Which national parks (if any) did you find to be underwhelming or disappointing?

13 comments

1. Mount Rushmore. Not terrible, but not as impressive as I expected. On the same trip, we went go Badlands, which I ended up liking much more.

2. I’ve been to my fair share of national parks and almost all of them are incredible. With that said, I just can’t get into Death Valley. Like… Joshua Tree is gorgeous and I think everybody should experience it. But Death Valley just doesn’t seem interesting to me. I’ve stopped in Barstow on the way to vegas. No thank you.

3. I’m not sure any have been underwhelming. Having visited so many national parks out west with grand vistas, Everglades didn’t offer the same kinda macro scenery, but I did go on a super fun ranger guided canoe “hike” through the mangroves and got far closer to far more alligators than I ever thought I’d be comfortable with. So that was very fun and memorable.

4. None. I haven’t yet found one I didn’t enjoy and I have been to a lot.

5. For me, the Grand Canyon. I had way more fun listening to all the foreign tourists and trying to guess where they were from than I did admiring the views. I guess I had my expectations set too high for it.

6. Probably Death Valley, but that’s most likely bc I prefer the types of national parks with luscious scenery (forested areas, streams/rivers, and waterfalls are some of my favorites). I’ve also been to deserts a lot in my life, so to me Death Valley was just a…nicer looking desert, so nothing was really special about it.

7. I refuse to recognize the designation of the Gateway Arch as a national park, so there’s that.

   All the real parks I’ve been to have been fantastic.

8. I’m going to say Death Valley as well. I guess living near the desert(s) all my life has made me immune to Death Valley’s charms.

9. I’m not disparaging it in any way but Cuyahoga Valley NP just doesn’t feel like it should be a National Park. The National Park itself is mostly just the valley floor with the old canal, towpath, and RR tracks and it connects several metroparks where picnic areas and such are. Personally, I think Hocking Hills would be better as a NP and Cuyahoga Valley would be better as a state park.

   Gateway Arch gets a lot of hate from National Park fans because it really doesn’t live up to the criteria for a National Park, but I get why they made it one.

10. I preferred Yellowstone in the winter. Mostly because there were no people there and I spent 3 days cross-country skiing through one of the most pristine wildernesses I’ve ever been. But in the warmer months there are people absolutely everywhere and it kind makes it less enjoyable. I prefer heading up to Glacier Nat. Park in the warmer months.

11. Even as a lover of history a lot of the National Historical Parks don’t have a lot going on. I’ve never been disappointed by one of the nature focused parks.

12. Great Sand Dunes.

    The name is accurate, but it’s just not all that interesting of a setting after an hour to me.

    And as far as actually doing outdoorsy stuff, I’d much rather just be hiking up the mountains in the background than the sand dunes.

    (Note: backpacking/staying overnight out there is a different story – that can be a neat experience)

13. Yellowstone. I think it’s just hyped up so much that it wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s not bad and it is very beautiful, but there’s other parks I think are prettier that I’d rather go to