When people ask: What’s your favorite National Park? our standard response is something like “All of them,” “How can you pick just one,” or “I can give you six, but they might change tomorrow.” When people ask: What’s the most underrated National Park, the answer is Great Basin — hands down. There are others that are surely underrated, but this one has so much, yet is visited by and known to so few. For those of us who get a bit more of the Park to ourselves, so be it.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is not well known in the pantheon of Parks. Overshadowed in virtually every direction by “better options” and more popular Parks. Not to mention it’s hard to get to, and then even harder to get to the other side of the Park. But, once you’re there, wow is this a site to see?

Most of the 63 big National Parks are highlighted by natural beauty. Canyons, mountains, waterfalls, geysers, giant trees, scenic coastline, caverns, volcanoes, lake and rivers, etc. Only two are primary famous because of something man made. One is Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis (which, if you’re asking us, should have remained a National Memorial), the other is Mesa Verde, which is very deserving of the distinction.

Upper Antelope Canyon, Lower Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, The Wave, and The Narrows — all in 72 hours. Need we say more?

We were supposed to be in Utah for most of this trip. We weren’t supposed to be in Arizona at all really. But sometimes plans change. When we decided not to double back to Zion to try to hike The Narrows, it only made sense to poke our heads into the most famous canyon in the world.

Arches and Canyonlands don’t have to be visited together. But they are do close to one another, how could you possible come to the Moab area without seeing both?

Look the cherry pie isn’t the best thing about Capitol Reef National Park, but it’s up there. And you’d be hard pressed to find a better pie inside another Park. The truth is people flock to this lesser-known Utah Park for more than just pie, but they also flock here for the pie.

In National Parks, you never know whats around the next corner, and that could not be more true at Bryce Canyon. The first step into the amphitheater filled with strange rock formations called hoodoos will be a moment you’ll always remember. And that was certainly true for us.

Zion is the first National Park created in Utah and vies to be the crown jewel of the state. The Park usually gets less praise than the big three, but it’s right up there. We decided to see what all the noise was about.

We are preparing for the third leg of our Park to Park Tour, and we want to share some of the plans, because planning is perhaps the most important part of pulling of a successful visit to National Parks.

Is Pinnacles the most underrated national park we’ve visited? It’s certainly a leading candidate, and though it is overshadowed by other California parks, this hidden gems holds it’s own and is actually more accessible than most.

Two parks for the price of one! Sequoia and Kings Canyon are often seen as the little brother of Yosemite or the “other” Sierra Nevada parks. But they stand on their own in many ways and deserve the time and exploration.

We’ve been looking forward to this one. It feels like the pinnacle of national parks. We’ve heard and read and dreamt so much about visiting this place. What will it hold for us?

California has eight National Parks, including the largest in the Lower 48 and perhaps the most famous of all Parks. But overlook Lassen Volcanic at your own peril…

What does it take to make you realize something is spectacular? What if one of the most popular movies of all time used the backdrop of a place to portray a forested moon in a galaxy far, far away?

What is it that they say about the best laid plans? Well Crater Lake reminded us that whatever we think we want to do in a National Park, mother nature (and the Park Service) may have other plans.

After a stop in Seattle to pick up our van, we are heading south for the next month, with plans to hit seven National Parks in Oregon and California. But first…

Summer number two of our three-summer road trip kicks off in July, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Haleakala Crater is a very unique place. Imagine being on Maui — a lush tropical island in the middle of the Pacific — and then driving for an hour on switchbacks up the slopes of a 10,000’ volcano only to end up looking into a crater seven miles long, two miles wide, and a half mile deep. And at the bottom is a landscape the most resembles the surface of the moon — sandy, rocky, rugged — but also has verdant sections, one-of-a-kind flora, and a large population of endangered nene (the Hawaiian goose).

Hawai’i Volcanoes is a special place for us. From our home on O’ahu, it is the most accessible National Park. That said, we don’t live on the same island, so we still have to fly to Hawai’i Island, reserve a rental car, book a hotel, and dedicate some time to the park. Even so, on some occasions we just fly over for a quick visit — especially when the lava is flowing!