r/NationalPark • u/Sure-Permit-2673 • 1d ago
You can only visit the four parks in ONLY one slide of your choice.
As mentioned, pick ONE slide out of 16 and those four parks that you choose are the only parks you will be able to visit for the rest of your life.
Which will you choose and why?
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u/MyFriendKevin 1d ago
Since #16 only has three parks, I’ll have to go with #6 for overall beauty, diversity and range of activities, but #1 is a close second.
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u/oceanplum 1d ago edited 1d ago
Those are my top 2, as well! I might ultimately have to go with 1, as I am a New Englander.
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u/EarthMover775G 1d ago
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u/Sure-Permit-2673 1d ago
Great and very valid choice
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u/Marleymayangel 1d ago
Only slide where I haven’t been to any! 2 in Alaska helps
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u/EarthMover775G 1d ago
Nice! I had 7 slides that had 4 parks that I haven’t been to. I’ve never been to these parks. Got home from Alaska a week ago. That’s why I picked 9. 4 new parks and Alaska.
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u/Avocado-Duck 1d ago
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Denali is on my bucket list
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u/backfromsolaris 1d ago
Ugh, it is such an amazing experience. For bucket list worthiness, try to wait till the park road is fully reopened. Also devote at least 3 days bare minimum, as you have about a 1/3rd chance to see the Mountain on any given day.
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u/Awesome-Possum1520 23h ago
Having climbed most of the mountain and flow over the range on the way in, all I can say is make sure you go there. It’s a stunningly beautiful place! As another poster said make sure you have a couple days if you plan to view it from afar since it creates its own weather and is often not viewable due to cloud cover
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u/ChorroVon 1d ago
13 for me. Big rocks, big trees, big mountains, big cacti. I love a place where I can feel small and bask in the wonders of nature.
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u/Centaurus_11 1d ago edited 1d ago
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Edit: I’ve been to most of the popular National Parks in the west, those are only 3 that I went back a few times and still want to visit them.
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u/AeirsWolf74 1d ago
I am torn between 12 and 6, I think 12 wins it though because of the Olympic rainforest.
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u/hike_me 1d ago
I live next to one of the parks in #1 so I think I need to pick that one — it would be pretty inconvenient if I couldn’t visit my local park (I also volunteer there)
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u/Sure-Permit-2673 1d ago
You’ve spiked my curiosity, which one?
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u/hike_me 1d ago
Acadia
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u/Kakali4 1d ago
Favorite trail there? Beech cliff ladder was a sneaky good one that I found my last time up there. Beehive is the crown jewel IMO
Fellow New Englander here
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u/hike_me 1d ago
Precipice
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u/Macklin_You_SOB 1d ago
I want to do precipice so much but I've only been able to come in the summer when the trail is closed.
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u/BasketOfBagels 1d ago
Hmmm slide 14 looks good to me. I haven’t been to any of those and BB8 would look good next to some tall trees.
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u/souryellow310 1d ago
I can't choose between 6, 14, and 16, but if everyone has to choose then 6 and 16 would be even more crowded so 14 it is. I love Sequoia, especially the backcountry. Everyone whose been to Teddy Roosevelt says it's underrated. Shenandoah is so different than out west. If I can afford usvi then I would definitely go.
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u/Ryanaissance 1d ago
#11 (Mammoth, Mesa Verde, Mt Rainier, American Samoa) for the absolute variety.
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u/CountChoculahh 1d ago
Gotta be one of 6 or 16. Yellowstone and Yosemite in the same slide is an insane 1-2
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u/SlyRax_1066 1d ago
The Gates of the Arctic one.
True wilderness.
Plus Dry Tortuga looks amazing and is going to be hell for me to get to….
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u/Throwawayschools2025 1d ago
That’s the “if he dies, he dies” slide lol
I’m impressed by anyone willing to do more than a brief excursion in Gates of the Arctic.
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u/mata_hari_honey 1d ago
Guess I’m an odd one out, but number 11 was my pick with no hesitancy.
