22 Less Crowded National Parks
The Guardian: 22 Less Crowded National Parks Here's an interesting article I stumbled across listing 22 less crowded national parks. One of the first was The Dry Tortugas. No wonder it's less cro...
Forum Discussion
DallasSteve wrote:
I have no experience with National Parks/National Forests. Can you explain the difference? Do National Forests have paved roads or campsites with hookups?
There are a lot of different federal parks: National Parks, National Monuments, Forest Service Parks(USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Parks, Corps of Engineers(COE), National Historical Sites, National Grasslands and the list goes on and on. I have no idea why all these different types were created, ask your Washington politico.
The differences from our standpoint can be hard to see. NPS lands tend to have highly restrictive policies, don't pick up that rock for example. CG are usually developed but without hooksups of any sort.
USFS and BLM lands are generally less restrictive, you can pick up X pounds of rocks a day for example. From my experience they seem to have fewer rangers and don't have an entry fee, they are multi-use facilites. Which means there will be logging going on in USFS parks and maybe mines on BLM land. The campgrounds tend to be more on the primitive side but not always. CG fees are collected via the iron ranger if there is a fee. USFS has a lot of less developed CG off FS roads.
NPS lands you will get in trouble for driving off the marked roads, not so much in BLM/SFS lands. COE campgrounds are highly developed and always on a water body.
There is no hard and fast rule telling you what you will get.
