonable hikes, kayak, glacier, camping in the wilderness - a little bit of everything in 1 3-4 day trip with a guide

https://www.steliasguides.com/trips/alaska-base-camp-hiking/

BSD
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We were on Nizina Lake. We didn't hike up to the glacier though. We spent most of our time down by the icebergs.
AgRyan04
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I'd just chime in to say that we used St. Elias Alpine Guides for a private guide to hike around the Root Glacier (basically rolled their standard group Glacier Hike and their standard Glacier Cave into one day simply due to timing)....his name was Jason and he was excellent - probably my favorite guide that we've used across all our experiences.
BSD
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Yeah, we also used them for ice climbing and ice caves. Solid outfit, all around.
nosoupforyou
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thanks y'all

Ive been wanting to take the Mrs to Jasper, AB (north of Banff) for our 20 year anniversary but the Canadian border remains closed (no vax here for various reasons..) so maybe Alaska can get us a similar feel for what we want next summer
AgRyan04
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I am soooo far behind in posting.....going to try and catch up.....

January 2021 - Rocky Mountain National Park - just the Mrs. and me for some light hiking

We hiked Lumpy Ridge - pic looking at Longs Peak, Mt Meeker, and Mt Lady Washington




Then hiked to Copeland Falls




Spring Break 2021 - We drove out east

We've done Carlsbad Caverns NP and Lehman Cave (in Great Basin), as well as some local Texas caves - but Mammoth Cave was VERY different from what we were expecting. It wasn't drippy and damp with all the normal cave features - definitely a cool change up.



Then we drove down to Townsend and spent the majority of the week in Great Smoky Mountains NP

Hiking to Alum Cave





Spent a morning in Cade's Cove



(this is staggering)



Then my son and I hiked Rocky Top (and got to do a mile or so on the A.T.)






AgRyan04
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April 2021 - I took a solo trip out to Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Big Bend. I had a campsite in Chisos Basin booked for most of the week, but the big wildfire in Chisos was still being contained and the campground was still closed from that, so I had a lot of last minute scrambling to restructure the trip and salvage it.

I got to Guadalupe Mountains mid-afternoon and got my trailer set up so I only had a couple of hours to hike in McKittrick Canyon before they locked the gate for the night. I definitely need to go back and explore that more.



This was my first experience with the Texas Madrone, which instantly became my favorite tree ever.




The next morning I was up super early to tackle Guadalupe Peak.







The next morning I drove down to Big Bend and landed in Cottonwood Campground for a few nights.



The amazing Santa Elena Canyon....




The next morning was an early rise to drive out to Ernst Tinaja

(Mule Ears at sunrise)



Old Ore Road


Ernst Tinaja Trail





While I was on that side of the park, I also hiked Boquillas Canyon





Then I thought I'd do the Ore Terminal Trail - but I got a few miles in and it was really windy (and a bit hot) to be enjoyable so I bailed on it.







I stopped at Sam Nail Ranch







The next morning I hiked Mule Ears Spring Trail








Then I hiked The Chimneys




And enjoyed a beautiful sunset over Santa Elena Canyon




The next day THEY OPENED UP CHISOS BASIN!










Chisos Campground is one of my favorite places ever. I could stare at this all day long and just imagine some Comanche up there sitting on their mares staring down and surveying the surroundings.


Hiked the Window Trail




And then continued up and on down to the Oak Springs Trail

(looking back down on the Window Trail)

(looking at The Window pour off from the other side)



AgRyan04
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July 2021 - We hit up Gunnison, Telluride, Ouray.....I'll only show the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP here....






Ok, I lied....here is our hike of Blue Lakes out in the Mt. Sneffels Wilderness (super popular trail - but for good reason)







AgRyan04
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July 2021 - Alaska

Just me and my son went. It was pretty amazing.

Katmai (flew from Anchorage to King Salmon and took a water taxi to Katmai)



These fishmen almost walked into a big problem (5 or 6 bears)....there was a ranger on the platform yelling at them and signaling to them to find another route




A skinny wolf came sniffing around








We sat on this platform for hours just watching the bears swim and fish...it might have been the most relaxing two hours of my entire life



After flying back to Anchorage, we drove down to Chitina



And from Chitina we flew into McCarthey


We toured the old copper processing building

Frankly, I couldn't believe it was open for tours - it seemed like an OSHA nightmare



The Kennicott Glacier from our lodge room

On the Root Glacier (notice the people up on the right ridge for scale)


On the Root Glacier (notice the people up on the left ridge for scale)



Einstein's Hair Flowers

Glacier cave (we did two or three of them)







Next up....Kenai Fjords....


The shore in Seward.

That first night, there was an earthquake off in the pacific and a tsunami warning was issued....it wsa kinda crazy....the evacuated all of the RVs and tent campers who were in the campgrounds along the shores. Thankfully we were further inland at a B&B and didn't have to evacuate.

The next morning we did a half day salmon/rockfish charter




AgRyan04
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Early December 2021 - Solo trip back to Big Bend for my 40th birthday



Early rise to go hike the Marufo Vega Trail


You could see the Mexican town of Boquillas from the top of the first climb


It was beautiful, but was actually one of the hardest trails I've ever hiked. It was something like 3000' of elevation gain and loss - totally exposed.


