My Impressions of Five US National Parks

There are 63 National Parks in the United States with the newest one in West Virginia added in just the last few years. How many can you name? Don’t feel bad, I can’t name that many either. However, I have been to 19 of them over the years. Some of them I have visited recently and have shared about my visits in this blog. You can peruse those articles in the index under National Parks. I have not shared about all the parks I have visited, however, so I thought I would go back and share some of my impressions and experiences from those visits.

There are 10 parks I want to share about so I am splitting the reviews in half, five this week and the rest next week. For the most part I don’t feel I remember enough to make long comments about places I visited long before I started this blog. Nevertheless, I would like the opportunity to at least give some thoughts about these parks.

Probably the first National Park I ever visited was Crater Lake National Park, the only one in Oregon. I grew up in Southern Oregon, and my family had friends who lived fairly close to Crater Lake. We didn’t visit the park itself that often, but I was fairly familiar with it.

Crater Lake fills the crater of a volcano, Mt. Mazama. The water is extremely deep, and the tall cliffs that surround it definitely give one the feeling that this is a volcanic crater. Growing up I was always intrigued by Wizard Island, the cone shaped island off to the side of the lake. I always thought it would be cool to take boat out to the island. Unfortunately that has never happened.

My most recent visit was with my wife and daughter. We were coming up from California and making a point of stopping at some of the interesting sites along the way. It had been quite a few years since I had seen it so there were a number of new buildings and view points around the lake. This is pretty much a one day visit kind of park. You can drive around the lake in a fairly short time and check out the various vista points along the way.

Visitors can also hike down to the water. There is one trail for that. My wife and daughter decided to do that. Since it was a hot day, I chose to stick around up top and take photos. They did make it down and back but were pretty hot and tired when they returned.

On this same trip we visited another National Park that is probably not as well known, Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. I remember my dad talking about the park as a kid. I was looking forward to checking it out as we planned this trip.

The park offers a number of experiences. There is volcanic action going on in the area so visiting places where sulfur is escaping is one of the main attractions. The Bumpass Hell area is the largest and best known. There is a bit of a hike to get to that particular site, but it offers a different experience. In some ways it has a similarity to parts of Yellowstone. There are also some scenic jagged peaks to view as well as a number of beautiful lakes where one can camp. There is a nice 30 mile loop drive through the park. We drove through in one day, but there are certainly enough hiking opportunities and other activities to keep visitors busy for more than one day.

Most of the National Parks I have visited have been in the western part of the United States. The one exception was a visit to Acadia National Park in Maine. We had visited the Boston area the year before and decided we wanted to see more of New England. We drove from Boston north to Maine to check out the park.

Since Acadia is on the coast of Maine, that coastline is one of the things I remember. There were a lot of large granite slabs along the coast. This is not a sandy beach type area. The first day there we drove through the park and saw some of the scenic highlights. Cadillac Mountain gives a really nice view of the surrounding area, and one can easily drive up to the top. Unfortunately we encountered fog along the way so visibility wasn’t always the best.

The second day we decided to ride bikes around the park. There are wide paths through the park that were initially intended for carriages. We rented bikes from a company in nearby Bar Harbor. They loaded up our bikes and drove us out to the park and dropped us off. While the idea seemed great, the execution was not. I had not ridden a bike in quite a while, and the trail had a lot more hills than I anticipated. I think I walked my bike as much as I rode it. Nevertheless it made for a different and unique experience at the park.

In 2013 our family decided to do something different for Christmas and go to the Hawaiian Island of Maui. On Christmas morning we determined to go to Haleakalā National Park to see the sunrise. Apparently this is a thing to do. We had to get up very early in the morning to head out to the park. We also dressed warmly as we were told it would be cold at the top of the mountain. As we entered the park, we encountered quite a few other cars winding up the switchbacks to the top of the mountain.

Our destination was Kalahaku Overlook. We were able to find parking, and then we stood around in the cold waiting for the sun to rise. My daughter had brought a blanket to wrap herself in. The wait was fairly long. We watched as the color gradually changed and grew lighter. Finally the moment came when the sun peeked above the clouds. We stayed a little bit longer as it got brighter. We walked around the overlook area for a few minutes, but we didn’t really explore much. Everyone was anxious to get back to the condo for Christmas breakfast so our visit to Haleakalā National Park was not very long. Another visit in the daytime to explore the area would definitely be in order.

Three years later we returned to Hawaii, this time to the big island of Hawaii. We were there before Christmas and took a day to explore Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This is a unique National Park because it has active volcanic activity going on. That means that at times part of the park is closed due to the dangerous activity.

The Kilauea Caldera is a center piece of the park. In the daytime you can see smoke rising from the center of the caldera. At night you can see the orange glow of the heat inside. It is really an unusual sight and quite interesting to observe.

Because there have been recent eruptions, there are areas in the park where there is very little if any vegetation as the lava flow has destroyed everything. It is strange to drive through these barren areas. In other places plant life has begun to grow. One unexpected area had petroglyphs that have been drawn into the hardened lava. This was quite a unique place.

We drove out to the coast line, and from there we could see the smoke rising from a place where the lava was flowing at that time. We also saw the Holei Sea Arch, a well known feature in the park. However, seeing the glow of the volcano at night with a sunset in the background was the best part of the experience.

The Hawaiian parks were interesting as they focus on the volcanic action of the islands which of course is how they were all created. One may not think of visiting a National Park when going to Hawaii, but these two are well worth checking out.

Have you had a chance to visit any of these National Parks? I’d love to have you share your thoughts and insights about them. You can comment in the box below. Next week I’ll look at five other National Parks I have had the opportunity to visit.

Photo credit: Photos of me in Acadia National Park and all the photos from Haleakelā National Park were taken by Silvette Lee.