AARP The Magazine - May/June 2010

Cave, Kentucky (270-758- 2180; nps.gov/maca), the world’s longest recorded cave system, with more than 367 miles mapped.

first you have coastal redwoods—some of the world’s tallest trees—towering up to 38 stories. At the other two are giant sequoias, including the legendary General Sherman, which is only (!) 275 feet tall but has a circumference of 102.6 feet, making it wider than three lanes of traffic.

Caribou easily outnumber visitors at Alaska’s Kobuk Valley National Park, where the animals swim the Kobuk River by the thousands.

Newest

Great Sand Dunes, Colorado (719-378-6300; nps.gov/grsa). A former national monument redesignated as a national park in 2004, this place would make Lawrence of Arabia feel at home. The main dune field covers 30 square miles, with many individual mounds standing 650 feet high. Kids love to “sand slide” on plastic snow dishes, while the rest of us enjoy tamer pursuits such as checking out the elk, bighorn sheep, short-horned lizards, and mule deer.

6

Most Prehistoric

Petrified Forest, Arizona (928-524-6228; nps.gov/pefo). Fossilized trees here bear witness to more than 225 million years of history. Once Petrified Forest National Park was a tropical flood-plain banked by trees, but time, volcanic ash, and water-borne minerals have preserved ancient logs into a rainbow of colorful rocks, some longer than a city bus. You’ll also find some of the nation’s best, oldest rock carvings at Puerco Pueblo and Newspaper Rock.

3

Forest easily wins the soggy
test. Hoh is awash in lush
ferns, moss, and lichens.
New growth on fallen
trees, called nurse logs,
starts to sprout seemingly
overnight, particularly in
early spring when, though
it’s still wet and chilly,
the leaves are beginning
to bud and the rain forest
is at its greenest.

Most Isolated
Isle Royale, Michigan

(906-482-0984; nps.gov/ isro). Rising out of the waters of Lake Superior, this primitive, wind-whipped wilderness can be accessed only by seaplane or a three-to-five-hour boat ride. Moose, wolves, and nesting loons roam freely—and you can explore a restored fishery, copper-mining pits, and the decommissioned Rock Harbor Lighthouse.

7

Darkest

Big Bend, Texas (432- 477-2251; nps.gov/bibe).

Experts at both the International Dark-Sky Association and the National Park Service’s Night Sky Program agree that a relatively cloud-free atmosphere and ultra-remote desert location give this Texas park one of the nation’s darkest skies for stargazing. Chad Moore, Night Sky Program manager, says that on a clear, moonless night above Big Bend, “the Milky Way is not just easily seen; it’s bright enough to cast a shadow.”

Wettest

Olympic, Washington (360-565-3000; nps.gov/ olym). With 12 feet (yes, feet) of annual precipitation, Olympic’s Hoh Rain

Deepest
Crater Lake, Oregon

(541-594-2211; nps.gov/ crla). Set inside a volcanic basin, Crater is 1,943 feet deep, making it the country’s deepest lake—and the seventh-deepest in the world. Fed almost entirely by snowfall, the water is ink-blue and incredibly pure. Another belowground marvel: Mammoth

Tallest
and Thickest
Redwood (707-464-6101;
nps.gov/redw) and
Sequoia and Kings
Canyon, California

(559-565-3341; nps.gov/ seki). This one’s a tossup: height versus girth. At the

Least Visited
Kobuk Valley, Alaska

(907-442-3890; nps.gov/ kova). At first it looks like a typo: only 1,565 visitors in 2008? C’mon, the Grand Canyon got 4. 4 million! Kobuk is north of the Arctic Circle and accessible exclusively by airplane, boat, or snowmobile. Those who make the trek never forget its spectacular expanse of white desert sand dunes surrounded by tundra and forest. A half million caribou migrate across the Kobuk River—with just themselves for company. ;