I had to take a 0 the next day because I was shot, so I drove up to Fort Davis and Marfa to just check them out.

Driving back into the park from Study Butte



The next day was saved for the South Rim.

I went up Laguna Meadows



Some of the burnout from the wildfire back in April

The South Rim


Looking over towards Santa Elena

and came down through Boot Canyon and the Pinnacles Trail....hiking is just walking, where you can pee wherever you want, right?



BSD
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Well done, sir. Y'all are living the good life!
Mathguy64
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I love the bear pics from Brooks. It's really cool to see someone else's pics and go "yeah I know that bear". That guy off the first platform was a stand and snorkel eater.


And it Looks like Aggies were well represented at Brooks this year.
Premium
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AgRyan04 said:

July 2021 - We hit up Gunnison, Telluride, Ouray.....I'll only show the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP here....






Need to know where this is.
mpl35
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Blue lakes outside Ouray
AgRyan04
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Yessir, that is correct...that was the third lake
Head Ninja In Charge
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Maaayne. Good ****, AgRyan04.
SouthLlano
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I just found this thread. My family has embarked on visiting every national park by the time the kids graduate from college. I've made a few short movies of the trips (I have two that are still in production). Here is the link to our trip last summer where we drove from Austin to Ontario. Along the way we visited Gateway Arch, Indiana Dunes, Isle Royale, Voyageurs and Hot Springs National Parks. Please let me know if you have questions.

https://www.outsidetvcampfire.com/channel/SouthLlano/13363

South Llano
nosoupforyou
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wow - that's super cool!

wish you had a 3 minute version of that along with the current extended version - loved watching it
SouthLlano
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Great idea. I have some shorter ones that are a little older. I'm slowly getting better at editing. So the older vids have more still photographs involved. We roadtrip all of these. So I'm slowly driving the entire US which is pretty cool.

Here's Great Sand Dunes, Rocky Mountain and Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

https://www.outsidetvcampfire.com/channel/SouthLlano/12231

Here's Mammoth Cave, Watkins Glen State Park, Boston, Acadia and Shenandoah (footage for Shenandoah is lacking).

https://www.outsidetvcampfire.com/channel/SouthLlano/10353
South Llano
BSD
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Say wha???

mpl35
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BSD said:

Say wha???




How was that jeep road out there? I'm the only one in my family that thought it was worth it.
BSD
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It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was going 40 mph in some spots. We saw a few college kids with flat tires trying to get out there. This is something I'd definitely rent an off road vehicle for…and we did. It's funny because we had a National Car Rental Jeep and still rented a Jeep from Farabees to make sure we had better tires, gear, and a GPS handheld communicator.

It was a long day, though. We started off with a sunrise horseback ride so by the time we got out there, we were tired. We still had fun climbing on the Grandstand and checking out the rocks.
mpl35
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BSD said:

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was going 40 mph in some spots. We saw a few college kids with flat tires trying to get out there. This is something I'd definitely rent an off road vehicle for…and we did. It's funny because we had a National Car Rental Jeep and still rented a Jeep from Farabees to make sure we had better tires, gear, and a GPS handheld communicator.

It was a long day, though. We started off with a sunrise horseback ride so by the time we got out there, we were tired. We still had fun climbing on the Grandstand and checking out the rocks.


We didn't do the horseback ride. The grandstand is cool. The rocks were awesome. I think we did it 2/15/20. The drive was rough but we also rented from Farabees. Death Valley is pretty awesome.
BSD
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mpl35 said:

Death Valley is pretty awesome.


Agreed. This is our third time here. The first two were day trips. I think I said this a few pages back (2018 maybe), but I underestimated this park before our first trip here. It is indeed awesome. And staying here makes it even better (night skies, beat the crowd, hanging on the casita patio having a nice bottle of wine).
AgRyan04
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Just getting around to digging through Spring Break pictures....we took a trip up to Moab (our third trip to the area).

Obligatory Delicate Arch hike....




If you are going to Arches, do your darndest to get a permit to hike Fiery Furnace. It was so much fun - probably our favorite hike we've ever done as a family.





Hiked Devil's Garden - it was beautiful and a lot of fun, but I wish we did it before Fiery Furnace because nearly anything after that would be a tough encore





Hiked the Rim Loop at Dead Horse Point




Next time we go back we're going to spend a lot more time focusing on finding more pictographs and petroglyphs....those are just so cool
BSD
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Crater Lake National Park. Our 53rd park.












mpl35
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I'm starting to hate you.
BSD
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mpl35 said:

I'm starting to hate you.


You sound like my wife.
RangerRick9211
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BSD said:

mpl35 said:

I'm starting to hate you.


You sound like my wife.


Did you swing by any Willamette AVAs to fill your cellar?

We've chatted a bit years ago on the wine thread. My best friend is an MS in Houston and just completed a vendor tour of Oregon. Not saying we're Napa or Burg, but we've got some hitters in the value department.
BSD
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We did not get a chance. My son and his friend were with me so it was a straight nature trip. But trust me, I did think about it! I'll probably go back someday with my wife and I'm sure we'll spend a few days in Willamette.
AgLA06
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AgLA06
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nosoupforyou
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great weather!! if you find the pics I took you can see the path I took across all of those amazing parks
 
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