Originally Posted by
Blind and Green
It wasn't until we visited our fourth or fifth national park (Kenai Fjords) that we bought a National Park Passport. Thumbing through it, I realized that the NPS had a lot more to offer than just huge, stunning parks. As we planned road trips, we tried to make sure that we visited any NPS sites along the way.
Once our kids got a little older and our kids discovered the Junior Ranger program (William H. Taft Historic Site) that we got really hooked. Now, when we take road trips, we plan them around the NPS sites. We've visited about 50.
Any one else doing the same thing? Any favorite sites that are must visits? Our family has been to the sites below. Steamtown, St. Gaudens, and Cuyahoga Valley (train ride) were some of your favorites.
National Parks: 12/59 (
Acadia,
Badlands,
Cuyahoga Valley x2 Denali,
Grand Canyon,
Grand Tetons,
Kenai Fjords x2,
Mammoth Cave,
Petrified Forest,
Redwood Forest,
Shenandoah,
Yellowstone)
National Battlefield: 4/11 (
Antietam,
Ft. Necessity,
Manassas,
Monocacy)
National Historic Parks: 8/51 (
Adams,
Dayton Aviation,
George Rogers Clark x2,
Thomas Edison,
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller,
Paterson Great Falls,
Saratoga,
Women’s Rights)
National Historic Sites:12/78 (
Allegheny Portage Railroad,
Bent’s Old Fort,
Brown v. Board of Education,
Eisenhower Home,
Garfield,
Grant,
Hoover,
Saint Gaudens,
Steamtown,
E. Roosevelt,
F. Roosevelt,
T. Roosevelt Birthplace,
Van Buren)
National Memorials: 8/30 (
Florissant Fossil Beds,
Johnstown Flood,
Lincoln,
Lincoln Boyhood,
Mt. Rushmore,
Russell Cave,
Vietnam Veterans,
Washington,
World War II)
National Military Park: 1/9 (
Gettysburg)
National Monuments: 3/87 (
Castle Clinton,
Jewel Cave,
Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island)
International Historic Site: 1/1 (
St. Croix Island)
I have now been to 335 of the NPS units. Most have no entry fees, while some have fees that are not covered by the park pass. Quite a few are obscure and likely not worthy of national designation. In some cases, it takes advance research to determine whether sites are closed on certain days or in the off-season (for example, I was surprised that Nicodemus NHS in Kansas was closed on weekends). Further, there are now a number of national monuments that are not part of the national park system: they are administered by other federal agencies, including the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management. In a few cases, there are affiliated areas that are privately owned and only marginally connected to the NPS. Sometimes, one encounters areas that were once affiliated and are now unaffiliated. Oklahoma City National Memorial seems to have drifted in and out of NPS affiliation, and currently seems to be back in the system. In some cases, passport stamps are available for areas clearly not in the NPS system, like the El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, likely because it's a major tourist destination. In one case, Governor's Island NM in New York, I asked where I could get the passport stamped and was informed that "no passport was necessary" to visit (and they knew nothing about it).
As far as lesser-known favorites are concerned, I especially liked Lowell NHP in Massachusetts with its clattering operating cotton mill (living history) and Lower Eastside Tenement Museum NHS in New York City (an affiliated area with great docent tours showcasing immigrant life). Wrangell-St. Elias NP&P in Alaska stands out for its remoteness: accessed by 60-mile unpaved road, with personalized glacier tour and a 17-story tall almost in tact copper stamp mill building. For obscurity, there's the Inupiat Heritage Museum in Barrow Alaska, lightly affiliated with New Bedford Whaling NHP in Massachusetts.