National Parks of North America, Some Beautiful Places to Visit!

North America has some of the nicest scenery in the world, IMO. I like the mountains, especially, having grown up in Colorado. Perhaps the nicest mountain area I've seen are the Canadian Rockies...just to the West of Edmonton, Alberta. They are not as high as the Colorado Rockies, but they are "newer" mountains, with spectacular cliffs and sheer rock walls....and heavily populated by Elk, Moose, and Mountain Sheep....a real unspoiled paradise.
 
Glacier National Park in Montana, USA

We've been here, absolutely beautiful country! :cool:

 

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Carlsbad Caverns is my absolute favorite. From the 700' elevator ride to get in, to the tranquility, peace and solitude I can find there. In my opinion, it should be visited at least once by everyone...
the big room at Calrsbad caverns.jpg
 
Americans should visit Canada's national parks, and Canadians should visit American national parks.

There is a difference. For instance, the grand canyon offers helicopter tours. That's not a common offer in Canada.

Nicest park to visit in Canada in my estimation is Jasper Alberta. The golf course there is fantastic and the elk wander through the city with impunity.

If you want to see wildlife, that's the place to go.
 
My wife calculated that we have visited 34 National Parks plus 3 in Canada. There are many others that we have missed, but we no longer travel like we used to.
 
Don't forget....you can click on Full Screen in the lower right hand corner of any videos on this forum to see a larger view.

 
Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Carlsbad Caverns is my absolute favorite. From the 700' elevator ride to get in, to the tranquility, peace and solitude I can find there. In my opinion, it should be visited at least once by everyone...
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The day we went, there was practically no one else there. It was so eerie and bizarre to be wandering along the paths without seeing or hearing anyone else. Other caves we've been to, like Mammoth Cave or Luray Caverns, you have to be part of a group.

And the bats.....oh, the bats. It's a sight you won't forget seeing them pour out of the cave. You're safely away from their flight path, though.
 
We spent 4-5 months each summer for six years hitting as many national parks as possible. We had a wonderful time, but at Arches National Park we almost had a tragedy.

I deal well with extreme dry heat; the Spousal Equivalent does not. The day we were at Arches, it was hotter 'n the hinges of Hell. I'm talking waaaaay over 100 and dry like you can't imagine. We have hats and water and figure we're OK for a short hike.

We're tooling along a trail, the SE says suddenly "I don't feel well" and promptly keels over, splat down in the dust. I mean, he looks like he's dead. There's no cellphone service, of course, and I'm pouring water on him and trying to figure how I'm going to pick him up and drag him back down the trail. I'm shouting for help.

Luckily, a group of hikers come around the bend and help out. One of them takes off down the trail to get help and four guys pick him up and start moving back down the trail until we find a rock overhang with a little shade. By then, he's coming to and is doing remarkably well for someone I thought was deceased. After a bit of a rest and a lot of water, we head back to the car just in time to run into a hysterical park trainee ranger racing up the trail who's sure she has a dead body to contend with. We were all happy this wasn't the case. He spent the rest of the day sitting in the truck with the air conditioning running while I went sightseeing.

Of course, he got his laugh on me later when I did a black-out faceplant in the ranger station on top of the Rockies in the national park. I don't do well with altitude (12,000 feet that was) and he does.

Death Valley in August was a bit much for even me.
 

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