# Which National Park Did You Last Visit? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 11, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960 "2018-12-11T20:42:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/61 "2018-12-12T16:04:56Z")
Glacier National Park last September. Arrived to find the Road to the Sun closed due to a fire. Got lucky and they reopened the road a few days later. Beautiful place to visit. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/62 "2018-12-12T16:28:46Z")
My most recent visit to [Padre Island National Seahore](https://www.nps.gov/pais/index.htm) was over Thanksgiving, but I’m there about eight or ten times a year anyway. Whenever we visit my in-laws, who live fairly close to it, my FIL and I end up surf fishing there. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/63 "2018-12-12T17:12:44Z")
Yosemite National Park, in early November. I hiked Tenaya Canyon, and the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Late Fall is a good time to visit YNP - weather can be beautiful (it was while I was there), and the hopeless Valley crowds of May - September have thinned to a bearable level. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/64 "2018-12-12T17:30:19Z")
Badlands a few years ago. The same trip I bagged Glacier NP on. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/65 "2018-12-12T17:34:52Z")
Probably [Fort Washington](https://www.nps.gov/fowa/index.htm). The Firebug and I like to go there and roam around. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/66 "2018-12-12T18:17:45Z")
This is probably the fastest I thread I’ve started has reached two pages. > [@swampspruce](#): > > Jasper National Park for Christmas in November at Jasper Park Lodge. You didn’t say it had to be American… 😃 Quite right. Itr can be any country’s national park. > [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I thought that this would have an “easy answer”, but apparently that sort of thing is not allowed these days. > > The last time we visited a National Park was in 2012, when we went to the Grand Canyon. > > I discovered just now that the Gateway Arch in St. Louis was made a National Park in 2018; we visited it on a cross country trip in 2014, but it was not a NP at the time. > > So it all depends on whether the OP wants to know “What was the most recent place you visited that is currently a National Park?”, or “What was the most recent place you visited that was a National Park when you were there?”… The judges will allow it. But good to mention both. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/67 "2018-12-12T18:21:18Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > You guys are aware there are national parks outside the US, yes? :dubious: [What do you mean](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21373513&postcount=49) “You guys”, mate? ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/68 "2018-12-12T18:36:47Z")
Went to [Blue Ridge Parkway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Parkway) in Virginia in November. It was cold but the leaves were still pretty. Plenty of scenic miles of highway, overlooks, and hikes up there. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/69 "2018-12-12T18:55:51Z")
If we’re allowing areas managed by the NPS then: [ul] [li]Cape Cod National Seashore a few times this summer[/li][li]Boston National Historical Park frequently[/li][li]Minute Man National Historical Park most days on my commute[/li][li]The Appalachian trail frequently over the summer and fall[/li][/ul] If you are looking outside the US we were in Banff, Jasper, and Yoho National Parks in Canada this February. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/70 "2018-12-12T18:57:38Z")
Shenandoah National Park in VA, after completing a run up the Blue Ridge Parkway. Serious props to those engineers of that parkway and the Skyline Drive that makes up the section in the Shenandoah National Park. Great experiences. . ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/71 "2018-12-12T19:09:38Z")
Going by the strict “National Park” criteria, probably Crater Lake. It’s been a while… ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/72 "2018-12-12T19:16:37Z")
Bryce Canyon and Zion in October ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/73 "2018-12-12T19:17:39Z")
Actual National Park? Boy, no clue, but probably Rocky Mountain National Park, a long, long time ago. If National Lakeshores count, then it’s [Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore](https://www.nps.gov/piro/index.htm). I get thereabout just about every summer. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/74 "2018-12-12T20:09:24Z")
I’m not really sure how they designate the difference between a National Park, Lakeshore, Forest, etc., but the last “Park” would have been Everglades in January 2017. National “something” would have been either Hiawatha or Pictured Rocks in October 2018. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/75 "2018-12-12T20:09:56Z")
Without looking at a map and thinking back, I’m not sure whether it would have been Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, or Cairngorms. They’re quite close together and on many a journey in the southern Highlands you will go through both. It will have been in the last few months though. ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/76 "2018-12-12T20:20:47Z")
My family spent a day at Mesa Verde this summer on the way back from a road trip. And we spent a week at Rocky Mountain on the way out. The best trip was a decade ago: a week in Yellowstone and Grand Teton, then to Banff for a week with several excursions to Jasper and other Canadian NPs in the surrounding area, and a day at Glacier on the way back. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/77 "2018-12-12T22:34:21Z")
Mt. Haleakala National Park on Maui, in Oct. 2016. My wife got carsick on the drive up to the summit and back down again. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2018, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/78 "2018-12-13T13:55:40Z")
I’m not sure if I’ve _ever_ been to a US National Park. In my 20s I camped at Assateague Island’s State Park in Maryland, but I think there’s a National Seashore section. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/79 "2018-12-13T13:57:02Z")
We own a cabin that borders the Shenandoah National Park. We go there a couple of times a month and on most visits wander in and out of the park. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960/80 "2018-12-13T14:18:47Z")
I missed the edit window, but our house is two blocks from Grant Circle in Washington. While not a National Park, DC’s circles are owned and maintained by the National Park Service. I walk my dog in Grant Circle several times a week. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-park-did-you-last-visit/825960.md?page=5)