TOP 5 NATIONAL PARKS
If you’re anything like us, you’re itching to load up and explore in your camper van. With the new year approaching, we’ve gathered a list of the top-voted national park van travel destinations for 2023.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
Yellowstone National Park is a nearly 3,500-sq.-mile wilderness recreation area atop a volcanic hot spot. Mostly in Wyoming, the park spreads into parts of Montana and Idaho too. Yellowstone features dramatic canyons, alpine rivers, lush forests, hot springs, and gushing geysers, including its most famous, Old Faithful. It's also home to hundreds of animal species, including bears, wolves, bison, elk, and antelope.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
Yosemite National Park is in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s famed for its giant, ancient sequoia trees and for Tunnel View, the iconic vista of towering Bridalveil Fall and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome. In Yosemite Village are shops, restaurants, lodging, the Yosemite Museum, and the Ansel Adams Gallery, with prints of the photographer’s renowned black-and-white landscapes of the area.
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK
Arches National Park lies north of Moab in the state of Utah. Bordered by the Colorado River in the southeast, it’s known as the site of more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches, such as the massive, red-hued Delicate Arch in the east. A long, thin Landscape Arch stands in Devil’s Garden to the north. Other geological formations include Balanced Rock, towering over the desert landscape in the middle of the park.
DENALI NATIONAL PARK & PRESERVE
Denali National Park and Preserve encompasses 6 million acres of Alaska’s interior wilderness. Its centerpiece is 20,310 ft.-high Denali (fka Mount McKinley), North America’s tallest peak. With terrain of tundra, spruce forest, and glaciers, the park is home to wildlife, including grizzly bears, wolves, moose, caribou, and Dall sheep. Popular activities in summer include biking, backpacking, hiking, and mountaineering.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado spans the Continental Divide and encompasses protected mountains, forests, and alpine tundra. It's known for the Trail Ridge Road and the Old Fall River Road, drives that pass aspen trees and rivers. The Keyhole Route, a climb crossing vertical rock faces, leads up Longs Peak, the park’s tallest mountain. A trail surrounding Bear Lake offers views of the peaks.