The 10 Least-Visited Places in the Park System

[Panich52]

The 10 Least-Visited Places in the Park System

The Park Service recently released its visitation statistics for 2014. The most popular parks, such as Great Smoky Mountains and Golden Gate, continued to draw record numbers of visitors. But what about the underappreciated places where only a handful of adventurers go each year? Take a peek at these 10 under-the-radar national gems.

View the slideshow »
http://my.npca.org/site/R?i=FwmNwAh9tIaakvfYabjcdw

[Coventina]

1. Some of those are pretty out-of-the-way.

Others are probably ignored out of ignorance.

Thanks for the post! It was really interesting!!

[eppur_se_muova]

4. No kidding! Three in AK wilderness, one in the Virgin Islands, one on an active military base ...

reservation required two weeks in advance.

[Badass Liberal]

2. Very cool.

I visited Agate Fossil Beds NM in northwest Nebraska a few years ago, and the sole ranger there said that place was scarcely visited.

Also Great Basin NP in Nevada gets about 80,000 visitors a year compared to, say, Yellowstone's 3,000,000.

[niyad]

3. very cool, and thanks for the link.

[Glassunion]

5. I've been to 3.

But having an uncle in Alaska helps.

The one in philly we did on a tour.

[KMOD]

6. Thaddeus Kociuszko

We have a bridge over the Mohawk River named after him in my area.

Most people can't pronounce it though, and just call it the twin bridges.

Very cool link. Thanks.

[ErikJ]

7. 2 of the most beautiful places in US arent even in the NP system.

The Monument Valley in n. Arizona Navajo Reservation
and Sedona AZ area. It probably was too developed already or in private hands to be made into a NP.

[elleng]

8. Thanks. Interesting.

#3 - Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Monument, California
Number of visitors in 2014: 786

The worst homeland disaster of World War II happened on a dock not far from San Francisco. Thousands of African-American sailors served at Port Chicago in segregated units during the war in limited roles; one of these jobs was loading weapons and ammunition into ships. The work was extremely tedious and dangerous, and the sailors received little training. One evening in July 1944, more than 5,000 tons of munitions exploded, killing 320 men and injuring hundreds of others. Two weeks later, when sailors were ordered to return to the same dangerous conditions, 258 men refused and 50 were court martialed and found guilty of mutiny. This terrible tragedy was one of the events that led to the desegregation of the U.S. Navy and, subsequently, all U.S. armed forces. The memorial is on an active military base and reservations to visit are required at least two weeks in advance.

[Panich52]

9. Thx f/ info. I'd heard of this, but like many, it's long forgotten.

[mackerel]

10. Port Chicago one is near this little town of Clyde which has about 700 residents.

It's not even obvious it's part of the Park System. The same with Eugene O'Neal Historic Site and they are actually not far from each other. Both are in Contra Costa County, CA.

[NJCher]

11. they don't keep a list

of people who go missing in the park service, so if you go, Dave Paulides recommends you take one of the GPS locator things for hikers.

I think he may also recommend a gun and one other item, which I can't recall.

Definitely do not go alone.

http://www.canammissing.com/missing_411.html



Cher

[Cooley Hurd]

12. Eugene O'Neil's site would peak my interest...

...as long as they mentioned his awesome son-in-law, Sir Charles Chaplin!