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Reader Participation Day: Which Is Your Favorite National Park Gateway Town?

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West Yellowstone's ties to Yellowstone National Park are evident throughout town. NPT file photo by Kurt Repanshek.

Gateway towns to national parks can be fun, eclectic, unusual places. There's the electric vibe that runs through Bar Harbor on the doorstep to Acadia National Park, the outdoor pulse to Moab near both Arches and Canyonlands national parks, and the urban environment Tuscon offers Saguaro National Park.

With that in mind, which gateway town do you look forward to visiting on your national park vacation?

Would it be West Yellowstone, Montana, with its laid-back attitude, eclectic Gatlinburg, Tennessee, near Great Smoky Mountains, Estes Park with its Rocky Mountain National Park backdrop, or Jackson Hole with its Old West flavor?

Comments

This is tough! I've been to Gatlinburg and Jackson Hole and love both of those towns for different reasons! Owning a nice cabin in the hills around Gatlinburg would be pretty tempting, but I think I'll need to visit these other places first!


San Francisco is the gateway to Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and could be considered a portal for Muir Woods National Monument and Point Reyes National Seashore as well. Where world-class urban amenities are concerned, I'll take The City over any of the choices I've seen posted here so far. Traveler's note (no extra charge): The 100th anniversary Bay to Breakers (aka "Bare to Breakers") is slated for May 15, 2011 (always held third Sunday in May).


i really liked cooke city,montana,coming off the beartooth highway,into yellowstone,this little town was the start of our adventure into yellowstone,i got up early,about 4:30am,to pack the truck up,and what did i see,a big wolf lopeing down the city street...it woke me up...


Pahrump, Nevada, gateway to Death Valley.

I jest.

Springdale is great, as are Cody, Port Angeles and Flagstaff. Not sure I can pick one over the others as a favorite.


While we just returned from a visit to Zion and stayed in Springdale - which is a lovely town with way above average accommodations, if I were to consider a gateway town to live in - it would probably be Cody, WY. Cody has a great "feel" to it; has an extraordinary museum; and is a gateway to so many beautiful locations and enjoyable things to do: Yellowstone & Grand Teton (can't get enough of these two parks), Jackson Hole for skiing, and world-class trout streams for fishing.


I also have to say that I love the town of Bedford, VA. It isn't a gateway to a Naitonal Park, but is one of the towns off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's a great little town with plenty of history and the D-Day Memorial.


It sounds to me that some people are expanding things a little bit too far. If all NPS units are fair game, it gets overly broad since there are some units that are located right in urban areas. If that's the criteria - then I'd say Honolulu which is right at the USS Arizona Memorial or Kona near a couple of National Historic Sites.

However - I was under the impression that the criteria is one of the 58 full-fledged National Parks. If that's the case, then I'd say Key West, Florida. That's the primary point for traffic to Dry Tortugas National Park, which I wasn't able to visit due to a certain hurricane. Other than that - Moab, UT or Jackson, WY. I think the key to a really good gateway town is that it isn't necessarily dominated by traffic to the National Park that it serves. The Moab area has plenty of recreation other than Arches or Canyonlands. Jackson is a destination in and of itself, especially with a world-class ski resort. The Olympic Peninsula is pretty interesting too, with several gateway towns around Olympic NP, including Forks, Port Angeles, and Sequium. On the other hand, there are some towns that look like they wouldn't (or would barely) exist without a National Park to support it, such as West Yellowstone, MT. My family couldn't find any redeeming qualities about West Yellowstone other than they had places to eat.


Jackson, Wyoming. Even without Grand Tetons National Park, it's a great place to visit.


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