What is the coolest national park in the US (outside Alaska) and why is it Olympic? Beautiful beaches, dense rainforest, massive glaciers. What more could you want?
>>2878865
>>2878865rainforest
>>2878865no
Olympic is trash it's all run down there's like 2 entrances that have been closed for a decade and it's surrounded by natives and reservations and it's 25 miles each way if you want to summit Olympus and you could die in "the big one" at any time. Nah miss me with that shit cuz.
>>2878873>it's 25 miles each way if you want to summit OlympusOh no! Not a few days backpacking along a well-maintained trail through a beautiful rainforest, up into alpine meadows, and then across glacier. How terrible!
>>2878873>there's like 2 entrances that have been closed for a decadesauce?
Olympic has a bit of everything but I found that it doesn't have the best of anything in the PNW so I don't rate it that highly. The Redwood forests in California were way better for me, the coast in Oregon was better, and the mountains, lakes, waterfalls and glaciers elsewhere in Washington were betterAnd the coolest national park in the US (in the world) is Yellowstone
>>2878873A wilderness area nearly 40 miles in diameter is in fact a good thing
>>2878938Tbh.
>>2878938>glaciers elsewhere in Washington were betterNah, I've been on many of them. Rainier may have bigger ones, but the blue glacier on Olympus is the coolest.
>>2879033I didn't get to this spot, felt a little too long for a dayhike at the time (I would probably do it now though). Closest I got to the glaciers was from the high divide trail. It does have a nice shape to it I guess, that tradition valley glacier look, but it's a baby. I did get up to Steamboat Prow at Rainier and it was pretty cool being surrounded by glaciers like that.
It's probably Glacier national park. Though I'm sure yellostone has comparable cold temperatures.
>>2878873If you want civilization and creature comforts (visitors' center) why the fuck would you go out? The whole point of a national park is to preserve nature, and this one apparently seems to be doing it well.