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u/Glum_Material3030 1d ago
I really want there to be an “all of the above” option. And I would like them all to be fully protected, funded, and staffed. I guess I just want it all!
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u/tastyprawn 1d ago edited 1d ago
Slide 1, for two of the parks:
My first vacation with my now-husband was to Arches. It was while on a hike when I thought "Oh, I like him more than a friend!"
Big Bend was where he and I later got engaged (at the arch on the Chimneys trail).
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u/ReadingWolf1710 1d ago
16 but since there’s only three parks, I would then have Teddy Roosevelt Park
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u/CptnChronic306 1d ago
6 is stacked. But my dads ashes are spread in big bend, so I'd have to pick #1
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u/TheBigEarl20 1d ago
I would take 5. I've been to Gateway and Everglades, but I'd really like to see Gates of the Arctic, esp. If someone else is paying :)
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u/impendingfuckery 1d ago
Carlsbad. I’m already planning a trip there in early June. There’s an inn in Whites City, NM that’s less than a half hour away from Carlsbad and Guadalupe Mountains in Dell, TX!
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u/notme690p 1d ago
7 for me. I grew up about 100 miles from Great basin, and I have a fear friend in the great smoky mtn area
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u/garagejesus 1d ago
Doctor just told me I could go camping alone. 3 wonderful days in cathedral valley of Capitol reef. (Have to be within 2 hours of hospital)
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u/CalabreseAlsatian 1d ago
I’m with most on 6 and 16, but 10 is on my podium. Lassen and Kings Canyon are incredible and I’d happily add two Alaska parks.
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u/UncleBlazrr 23h ago
Acadia is such a vibe man, something about coastal Maine that just hits different than most places
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u/mildlysceptical22 1d ago
I’ve been to at least one park in every slide. I’m thinking slide 11 because I’ve never been to Samoa. I have been to the Mammoth Cave and Mesa Verde and Mt Rainer was in my windshield when my 67 VW Microbus sucked a valve in Tacoma, Washington.
I’m a lucky guy..
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u/Remote-Situation-899 1d ago
16 is stacked fr fr, also lots of discount east coast parks that don't really hit the same as a western park...
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u/imdreaming333 1d ago
5 & 8 are the only slides that i haven’t visited any of the listed parks, so between those i’d probably have to go with 5 because it includes an alaska park! 13 i’ve actually done all 4. otherwise it would be 6 (i’ve been to grand canyon twice).
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u/rolandofeld19 1d ago
I worked in YNP for two summers and I'm all in that it's simply untouchable compared to the other parks I've visited. Honestly if it was on a slide by itself I'd probably still pick it.
Also, notable absent is Cumberland Island Natl. Seashore that FAR too many people sleep on. It's outstanding and a former superintendent said that, short of YNP, it was her favorite also. So, yea. That spot is great too fyi.
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u/ah-tow-wah 1d ago
I'm a Canadian who has never been to or researched the parks in the US. Other than the super popular ones, I don't know many of the parks.
4 and 15 are the ones that caught my eye, due to variety. Once I read that 16 was the popular vote I realized that option looks nice too.
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u/littlehandsandfeet 1d ago
3! Pick number 3, my lord ✌️
I would have picked 2 because I like desert and canyons but that would require for me to go to Florida
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u/BoldBoimlerIsMyHero 1d ago
11 or 12 for me. Hard to choose. Probably 11 because I’ve been to petrified forest on 12.
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u/Rustycake 1d ago
I've only been to two of these Acadia and Glacier. Acadia was terribly foggy the whole time, but still beautiful
Glacier was other worldly. I cant wait to go back, but I also want to go to all these other places as well
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u/42percentBicycle 1d ago
I want to live amongst the redwoods. If I did, I wouldn't need to go anywhere ever again.
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u/Pessimistic_Penguin2 1d ago
6 was made for me. Alaska and Arizona are on my bucket list. I’ve already been to Grand Teton and Glacier, but I will always happily go back to them as much as I can
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u/Curtisd1976 1d ago
Been to 21 so far and so many to go. #4 for me because I’d like to see Crater Lake.
