Rarely mentioned National Parks and Monuments.

[agesilaus]

I was replying to another thread when it occurred to me that there are a number of parks that are hardly ever mentioned. I can see why most of the Arizona Indian Ruins parks get scant mention. They are hotter than Hades in the summer and mostly look alike when you get there. But here is my starting list:

1) Cedar Breaks NM UT
2) Cogaree SC (I've never been there myself)
3) Cuyahoga Valley NY (ditto never been)
4) Death Valley and Great Basin are rarely mentioned.
5) Guadeloupe Mt NM-- we stopped but it seems to be a serious hiker only park. Little road access
6) Kings Canyon CA-- Over shadowed by Yosemite
7) Lassen Volcanic CA--really should be more visited
😎 North Cascades WA
9) Saguaro AZ
10) Theodore Roosevelt--way off from anywhere and not that much to see.
11) Basin and Range--who's ever heard of this one?
12) Browns Canyon CO ditto above
13) Chiricahua AZ-- interesting but CG is limited to 25 ft RV
14) Colorado CO--Been there a couple times not even good hiking
15) Grand Canyon-Parashant AZ- on the North Rim??
16) Oregon Caves OR--been there a looong time ago. Did not make any big impression
17) Río Grande del Norte NM--another mystery park
18) Upper Missouri River Breaks MT-- and another unknown

Any comments or add-ons?

[Lwiddis]

Death Valley is visited by many RVers and some tent campers in the right seasons. I was there in March (105F each day) and campgrounds were about one-half full. I saw quite a bit of the park in three full days. Found the Shorty Harris/Jim Dayton grave site interesting.

[agesilaus]

We did both units of TRNP this summer, yes it was scenic. But we got out of the truck and there wasn't that much to do other than the loop road. Especially in the north unit. And it is a long way away from anything, Badlands is the nearest park. We didn't go to the old ranch site since Rangers said it was a long drive and nothing to see when you get there. We stayed overnight and did the north unit on day 2.

And BTW Custer SP in the Badlands has more Bison and Prairie Dogs.

[jplante4]

We did Teddy Roosevelt south unit on this last trip. It was actually pretty scenic. Plenty of buffalo and prairie dogs. Good loop road ride only takes about 45 minutes. The only issue was that they were reconstructing the entrance road and you had to follow a pilot car through the construction.

Back in our tent camping days we did Lassen and Kings Canyon. I'm sure they're not as good now as they were back in the 70s when we did this. Too many people there now.