Less well known National Parks and areas in USA

wadewade

We've been fortunate enough to visit some of the best known national parks in the USA (Grand Canyon, Bryce, Arches, White Sands, etc) and know Arizona and adjoining states quite well.

Now we fancy trying a completely different part of the USA. Well away from the tourist track and letting us see a little of "real" America but we are not sure where to try.

Has anyone any suggestions for an area we could try? Thanks.

ferf1223

It's been years, but I loved Great Smokey Mountains National Park and that part of the US.

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm

It's really beautiful. And while I'm from the US and travelled there while I lived in the US, it seemed a completely different world in that part of the country. People are so insanely nice and friendly in that part of the world...it's almost like any random stranger will happily chat with you if you want...people are extremely friendly and good natured. We visited Tennessee more recently and they all thought my English husband's accent was pretty much the coolest thing ever.

We did a trip which included the Smokey Mountains and

Cumberland Falls (state, not national park) in Corbin, KY

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/4600

Though we didn't go at night to see the moonbow.

Ruby Falls, Lookout Mountain and Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga, TN

http://www.rubyfalls.com/

http://www.lookoutmountain.com/

http://www.tnaqua.org/Home.aspx

The aquarium was incredible.

And we also went to Nashville which may or may not be of interest...we liked it, but were country music fans.

We also almost went to the Native American reservation on the North Carolina side of the Smokey Mountains but I found the surrounding area too depressing and we never went to the reservation itself...seeing an elderly Native American man in full tribal dress outside a store selling a lot of crappy cheap 'Indian' souvineers with a sign saying 'have your picture taken with a REAL INDIAN! Only $10!' made me very, very sad.

Nordictat2

Valley Forge, PA.
http://www.nps.gov/vafo/photosmultimedia/index.htm

Wonderful place...we went there last year and it was beautiful and educational at the same time...They have wild deer there that will come up to you or atleast a few feet away..great photo ops too

wadewade

Thank you, both, for your really useful ideas. I'm off looking for my USA road atlas right now!

lynzpower

I saw trhis months LOnely Planey Mag is about USA national parks- I dont know if they are the ones you already visited.

Im gagging for Smoky Mountains NP, thats my secret plan for next year

gfplux

Have you thought of Canada?
There many, many national Parks.
We went in 2006. this was our report.

We were 2 adults + 14 year old daughter to CANADA. There seems a “buzz” about CANADA with more and more people making the trip. Here is a summary of our trip.

All Hotels and Car hire were booked on line before we left. Our Local travel agent did the air tickets matching the best online offer I could find.
The plans for the trip came together with the flights booked with Air Canada arriving Toronto 30th August and leaving from Montreal 14th September. All the hotels were in walking distance of downtown.

We spent 6 nights in Toronto at The Holiday Inn Express on Lombard Street Total Price C$984 for a Huge room including buffet breakfast
Three nights at The Killarney Lodge in Algonquin Park. Total cost C$1626 for a log cabin, canoe and full board.
Two Nights in Ottawa at Best Western Victoria suites, O'Connor Street. Total cost C$298 for a Suite with 2 rooms (including a kitchen) including buffet breakfast.
Four nights in Montreal at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, Blvd Rene-Levesque East. Total cost C$703 for a huge room with kitchen including buffet breakfast.
We picked up our Alamo rental car when we left Toronto to drive to Algoquin Park and dropped it off when we arrived in Montreal. Total Cost C$656 for 7 days

