Where is there not a national park that should be a national park?
August 17, 2025
Where is there not a national park that should be a national park?
27 comments
So many places. I will nominate Valley of Fire (though it is adequately protected as a state park). And most of the San Juan National Forest is worthy of national park status.
The Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana.
Big Sur.
My asshole. Everybody has already been there, may as well make it a monument.
I’m surprised the White Mountains in NH aren’t. Maybe I’m biased because I was born there, but they’re beautiful, especially in fall, tons of great hiking, and Mt Washington has legendarily intense weather.
Probably a bunch of places that are being destroyed for resources for corporations
You could easily make more of Utah into a National Park or add way more to the existing parks. This actually almost happened, Escalante National Park was supposed to be created in the 1930s but local miners and ranchers shut it down with state support, but it would have basically been one huge National Park going from Moab to Zion, and included all of now Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Dead Horse Poibt State Park, Goblin Valley State Park, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, San Rafael Swell National Recreation Area, Kodachrome Basin State Park, and Glen Canyon (which became Lake Powell in one of the most heart wrenching environmental atrocities in American history.) A ton of National Forests, and mountains and canyons that are now wilderness areas.
I forget whether Dinosaur National Monument or Dark Canyon, Bears Ears, and Monument Valley were also included in this proposal.
Even just Capitol Reef in the 1970s was almost 3x as large, and would have been the northern section of Grand Staircase-Escalante plus Goblin Valley. But once again miners, ranchers, and state politicians got in the way.
This might arguably be better off though, because if it had been made a National Park in the 1930s, it would have been much more developed with paved roads, lodges, concessionaires leading mules and horseback rides, and campgrounds, as the National Park Service’s mandate was at the time (preservation of nature was not added until the late 1950s.)
If you have a 4×4 vehicle and can camp and backpack, the wilderness’s in between Utah parks are probably a top 5 world class nature/human history experience.
The Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. Already is a National Recreation Area, has the National Preserve of Valles Caldera, Bandelier National Monument and Santa Fe National Forest. Most of the land is federally owned, at this point might as well just roll it all up into one designation.
The moon.
Anywhere on the Oregon Coast.
Lake Tahoe
Midwest Driftless Area
I always thought of the national parks as being the places of truly one of a kind show-stopping natural beauty, on the national level. I’m in the Midwest and so most of that is in the mountains or out west or on the coasts.
And I know how each president usually adds/elevates a national park or two. I was thinking at some point we’re going to run out of places worthy of making into national parks, if we haven’t already. (Obviously places like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon and Yosemite and places with volcanoes or redwoods and stuff like that should be national parks, but a few years ago Trump made Indiana Dunes and the St. Louis Arch into national parks. (There are better examples of dune landscapes farther north in Michigan than Indiana Dunes.))
A year or two ago I was talking to a Canadian internet friend and we got to talking about the national parks of Canada and the US. He said that Canada’s strategy for their national parks is to have every type of biome in Canada be represented in a national park.
I’d never thought about national parks that way, but it makes a lot of sense!
So then there are natural places that aren’t represented by national parks in the US that could be, if we were to do that strategy. I’m in the Midwest, WI/IL. Off the top of my head, there isn’t a grasslands/prairie national park. It seems like some rivers and land around them should be national parks, like the Mississippi, even more so in its lower reaches like in Louisiana. There could be a national park of landscapes left by glaciers, but there’s a lot of that where I grew up in SE Wisconsin. SW Wisconsin is the driftless area. A few years ago an ice age trail in Wisconsin was made into a national trail.
It depends on what national parks are supposed to be in the US. I’ve always thought of them as being vacation-worthy, places where it is both for outdoorsy people who camp for a week and for some quick 1-day trips to see amazing things. A prairie national park in itself would be kind of boring, and also to find that much land still in mostly a natural state is going to be far away from populated areas that could utilize it.
Custer State Park in South Dakota is amazing, and has all the attributes of a top notch national park.
Anza-Borrego in Southern California, but it’s better as a state park because as national park they’d close off most of it to vehicular traffic like Joshua Tree and parking would be a nightmare
Greenland
I think all of California should be one, it’s a shame what we did to that place
Perhaps Adirondack Park. It’s the largest park in the contiguous 48 states but is basically a state park instead of a national park.
The Missouri River Breaks
Gateway Arch. National monument, sure, whatever. Not a national park.
Colorado National Monument should absolutely be a national park. A quick Google will make that obvious. My grandfather was a park ranger there when I was a kid and I always assumed it actually was a National Park and was shocked when I learned it wasn’t.
Niagara Falls is the obvious answer, though it won’t become one because it’s the oldest state park in the country
Endigine Maccas
It used to be Indiana Dunes but we took care of that.
Nowadays I might suggest Big Sur or Katahdin. But Katahdin does superbly well as a state park. The White Mountains may be up there but they’re pretty darn good as state park and national forest.
El Malpais probably isn’t full on National Park level.
All the other places I’m thinking of are Wilderness Areas which are honestly more cool than National Park status.
The Lost Coast of California (area between Shelter Cove and Ferndale). It’s a gem! Hard to get to because there is only a 1 lane road passing through the area that is only partially paved and in bad condition, but omfg it’s out of this world! It’s the only place where you can see cows on the beach and black sand beaches and Redwoods all at once. It’s an effing fairy tale!
