Sunday, September 12, 2010

My New Favorite National Park

For years, I've been hesitating when asked to name my favorite National Park. I usually name three: Yellowstone, Olympic, and Glacier. No longer. After my recent second trip to Glacier, I can now say that my favorite is Glacier National Park. It is without a doubt the greatest hiking park, but what really tips the scale is its sheer beauty. Spectacularly beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful, heartbreakingly beautiful; I'm not sure we really have a strong enough adjective. The weather pretty much sucked the whole time I was there; it didn't matter. The rain just brought out the colors and the snow tipped the mountains in white. My knee started bothering me, so I had to limit myself to fairly level trails (a real challenge in Glacier); it didn't matter. I took some beautiful trails that I would not otherwise have taken. There is simply no other US National Park like Glacier, and it is my new favorite. My next post will have detailed information about my recent trip. There are photos posted on Flickr.