TORONTO.
Toronto Airport was a dream as there were no delays in getting into the country, surprisingly Canadian passport holders were not segregated so all the queues moved very quickly and we even felt welcomed by the officials (unlike the USA) The trip to our hotel was by Taxi (no queue ) Cost Can $46 gave C$55 incl tip.
Toronto is a great city and the shopping is almost as good as New York. Amongst the many things we enjoyed were The Eaton Centre Shopping (a few times!). Eating at The Hardrock caf!, China Town, and Baton Rouge. Visiting The CN Tower (glass floor, scary!!), The Bata Shoe Museum. The Distillery District was a huge disappointment, do not waste your time. The description hinted at a Covent Garden feel, the reality was more like a Convent.
We took a day out to Niagara falls using public transport. This was very simple to do and much cheaper and more fun than taking an organised tour. We had lunch at The Keg Steakhouse and the service was dreadful.
Niagara is a town of two halves. The falls are amazing and the trip on the Maid Of The Mist was even better than we could have imagined. The other side of Niagara Clifton Hill is very tatty in the extreme. What sort of tourists they feel they are catering for I can not imagine. With all respect to British seaside resorts it was like Blackpool GONE BAD.
We took a day out to Paramount Wonderland a huge amusement park. It is not as pretty as a Disney, however if you have a teenager or like scary rides this is a must visit. Again we used public transport, very efficient and good value.
During our time in Toronto we found a great fresh food store called Dominion. Great place for picking up snacks www.freshobsessed.com . They have a few outlets.

ALGONQUIN PARK.
Algonquin park http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/service/ser_lodges.html is a gigantic state park 4 hour relaxed drive north of Toronto. We had a wonderful time. Killarney Lodge is a great place to stay. It is not cheap but provided a great experience. This was the great outdoors for Townies. Each cabin has its own canoe. And more than enough lakes to explore. The park itself has many trails for walking or biking from easy to hard, ideal for a mixed group. We walked and also rented bikes This gives you a real taste of Canada. We understand that during high summer there are quite a lot of mosquitoes

OTTAWA
It was a relaxed 4 hour drive to Ottawa. This is the capital city and is well worth a visit. Our Hotel was a 15 minute stroll to Parliament Hill. This was along Elgin which is a lively street with many restaurants and bars. We did a tour of the Parliament Building (you have to book and normally come back a couple of hours later for the tour) We also did a boat tour of the river. A great place to visit is Byward market. We had lunch there at Tuckers “amazing” highly recommended.
MONTREAL.
This was a relaxed 3 hour drive from Ottawa. On our first day we visited the Old Town and Port this was rather disappointing. We also visited Notre Dame Basilica, a rather strange experience as we had to buy a ticket to get in. What proved a great day out was the visit to the Jardin Botanique. WOW this was a great place. We were lucky with the weather. The experience may not be so good on a wet day. We also visited the Museum of fine Arts which was a worthwhile visit and co-in sided with a wet afternoon. Found a great place for fresh food and snacks IGA. They have a web site www.iga.net It was interesting to see that Montreal is not as rich as Toronto (all the money moved away during the independence troubles in the 70's) There are many beggars on and around St Catherine Street and a lot of evidence of homeless people. These latter facts may also to be to do with the attitude of the Police as there were no beggars to be seen on the “posh” Rue Sherbrooke. We ate worthy of mention at St Hubert, Rue Sainte Catherine, Les 3 Brasseurs in the latin quarter, Baton Rouge (again). Bocochina near “The Bay” all very good.
When we left the hotel for the airport the Taxi cost C$35 I gave C$40. The journey was 35 minutes in the rain.

The timing of our trip was dictated by School Holidays as our daughter starting her new term in mid September. We were Lucky that the Canadian School kids had gone back at the end of August. This time also appeared to fall between the Tourist big Summer season and the Autumn season when there are tens of thousands of visitors for the “colours of the trees”. This meant we had a relaxed and queue free time during our trip. All the driving was done at a very relaxed pace keeping to the speed limits 95% of the time. All the journeys could have been made in a shorter time but we were on holiday.
Overall Canada proved to be a great place to visit and we all would recommend it. We will be going back. The food and shopping was great value. Tipping was the same as the USA. The people are absolutely wonderful, very, very friendly and helpful.
Very important to remember that most of the sales tax of about 5% is refundable by either making a claim on returning home or for a small fee we did ours on the last day at a booth in “The Bay” Department Store.
You should go to CANADA if you can.