published originally on parkremark.com
Most days I tap into a variety of information sources always on the lookout for interesting topics to add to Park Remark. Today I found a fun topic posted on the National Park Cancellation Stamps email list. The author asks "what are the 10 hardest parks to visit"? He's come up with a list of 8, and then has ideas about other parks that should fill out the last two positions. His list:

Kalaupapa NHP (on a remote island and difficult to access)
Timpanogos Cave NM (long hike up)
Fort Bowie NHS (long hike in)
Channel Islands NP (least visited in the contiguous 48)
Isle Royale NP (have to take a boat out in Lake Superior)
North Cascades NP (only one dirt road into just a small corner of the Park)
Dry Tortugas NP (70 miles west of Key West, ''nuff said!)
Hohokam Pima NM (exactly how do you visit it again?)

That would be eight. How about two more, though? Here are some nominees:

Cape Lookout NS (few roads, obscure relative to Cape Hatteras)
Devils Postpile NM (high in the Sierra Nevadas, obscure relative to Yosemite)
Niobrara NR (the "middle of nowhere" seems like somewhere relative to this one)
Nicodemus NHS (see Niobrara NR)
Organ Pipe Cactus NM (not the safest Park in the world, sadly)
Rio Grande WSR (tucked in a corner of Big Bend NP, which isn't exactly right down the street itself)
Great Basin NP (not quite on the beaten path)
John Day Fossil Beds NM (you don't get here accidentally)

Have any ideas of your own? Head over to the discussion and chime in. The conversations generated on this list are generally pretty fun, and frequently have a lot to do with actual travel details to nearly all the parks in the NPS. As I've mentioned before, Nancy Bandley who is a frequent contributor here at Park Remark is the current President of the National Park Travelers Club which is the organization that manages that email list.