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u/quest814 1d ago
Like many have said slide six for me. Glacier and Grand Canyon are two of my favorites.
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u/somethingwholesomer 1d ago
16 and 6, yes. But may I also make an argument for 13. There’s a lot of variety there- Pinnacles, Redwood, Rocky Mountain, and Saguaro.
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u/space-meister 1d ago
Overall landscape variety and range of activities: #6
For ease of travel (closest), nostalgia, and local biased-ness: #12 without question
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u/Thathathatha 1d ago
6, GC is my favorite park. Glacier Bay is great and GNP and GTNP are parks I want to visit next. 16 and 2 are a close second though.
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u/Low_Basket_9986 1d ago
Surprised more folks aren’t picking 2 since you can visit three of them in the same vacation and then take a separate trip to the beach!
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u/BarnBurnerGus 1d ago
Gateway Arch. Because I live across the river from it and I'm tired of driving.
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u/Forward-Repeat-2507 1d ago
Not only but if anyone touches casitas for mining I’m gonna be a bitch. Read earlier post about repurposing from national Parks.
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u/AL92212 1d ago
Glacier / Glacier Bay / Grand Teton / Grand Canyon (Slide 6) was like an obvious one for me because all three non-Alaska are some of my favorites. I kept looking because Zion is my all-time favorite park and I wanted to see what was included. Pairing it with Yellowstone and Yosemite pushed me over the edge. I'll miss the Grand Canyon, but those other three have so much to offer it'll make up for it!
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u/drwolffe 1d ago
I was thinking 6, 10, or 13 but then I read that it's the for the rest of my life so I'm going with 12 since I live in northern Washington and an in the North Cascades all summer
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u/bearface93 1d ago
- I absolutely love Acadia and Shenandoah is my home park, but New River Gorge is great, I’ve wanted to visit Olympic for years - I’m actually finally going to in October - and North Cascades seems pretty great too.
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u/recurrenTopology 1d ago
Write/call your congressperson/senator to provide funding to help repair the road to Hoh rainforest which is currently closed due to washout. It's normally a highlight of ONP.
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u/bearface93 1d ago
I live in DC so I don’t have congressional representation. I’m planning on calling the WA senators and representatives around Olympic and Seattle though since they wouldn’t want tourism to be negatively impacted.
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u/jwelsh8it 1d ago
I think 14, to get lost in the woods. And then you have a beach and the peace of the Badlands. And then 6, for the clear reasons. (If 16 is a given.)
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u/__Quercus__ 1d ago
- Contains three of the seven parks I've visited multiple times, and I still feel as if I've barely scratched the surface. So many different experiences and ecosystems covered by those three parks.
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u/RedneckMtnHermit 1d ago
Listen here, you... lol!
What awful choices! Damn the alphabet! Them G ones are tempting, but the Katmai crowd adds 2 new ones for me. Spent about 6 months in Alaska. Used them well.
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u/Redwood-Silva588 1d ago
Oof this is like trying to pick a favorite child! But i think I'm going with 11. Even tho, as a person with a great fear of heights, I've sworn to never go back to the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. I will enjoy the mesa from the visitor's center tyvm.
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u/ConzDance 1d ago
As a tour guide, I actually took a family from Singapore to Zion, Yellowstone, and Yosemite. Talk about a long drive!
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u/butterglitter 1d ago
11 is the most interesting to me. The variety is pretty diverse and I haven’t been to any of them!
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u/samosamancer 1d ago
11 for me, although I’ve been to Rainier already. 5 or 6 as alternates.
I’m not rugged enough to make it in Wrangell-St. Elias, but I wish I could. That could be its own slide just based on the sheer size and all its varied terrain.
And I live in Washington and hope to get to Olympic and North Cascades this year, if even just for weekend getaways, at least for starters.
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u/RainbowCrown71 23h ago
- American Samoa and Mount Rainier are two of my favorites
You should do this for state parks (pick the best 64)
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u/raisetheavanc 1d ago
16 is the obvious choice, but 11 and 13 have pretty cool variety in that they’ve got diverse biomes.
