Our family just returned from the most super awesome amazing fabulous epic trip ever! We hit the road together touring some of The National Parks out West. We spent 17 nights in our RV together. We traveled 5,000 miles, ate 51 meals together, spent $3,837 and hiked countless miles. We saw sights that made our jaws drop at their beauty. We experienced adventures that we will never forget. If given the choice.....we would still be gone. But, we didn't have that choice.....the real world beckoned us back to reality.
On our sad journey back toward home...we discussed which parks were our favorites. Which ones we want to return to some day and which ones we don't. Which parks had the most beautiful sights. Which ones had the best adventures. We discussed the perks of each park and after a few days being home, we came up with our rankings of the parks.
Our family has visited 16 of America's National Parks and each one is so different from the others. They each have something special about them that is worthy of National Park status. America's National Parks are our best treasures and our most underappreciated at the same time. We are always baffled by the fact that more foreigners use our National Parks than our own citizens do. It is quite the mystery to us. We LOVE our National Parks and hope to see them all one day.
Although ALL of the parks have great features....some are just better suited to our specific family. To get these rankings, each member of our family made our list of favorites in order from top to bottom. We then compiled the list by giving each spot a point value. The most favorited park earned the most points, putting it closer to the top of the list. So here is how our family ranks the parks we have visited thus far from least favorite to favorite....
#16 Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
#15 Hot Spring National Park, Arkansas
#14 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
#13 Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
#12 Canyonlands National Park, Utah
#11Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee
#10 Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
#9 Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
#8 Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
#7 Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
#6 Arches National Park, Utah
#5 Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
#4 Badlands National Park, South Dakota
#3 Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
#2 Zion National Park, Utah
#1 Yellowstone National Park, Montana
And there you have it! The Heptinstall family favorites. Although some of the parks were sadly placed at the bottom of our list.....they are ALL worth the time to see! Our family really, really, really loves to visit the National Parks. If your family hasn't utilized our county's greatest feature...then you are missing out on some of the most beautiful land on the planet.
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