4 National Parks In California Among Nation’s Best

CALIFORNIA – A new report has ranked four national parks in California among the 25 best in the country. Thrillist, an online media site that writes about food, drink, travel and entertainment, published the list this week, ranking Yosemite National Park first, Sequoia National Park fourth, Death Valley National Park fifth and Joshua Tree National Park ninth.

The rankings were not exactly scientific. The parks were assessed based on how unique and photogenic they were, as well as how diverse their plants and animals are. The list highlighted Yosemite Music Festival, Sierra Art Trails and El Capitan as reasons they liked Yosemite National Park (#1) so much. Here’s what the authors had to say:

If the top spot wasn’t going to Yellowstone then surely it was going to Yosemite. It simply has everything. There’s cultural stuff like the Yosemite Music Festival and the Sierra Art Trails. There’s El Capitan, the largest slab of granite in the world, which doesn’t necessarily grab you as superlatives go, until you see it for yourself. There’s Half Dome, and Glacier Point, and the tallest waterfall in North America. There’s Tunnel View, from which vantage point you can see almost all the park’s highlights simultaneously. You can climb, you can hike, you can stargaze, you can swim in the Merced River – or, better, rent a raft and float your way down.

Here's what they had to say about Sequoia National Park (#4):

The iconic Pioneer Cabin Tree is no more, but we’ve still got General Sherman – the biggest tree in the world, weighing in at 275 feet tall and 60 (60!) feet wide. We’ve also got the underground stalactites and stalagmites of the Crystal Cave system. This is a park where you go to be fully immersed in nature; most of it isn’t accessible by car, only by horseback or on foot. Speaking hypothetically, if you were looking for a place to take mushrooms for the first time, hypothetically, and wanted to watch extremely large trees twist and breathe, then this would not be a bad place. Hypothetically. You might also spot a black bear or two. Those are real.

Here's what they had to say about Death Valley National Park (#5):

This park marks the lowest point in the western hemisphere – 282 feet below sea level. The eerie sailing stones of Death Valley move on their own, dragging themselves across the desert floor according to forces (ice panels and wind) invisible to our eye. And while you might not necessarily expect it from a place with a name like Death Valley, this park can, in certain spring seasons, foster massive striking explosions of wildflowers. A must-see is Zabriskie Point, from which you can view some of the most stunning and colorful rock formations in California. And we are once again in prime star-gazing territory – expect to see all arms of the Milky Way when you reach Harmony Borax or the peerless Ubehebe Crater.

Last but not least, here's what they had to say about Joshua Tree National Park (#9):

Long known as an LA getaway where college kids form after-after parties post-Coachella, Joshua Tree seems to become more and more beloved every year. Climbers in particular enjoy the wide variety of rock faces available to them here. The dry, arid desert is notably home to 501 archaeological sites, and camping among the rugged geological features and famously twisted Joshua Trees – to say nothing of the stargazing – is something everyone should do at least once.

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Here are the top 10 national parks in America, according to Thrillist.

1. Yosemite National Park; California
2. Grand Canyon National Park; Arizona
3. Yellowstone National Park; Wyoming, Montana, Idaho
4. Sequoia National Park; California
5. Death Valley National Park; California, Nevada
6. Badlands National Park; South Dakota
7. Rocky Mountain National Park; Colorado
8. Arches National Park; Utah
9. Joshua Tree National Park; California
10. Bryce Canyon National Park; Utah

There are 60 national parks and people are visiting them in droves. In 2017, the National Park Service received nearly 331 million recreational visits, a tick below 2016’s record-breaking year, falling short by just 90,000 visits.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina had the most recreational visits in 2017 at about 11.3 million. Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and Zion National Park in Utah rounded out the top three most-visited at 6.2 million and 4.5 million, respectively.

Anyone can buy a yearly pass for $80 and it’s free for current U.S. military members and their families. Seniors can pay $80 for a lifetime pass or $20 for a yearly pass.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report; Photo credit: Shutterstock