Eagle cap
The Pine Barrens. We need to protect the Jersey Devil.
27 comments
So many places. I will nominate Valley of Fire (though it is adequately protected as a state park). And most of the San Juan National Forest is worthy of national park status.
The Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana.
Big Sur.
My asshole. Everybody has already been there, may as well make it a monument.
I’m surprised the White Mountains in NH aren’t. Maybe I’m biased because I was born there, but they’re beautiful, especially in fall, tons of great hiking, and Mt Washington has legendarily intense weather.
Probably a bunch of places that are being destroyed for resources for corporations
You could easily make more of Utah into a National Park or add way more to the existing parks. This actually almost happened, Escalante National Park was supposed to be created in the 1930s but local miners and ranchers shut it down with state support, but it would have basically been one huge National Park going from Moab to Zion, and included all of now Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Dead Horse Poibt State Park, Goblin Valley State Park, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, San Rafael Swell National Recreation Area, Kodachrome Basin State Park, and Glen Canyon (which became Lake Powell in one of the most heart wrenching environmental atrocities in American history.) A ton of National Forests, and mountains and canyons that are now wilderness areas.
I forget whether Dinosaur National Monument or Dark Canyon, Bears Ears, and Monument Valley were also included in this proposal.
Even just Capitol Reef in the 1970s was almost 3x as large, and would have been the northern section of Grand Staircase-Escalante plus Goblin Valley. But once again miners, ranchers, and state politicians got in the way.
This might arguably be better off though, because if it had been made a National Park in the 1930s, it would have been much more developed with paved roads, lodges, concessionaires leading mules and horseback rides, and campgrounds, as the National Park Service’s mandate was at the time (preservation of nature was not added until the late 1950s.)
If you have a 4×4 vehicle and can camp and backpack, the wilderness’s in between Utah parks are probably a top 5 world class nature/human history experience.
The Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. Already is a National Recreation Area, has the National Preserve of Valles Caldera, Bandelier National Monument and Santa Fe National Forest. Most of the land is federally owned, at this point might as well just roll it all up into one designation.
The moon.
Anywhere on the Oregon Coast.
Lake Tahoe
Midwest Driftless Area
I always thought of the national parks as being the places of truly one of a kind show-stopping natural beauty, on the national level. I’m in the Midwest and so most of that is in the mountains or out west or on the coasts.
And I know how each president usually adds/elevates a national park or two. I was thinking at some point we’re going to run out of places worthy of making into national parks, if we haven’t already. (Obviously places like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon and Yosemite and places with volcanoes or redwoods and stuff like that should be national parks, but a few years ago Trump made Indiana Dunes and the St. Louis Arch into national parks. (There are better examples of dune landscapes farther north in Michigan than Indiana Dunes.))
A year or two ago I was talking to a Canadian internet friend and we got to talking about the national parks of Canada and the US. He said that Canada’s strategy for their national parks is to have every type of biome in Canada be represented in a national park.
I’d never thought about national parks that way, but it makes a lot of sense!
So then there are natural places that aren’t represented by national parks in the US that could be, if we were to do that strategy. I’m in the Midwest, WI/IL. Off the top of my head, there isn’t a grasslands/prairie national park. It seems like some rivers and land around them should be national parks, like the Mississippi, even more so in its lower reaches like in Louisiana. There could be a national park of landscapes left by glaciers, but there’s a lot of that where I grew up in SE Wisconsin. SW Wisconsin is the driftless area. A few years ago an ice age trail in Wisconsin was made into a national trail.
It depends on what national parks are supposed to be in the US. I’ve always thought of them as being vacation-worthy, places where it is both for outdoorsy people who camp for a week and for some quick 1-day trips to see amazing things. A prairie national park in itself would be kind of boring, and also to find that much land still in mostly a natural state is going to be far away from populated areas that could utilize it.
Custer State Park in South Dakota is amazing, and has all the attributes of a top notch national park.
Anza-Borrego in Southern California, but it’s better as a state park because as national park they’d close off most of it to vehicular traffic like Joshua Tree and parking would be a nightmare
Greenland
I think all of California should be one, it’s a shame what we did to that place
Perhaps Adirondack Park. It’s the largest park in the contiguous 48 states but is basically a state park instead of a national park.
The Missouri River Breaks
Gateway Arch. National monument, sure, whatever. Not a national park.
Colorado National Monument should absolutely be a national park. A quick Google will make that obvious. My grandfather was a park ranger there when I was a kid and I always assumed it actually was a National Park and was shocked when I learned it wasn’t.
Niagara Falls is the obvious answer, though it won’t become one because it’s the oldest state park in the country
Endigine Maccas
It used to be Indiana Dunes but we took care of that.
Nowadays I might suggest Big Sur or Katahdin. But Katahdin does superbly well as a state park. The White Mountains may be up there but they’re pretty darn good as state park and national forest.
El Malpais probably isn’t full on National Park level.
All the other places I’m thinking of are Wilderness Areas which are honestly more cool than National Park status.
The Lost Coast of California (area between Shelter Cove and Ferndale). It’s a gem! Hard to get to because there is only a 1 lane road passing through the area that is only partially paved and in bad condition, but omfg it’s out of this world! It’s the only place where you can see cows on the beach and black sand beaches and Redwoods all at once. It’s an effing fairy tale!
Eagle cap
The Pine Barrens. We need to protect the Jersey Devil.