Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota

Wind Cave is one of the United States oldest national parks, created in 1903 by president Theodore Roosevelt. I’ve been to Wind Cave several times and I have found it is helpful to actually think of Wind Cave as two separate parks. The first part is the cave itself. Wind Cave is one of the …

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Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that Mount Rainier is the crown jewel of the Pacific Northwest. Visible from Seattle on a clear day, it dominates the surrounding region. In fact, it is so large that it can also be seen from Portland and from the top of the mountains surrounding Vancouver. …

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North Cascades National Park, Washington

I won’t beat around the bush. North Cascades is probably the least deserving site I’ve visited in the US to have a national park designation. The primary feature of the park is a dam. Almost everywhere you go in the park you find high voltage electrical lines. It really should be designated as a National …

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Gulf Islands National Park, British Columbia

Gulf Islands National Park, British Columbia

At only 24 square miles (62 km2) Gulf Islands National Park is one of the smallest national parks in Canada. The islands lie between the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Island. It is also one of Canada’s newest national parks having been founded in 2003. Parkland is located on 15 different islands, some of which …

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Pacific Rim National Park, British Columbia

Pacific Rim National Park is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It comprises a Pacific coastal ecosystem and is known as the surfing capital of Canada. The park actually consists of several parts along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The Long Beach section is the easiest to visit and has the best …

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Mount Revelstoke National Park, British Columbia

Mount Revelstoke National Park is located in the Canadian Rockies and is very close to Glacier National Park. They two parks are so close together and so similar they should almost be considered one park for visitation purposes. The unique feature of Mount Revelstoke is that you can actually drive all the way up to …

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Glacier National Park, British Columbia

The name of this park can be confusing as there is a Glacier National Park in Montana as well as a Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. Glacier is a Rocky Mountain national park which is not part of the core group centered around the Continental Divide. (Yoho, Kootenay, Banff, and Jasper). It is approximately …

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Kootenay National Park, British Columbia

Kootenay National Park, British Columbia

Kootenay is adjacent to two other national parks: Banff (which borders to the east) and Yoho (which borders to the north). It is also a component of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site. As with Yoho, there is one primary highway which runs through the park, and everything you’d want to see …

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Yoho National Park, British Columbia

Yoho is just over the border from Banff National Park and borders Kootenay National Park on the south. It is part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain National Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site. I’ve always wondered why the 4 adjoining national parks in the Canadian Rockies weren’t just one big park, or at least 2 parks …

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