The Path Least Traveled
Pick Your Park Carefully
Great Smoky National Park…Grand Canyon NP…Yellowstone NP…are all among the most visited national parks within our great country. If you visit, you better do it in non-peak season, wake up real early or prepare to share your space with lots of idiot tourists. PugsleyTonks does not like crowds, but he does enjoy an occasional national park. So, I did a little research and created my own National Park list for the path least traveled…
If you truly want a national park to yourself, allow me to recommend the least visited park…the Gates of the Arctic National Park. This Alaskan playland averages roughly 25 visitors a day. The park has about 8.4 million acres. Therefore, in rough and dirty numbers, each visitor can have 336,000 acres to themselves each day. Alright, even for PugsleyTonks, that’s just a bit too far off the beaten path. So, to set a more achievable goal, I made my own least visited list. Basically, I threw out all the Alaskan parks and only considered the continental USA. Pictured above is my new target list for avoiding crowds at our glorious National Parks.
Voyageurs National Park
Well, to be honest, I already had a head start. I have visited Dry Tortugas and Congaree. I highly recommend Dry Tortugas. Congaree is fine if you need an itinerary filler. Anyway, last fall, I was wandering far northern Minnesota with a Minor Public Official. This put us within striking distance of Voyageurs National Park.
When you visit these under-utilized National Parks, you quickly realize they are under-utilized for logical reasons. Mostly, its some combination of…the park is hard to get to…or its mostly water…or it lacks in comfort amenities…or it just kind of sucks. In the case of Voyageurs NP, it does not have anything in the way of lodging. You just stay somewhere near dreary International Falls, MN, and drive over to the park. Once you are at the park, you better have a boat. Otherwise, you are not leaving the Visitor Center. The park is basically a vast lake dotted with a thousand islands. If you have a boat, you have some options like tooling around, fishing, exploring the islands and primitive camping. If you are a soft and unprepared tourists, your only option is the ranger guided tour boat…
The Tour Highlights
To be honest, there were not many highlights. Do not get me wrong. It was a nice day. Furthermore, the waters were calm. And, the islands were nice. But, one island pretty much looked like the next. We were really hoping for a significant animal sighting, like a bear or wolf. However, we saw none of those. You are pretty much guaranteed to see bald eagles…so that’s something. Also, the islands are rich in mining history. The gold mining industry was the main purpose for the original incursions into this area.
Wrap It Up
Well, if my goal was to visit a National Park without a crowd, the goal was certainly achieved. The only people that we ever saw were the other visitors on our boat. A Minor Public Official managed to NOT throw up his breakfast on the boat, so I guess that is yet another success. The day was warm and the ride was pleasant. So, it was a good visit. However, unless you have a boat and love to fish and primitive camp…I would not travel too far to hit this National Park. But, I took the path least traveled and I have a good memory to show for it. Have a wonderful day. PT
I hope you have enjoyed “The Path Least Traveled” on Traveling with PugsleyTonks
Here was my long ago visit to Dry Tortugas NP https://travelingwithpt.com/?s=tortugas
To plan your visit to Voyageurs National Park https://www.nps.gov/voya/index.htm
