My favorite national parks

Since we came to the US more than eight years ago we’ve visited quite a few national parks. I really wish I’d started writing on Medium earlier so that I could leave detailed notes about these trips. Instead, there are scattered memories and hundreds of pictures on my iPhone.

Because we lived mostly in California, our experience of the US national park system is heavily skewed towards the West Coast. With the exception of Everglades in Florida, we’ve not visited any parks in the East. The most visited one — Smoky Mountains — remains on our bucket list.

There are over 60 national parks in the US.

We’ve been to Arches (Utah), Bryce Canyon (Utah), Channel Islands (California), Crater Lake (Oregon), Death Valley (California), Grand Canyon (Arizona), Grand Teton (Wyoming), Great Sand Dunes (Colorado), Hawaii Volcanos (Hawaii), Joshua Tree (California), Kings Canyon (California), Pinnacles (California), Redwood (California), Rocky Mountain (Colorado), Sequoia (Colorado), Yellowstone (Wyoming, Montana, Idaho), Yosemite (California), White Sands (New Mexico), Zion (Utah), Everglades (Florida), Petrified Forest (Arizona).

So 21, a third of all parks.

It’s difficult to rank these destinations. They are all picturesque in their own unique ways. Some were brief stops, some involved overnight stays, and epic hikes.

One of my criteria — perhaps a subjective one —for determining the best ones is whether I can remember, without much of an effort, some…