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2010 in Review: Traveler's Checklists

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Scenic train rides are a big hit with Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitors. NPS photo.

This year we posted 16 Traveler's Checklists to help you plan your park visits. Did you miss any? Here's an alphabetized list with handy links.

While the summer months draw the bulk of the 1.2 million visitors visiting Bryce Canyon National Park each year, winter is a wonderful time to visit this red-rock icon in southwestern Utah.

Established in 1937 as America's first national seashore, North Carolina's Cape Hatteras National Seashore protects a 70-mile stretch of coastline consisting of windswept barrier islands with unspoiled beaches, tidal marshes, picturesque lighthouses, and other attractions, including a national wildlife refuge.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which preserves more than 100 limestone caves, entertains more than 400,000 people a year with cave tours, bat flights, and other delights.

Situated on the coast not far from St. Augustine, Florida, Castillo de San Marcos & Ft Matanzas National Monuments are a delight to visit, especially with kids. Castillo de San Marcos has a moat, thick walls, a courtyard, cannons, and lots of rooms to explore. Fort Matanzas looks like a classic fort on an island.

The nearly 10,000-acre Chickasaw National Recreation Area in south-central Oklahoma is an outdoor recreational cornucopia offering camping, hiking, swimming, boating, fishing, and other fun things to see and do.

Congaree National Park in central South Carolina, which preserves North America’s largest remaining old-growth bottomland forest, has trees so large that some people have referred to it as "Redwoods East."

Cumberland Island National Seashore in southeastern Georgia rewards visitors with beautiful beaches, tidal marshes, historic plantation buildings, and watchable wildlife.

Well-positioned to provide recreation opportunities for the Cleveland-Akron urban region of northeastern Ohio, Cuyahoga Valley National Park contains a historic canal, a scenic railroad, historic farms, and other attractions .

Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve in southeastern Alaska delights visitors with great tidewater glaciers, a dramatic range of plant communities from tundra to lush temperate rain forest, and a large variety of animals, including grizzly bears, mountain goats, eagles, whales, and seals.

Situated on the Big Island about 2,400 miles off the California coast, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is perhaps the single best place in the world to see active volcanism, with an otherworldly landscape and a host of interesting plants and animals thrown in for good measure.

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in the historic Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, includes the renowned civil rights leader's birthplace, church, and grave.

The more than 4,000 archeological sites at Mesa Verde National Park, including the iconic Cliff Palace, are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.

More than 130 miles of river corridors, thousands of acres of forested hills, and a wealth of outdoor recreational activities now annually entertain over a million visitors a year to south-central Missouri's Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

Skyline Drive, gorgeous scenery, abundant wildlife, hundreds of miles of trails, and many other attractions beckon visitors to Virginia's
Shenandoah National Park.

California's Yosemite National Park in the heart of the Sierras beckons visitors with great granite peaks and domes rising high above mountain meadows, groves of giant sequoias, pretty lakes, and spectacular waterfalls, including the nation’s highest.

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Comments

I always look these up before heading out to a park. They really help in the planning! Thank you!


Great work you have done this year sir...really you blogs are helping other's like me...Carlsbad Caverns National Park, is my personal favorite because of so many interesting caves...


Love the suggestions! Quite a few on the list that I've never even thought of visiting. Can't wait to see the Caverns!

BTW: I'm in the running to win $10,000 to go towards the National Park Foundation. Help me do my part to give back to the parks we all love!

http://apps.facebook.com/globaltestdrive/showentry?entryurl=/contests/sh...


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The Essential RVing Guide

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.

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