Your Guide to 5 of America’s Least Visited National Parks

Last year, some 62.9 million people visited America’s 58 national parks. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the United States’ most popular national park, accounted for 9.5 million of those people alone. That’s a lot of folks with which to share our nation’s natural treasures. America’s wide open spaces don’t feel quite so wide open when you’re sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on a park road with a few million of your newest friends.

Sure, everyone wants their souvenir photo of bison at Yellowstone, or a family pic standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon, but why not escape the crowds and set your sights on America’s least visited national parks?

Forget standing shoulder to shoulder with hordes of tourists, or having to muscle your way to the front of a viewing platform or scenic overlook to snap your picture-perfect postcard photo.

The following five national parks had a scant 276,000 visitors in 2009, a mere drop in the visitation bucket (just 0.004 percent of all national park visitors last year). At these locales, it’ll be just you and the national park, which is perhaps the way President Ulysses S. Grant intended it when he designated Yellowstone as America’s first national park in 1872.

1. Congaree National Park, South Carolina
First protected as Congaree Swamp National Monument in 1976—largely in response to a Sierra Club campaign to protect the area from logging in the late 1960s—the site was later designated a UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve in 1983, and an Audubon Society Important Bird Area in 2001. Finally, in 2003, it became a national park. Congaree’s 27,000 acres includes the largest remnant of old-growth floodplain forest in the southeastern United States, boasting more than 150 trees with trunks of a circumference greater than 12 feet. The cypress-tupelo swamps that line the Congaree River and Cedar Creek are also home to plenty of national and state champion trees. Though 1989’s Hurricane Hugo toppled a national champion Shumard oak tree and a former national champion overcup oak tree, at last count, the park still had four national and 19 South Carolina state record trees. For a good introduction, hike the 2.4-mile Boardwalk Loop, which begins at the Harry Hampton Visitors Center. Another great way to see the park is from the water, by either canoe or kayak, along marked paddling routes. Rent a boat in nearby Columbia, or take the guided park canoe tour, with boats provided by the National Park Service. See related feature story in this issue.

2. Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Great Basin is a park of extreme contrasts...of mountain summits and canyon bottoms, of bright days and very dark nights. It is also a park of variety. You can hike to the summit of 13,063-foot Wheeler Peak, the tallest mountain in Nevada. Visit a rock glacier, moraine, or snow-and-ice glacier. Walk through groves of 5,000-year-old Bristlecone Pine trees. Make your way to Lexington Arch, a six-story limestone natural rock arch. Or explore the Lehman Caves, marble caves ornately decorated with natural formations such as stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone and popcorn. With Great Basin’s low humidity, high altitude, and very little light pollution, stargazing is also justifiably popular here. In fact, GB boasts one of the darkest night skies in the United States. To that end, August 6-8 the park is hosting its first annual Astronomy Festival.

3. Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska
With 1,879 visitors in all of 2009, Kobuk Valley is officially America’s least visited national park (averaging just five people per day!). The park, located north of the Arctic Circle, spans an immense 1.7 million acres. Each year, half a million caribou migrate through the park’s valleys. For your own visit, consider hiking the Baird Mountains. Or float the Kobuk River. You can also visit the historical Onion Portage, where for 9,000 years indigenous peoples have hunted caribou while they ford the Kobuk River. Kobuk Valley also features an unexpected surprise – sand dunes. Spread into three clusters (the Great Kobuk, Little Kobuk, and Hunt River), they cover 25 square miles, rise to heights of 100 feet, and are the largest active sand dunes in the world at arctic latitudes. Be forewarned: there are no visitor facilities at KV. Visitors arrive by plane, boat or snow machine, and unless you’re with a licensed guide or outfitter, you’re on your own. Those that make the trip, however, are rewarded with wild Alaska at its finest.

4. Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
Closer to Thunder Bay, Ontario than it is to any part of the United States, Isle Royale is accessible only by boat or seaplane. It’s a rugged, northern island oasis in the middle of Lake Superior. Three ferries make the trip: the Ranger III, Isle Royale Queen IV, and Voyageur II. Depending on the ferry and port of departure, the one-way journey to Isle Royale takes two to six hours. At 165 feet long, the Ranger III ferry is the largest piece of moving equipment owned and operated by the National Park Service. It goes to the island Tuesdays and Fridays, and returns to the mainland Wednesdays and Saturdays. (Seaplane flights take 30 minutes, and cost $290 roundtrip per person for the 2010 season.) Given the time and expense it takes to get to Isle Royale, make the most of it and stick around for a few days. Permits are available for camping at sites located at the inland lakes dotted throughout the island. There’s also some camping along the shore and on outlying islands. For those looking for creature comforts, the Rock Harbor Lodge, on the northeast end of the island, is the only place to stay with a roof over your head. The two main centers of activity on the island are Windigo on the west end, and Rock Harbor on the east. You can link them by either paddling the cold waters of Lake Superior, or by following the island’s extensive network of hiking trails, some of which follow the crest of Greenstone Ridge and its chain of 1,000-foot tall mountains.

5. Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida
Located 70 miles west of Key West, Florida, park officials have their eyes squarely focused on the Gulf oil spill, though the Tortugas haven’t yet been directly impacted. That makes now perhaps the best time to visit, with some tourists staying away for fear of the oil that so far hasn’t arrived (and hopefully won’t). The national park comprises seven islands of sand and coral reefs. Four are currently open to the public (two are temporarily closed for wildlife protection, and another is permanently closed to the public). Garden Key features historic Fort Jefferson, which dates to the mid-19th century and it currently undergoing a phased preservation project. Over the years, it has served as a remote prison and as a crucial military outpost, including during the Spanish-American War. The Tortugas also enjoy great scuba diving. More than 300 shipwrecks dot the waters surrounding the islands, including the Windjammer Wreck, a massive sailboat that sunk in 1907 on Loggerhead Reef, less than a mile from Loggerhead Key. If scuba isn’t your thing, Garden Key also has excellent snorkeling among its coaling dock ruins and along the walls of Fort Jefferson. (The island also has a small campground for those wanting to spend the night in this relatively undiscovered and undeveloped tropical paradise.) Get to Dry Tortugas by boat (either your own or one of two Key West-based charter ferries—Sunny Days and Yankee Freedom) or by seaplane.

Peter Bronski (www.peterbronski.com) is an award-winning writer and NATJA member whose work has appeared in more than 70 publications. He studied natural resources management in college, where he considered pursuing a career with the National Park Service. He became a writer instead.