National Parks

[gt_ltd]

Has anybody been to any of the following parks?

 

Rocky Mountain National Park (this is the only one I have been to )

Mesa Verde National Park

Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Colorado National Monument

Dinosaur National Monument

Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site

Hovenweep National Monument

Curecanti National Recreation Area

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

[03Indigo]

I have been to:

RM National Park

Mesa Verde

Black Canyon

 

and a slew of others outside of this area....a ton of parks out in Utah.

 

I plan on asking my parents for a life time membership pass to the National Parks as a holiday gift this year. I would love to make a point of getting out there to see them all....those would be some fun road trips.

[gt_ltd]

Do you recommend Mesa Verde and Black Canyon?

[03Indigo]

I would say that they are worth visiting, but think there are possibly more spectacular places to see. I prefered all of the Moab area, ie: Arches National Park, the Canyon Lands, Needles Discrict, etc, over both of those areas. I also have a love for Zion National Park in Utah. Nothing like walking up the narrows or up to Angles Landing. After you visit Zion, you are a hop, skip and jump away from Bryce Canyon...that is a wicked cool place with all the orange spires.

 

here are some pics from the web for you:

 

First, Black Canyon, nothing great, smaller canyon, but some wonderful vistas. This is only one shot, but gives you a feel for the area.

 

http://www.americansouthwest.net/colorado/photographs700/bccyn4.jpg

 

Then Mesa Verde--you got to love it there, but you are there to basically see the cliff dwelings. They are amazing and I have heard rumor that they might be limiting the number of visitors or closing to the public due to erosion....so you may want to get out there soon.

 

http://www.serve.com/wizjd/pics/mesa01_m.jpg

 

Then on to some of my favorites, in order, Arches, Zion, and then Bryce.

 

http://freespace.virgin.net/david.long5/jc/jpg/90002.jpg

 

this is a shot of some of the "narrows" in Zion, the streams that you can walk up between the canyon walls....

http://66.70.224.3/Photos1/510-173-19.jpg

 

shot of Angles Landing, you can hike on that little narrow edge cliff in the middle of the canyon, the river wraps around it. I loved that hike up "Walter's Wiggles".

http://www.math.utah.edu/~deraux/photos/zion/zion.jpg

another shot on the approach to Angles Landing

http://www.eng.uci.edu/~alberto/trips/zion_bryce/z3.jpg

 

and finally, Bryce Canyon

http://www.eng.uci.edu/~alberto/trips/zion_bryce/b3.jpg