“Lake of the Clouds is another 1.5 miles,” says Sweet. The Colorado River trailhead, off Route 34, reaches high meadows and mountain lakes among the 12,000-foot Cloud Peaks-Cumulus, Nimbus, and Stratus-after a 6.2-mile hike. THE BACK DOOR: Sweet suggests sticking to the remote western slope of the park, best accessed through the town of Grand Lake (“Snowmobile Capital of Colorado”), versus the more popular eastern entrance, at Estes Park. RMNP's only fourteener, Longs Peak (14,255 feet), also gets trampled all summer long. THE BOTTLENECK: Car traffic stays concentrated in the Bear Lake corridor and among the drive-by elk herds of Moraine and Horseshoe parks. THE INSIDER: Barry Sweet, backcountry ranger and 20-year park veteran THE LAUNCH PAD: The nearby Kalaloch Lodge overlooks the Pacific on Highway 101 (doubles from $190 ). (Reserve permits with the Wilderness Information Center $5 per group.) Preston's recommendation: “Stop at Tshletshy Creek, where giant cedar, fir, Sitka spruce, hemlock, and black cottonwoods are smooshed together,” he says. The trail goes for 16 miles through lush forest with twice as much moss as foliage, and a backcountry permit lets you camp anywhere. (Call the Wilderness Information Center in Port Angeles for river-flow info 36.) On the other side, pick up the Queets River Trail and hike into the valley bottom. To get into the valley, you have to ford the Queets River. “If all the Bigfoots of the world wanted to choose a capital, the Queets would be on the short list.” Take Forest Service Road 21, off Highway 101, to the Queets campground. “It receives hardly any visitors, partly due to lack of infrastructure and partly due to lack of press,” says Preston. THE BACK DOOR: Go to the Queets Valley, 1.5 hours south of the Hoh. “We get 230,000 visitors a year,” says Preston. THE BOTTLENECK: There are three main temperate-rainforest river valleys in Olympic, the most popular of which is the Hoh.
THE INSIDER: Jon Preston, ranger in the Hoh Rainforest and 17-year park veteran BOTH: Repel lemon-eucalyptus insect repellent ($8 rei.com). BONS VIVANTS: Greenstone Ridge Trail to Rock Harbor (40 miles, five days). MASOCHISTS: Minong Trail, rugged north shore (28 miles, three days). ARRIVE: $61 one-way ferry from Grand Portage, Minnesota ( ). The Half-Baked Plan: Isle Royale National Park, Lake Superior, Michigan ACRES: 133,781.
Olympic National Park Washington Olympic National Park THE LAUNCH PAD: The Desert Pearl Inn (doubles from $150 ), at the entrance to Zion in Springdale, Utah, rests in the shadow of the park's sandstone spires. “But when you come out at the Temple of Sinawava, it's worth it.” (Stay at one of the 12 campsites five miles down.) “You'll be walking in cold water through the canyon bottom,” says O'Neil. Up next: 16 miles of sloshing through sandstone crescents. Pick up a permit at the Zion Canyon visitor center (from $10 43) and have a shuttle ($30 ) drop you off at Chamberlain's Ranch, near the river's headwaters. “When you go from the top of the Narrows down, you usually won't see anyone until the last two miles,” says O'Neil. Only 12 groups are permitted each night, and most day visitors enter from the Temple of Sinawava, at the end of the park's roadway. Plan B: Go canyoneering through the Narrows, the famous slot canyon formed by the North Fork Virgin River. The next day, finish off the trip in 200-foot-deep Refrigerator Canyon before the shuttle picks you up.
Spend a night five miles in at Potato Hollow-O'Neil recommends campsites 7 and 8, which offer panoramas of Imlay Canyon. Take a shuttle ($35 per person ) to Lava Point, start of the 15-mile West Rim Trail. THE BACK DOOR: “By hiking the west rim of Zion Canyon, you'll leave 99 percent of the tourists behind,” says O'Neil. THE BOTTLENECK: On a busy summer day, upwards of 20,000 people cram into shuttle buses on Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. THE INSIDER: Ray O'Neil, backcountry supervisor and nine-year park veteran
Most of the money will go to badly needed repair of roads and facilities like ranger stations. The bill set aside $920 million for the National Park Service, to be allotted by September 2010. But at least it will give our parks an overdue sprucing up. The Recovery Package: Cash Infusion Will President Obama's $787 billion stimulus bill save the economy? Who knows.
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