| NATIONAL PARKS QUICKLINKS |
Also on Backpacker.com
Backpacker Magazine – August 2007
Perfect Substitutes: Crowd-Free Destinations
You know that the big-name parks draw big-time crowds. But each of those outdoor icons has a lesser-known replacement that offers some of the same classic features and epic scenery–and you get it all to yourself.
-
Tags:
- National parks |
- Destinations |
- Yellowstone |
- Great Smoky Mountains |
- Glacier |
- Yosemite |
- Boundary Waters |
- Grand Canyon |
Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA | Pigsah National Forest, NC | Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, MT | Dome Land Wilderness, CA | Mahoosuc Mountains, ME | Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario | Owyhee Uplands, ID/OR
The numbers don't lie: Backpackers are brand-conscious about hiking destinations. On summer weekends, the marquee parks–Great Smoky, Grand Canyon, Yosemite–are understandably crammed with people, frontcountry and back. Go in peak season, and you run the risk of paying retail for that park brand.
We can get it for you wholesale. The fact is that popular hiking spots like New Hampshire's White Mountains can be replicated elsewhere. The rugged hiking above treeline for which the Whites are renowned can be duplicated 25 miles away in Maine. Yellowstone's otherworldly thermal features have a proxy in northern California. Glacier's dose of active ingredients–mountain crags and megafauna–comes undiluted in another Montana wilderness.
So consider switching brands. You might forfeit some justifiably famous photo ops, but it's yours for less: less crowding, less red tape, less frustration–and more bang for your backpacking buck.
Subscribe to Backpacker magazine
Sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter
Reader Rating:
-
Editors' Choice 2013
412 trail-tested products
Boost Your Apps
Add powerful tools and exclusive maps to your BACKPACKER apps through our partnership with Trimble Outdoors.
Carry the Best Maps
With BACKPACKER PRO Maps, get life-list destinations and local trips on adventure-ready waterproof myTopo paper.
FREE Rocky Mountain Trip Planner
Sign up for a free Rocky Mountain National Park trip planning kit from our sister site MyRockyMountainPark.com.
Get 2 FREE Trial Issues and 3 FREE GIFTS
Survival Skills 101 • Eat BetterThe Best Trails in America
YES! Please send me my FREE trial issues of Backpacker
and my 3 FREE downloadable booklets.
Free trial offer valid for US subscribers only.
Canadian subscriptions |
International subscriptions
and my 3 FREE downloadable booklets.
READERS COMMENTS
No offense to Mr. Lorain, but unless his guide book has been seriously corrected from the earlier edition that I have, his "Backpacking Oregon" is not to be trusted. Then again, perhaps i was expecting it to reach the level of excellence I have come to expect from the guide books of William Sullivan. His "100 Hikes and Travel Guide of Eastern Oregon" is superior, as are the rest of his books.
That said, the Leslie Gulch area is definitely worth visiting. Just don't expect to go swimming in the Owyhee River - when I visited several years ago, it was filled with manure.
In Canada, Algonquin Park is one of the most used Provincial Park.
If you want some desolation, try Killarney, or Frontenac park, which are relatively close.
Several corrections - Between Black Balsam and Cold Mountain, you'll hit four 6000 foot peaks, not five - Black Balsam, Tenent Mountain, Shining Rock and Cold Mountain. You can hit Sam Knob for a fifth but that's the opposite direction (although definitely worth the trip). You can also hit the Devil's Courtyard which is close to 6K on your way to the Middle Prong wilderness via the Mountains to Sea trail.
The trail is called Ivestor, not Investor.
Fork Ridge trail is in the GSMNP and is not possible to reach in a twenty mile loop that includes Shining Rock.
Fork Mountain trail is in the Ellicot Rock wilderness and is also not possible possible to reach in a twenty mile loop that includes Shining Rock.
ADD A COMMENT