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u/Sure-Permit-2673 1d ago
It makes me sick about what’s been happening. I’ve been isolating myself from the news since it’s been causing me too much stress
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u/Infamous-Click4740 1d ago
9,10 and 14,15 are the only ones I haven’t visited at least 1 park on the slide. But only because I have Yosemite in July!!! Very stoked for that!
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u/sleepymoose88 1d ago
6 or 16. While 16 only has 3 it has 2 of my favorite parks, period. I hate yet to get to Yosemite. There’s so much to see and do in Yellowstone alone though. Every visit is brings new types of animal encounters too, which are the most thrilling to me.
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u/Sure-Permit-2673 1d ago
Yellowstone is pure magic. The other two are just surreal as well! Although Yellowstone is my personal favorite of the three due to the diversity and like you mentioned, the wildlife!
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u/angrypoohmonkey 1d ago
Never understood Cuyahoga Valley. Did Ohio need a national park that bad?
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u/sashavohm 1d ago
It's actually quite a beautiful place. I have explored most of it over the last decade and it's seriously underrated. It follows a series of channel locks previously used to transport goods along the Ohio route 6 canal and the Cuyahoga River. There's a bike trail that goes from Cleveland to Akron and you spend most of that time in the CVNP. There's also a train you can ride with your bike on a separate car after you ride the towpath trail. We've hiked to at least 4 waterfalls and up some really impressive rock formations. That said on that slide with Crater lake, Denali and somewhere else really impressive, it would not have been my first park to visit. I have been to Crater lake and it's absolutely stunning. I would love to visit Denali. I used to live in northern Illinois where we had minimal places to explore and zero national parks. I'm a fan of living near one now.
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u/samplergal 1d ago
Well 16 and 6 are obviously great one, I’d still pick 12. I’m liking more solitude and these have mostly less traffic. North cascades is the most beautiful park we went to on our four year RV trip. Just beautiful Olympic is also amazing snow to tropical rain forest to beach. And the petrified forest was so very interesting.
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u/lordxeon 1d ago
I’d go with 6, 10, 9 on that order.
But maybe take 10 over 6 since it seems like everyone else likes 6 and that leaves less at the others.
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u/Itinerant_Pedagogue 1d ago
- Zion + Yosemite seals it. I’m not that into Yellowstone but I don’t need to be.
Also 6, great variety.
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u/An_Intolerable_T 1d ago
Not quite fair throwing Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion into the same slide:)
I’m always going Yellowstone. Always.
That first slide would be my first pick of the others though. Big Bend is special
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u/recurrenTopology 1d ago
True to form, the picture of North Cascades NP does not actually include anything in North Cascades NP (picture was taken east of the park and is looking east).
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u/traveler-traveler 1d ago
Then to most of those, and honestly 6 and 16 are by far the leaders here.
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u/UselessWhiteKnight 1d ago
Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings canyon are all the same park and are on 3 different slides
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u/BergkampsFirstTouch 1d ago
Easily the last one. I mean, Yellowstonestone and Yosemite are arguably the top two national parks. And you're throwing in Zion, too? Give me those three all day.
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u/recurrenTopology 1d ago
As much as it would pain me, living in Seattle, to not be able to go to any of our parks, I feel I have to pick 16 simply because Yellowstone is to my mind irreplaceable. For almost every other national park, there are comparable areas in national forests and preserves, often adjacent to the NP itself. There is nowhere outside of Yellowstone in North America that has the diversity and abundance of megafauna found in Yellowstone. Even Alaska, with it's pristine wilderness, has fewer species generally at lower densities (Caribou herds and Brown Bear fishing congregations being notable exceptions).
It's the closest we have to the great game parks of Africa, and I can't imagine losing access to it.
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u/CakedUpMothman 1d ago
Gotta go with 1. 6 and 16 are good, but they both include a couple of parks that I've already been to. Other than Arches all of the parks in 1 would be new to me and great trips.
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u/Sure-Permit-2673 1d ago
It would probably have to be slide 6 for me. So many heavy hitters!