Did anyone watch, or are you still watching the Ken Burns documentary on the National Parks? I just finished watching the series last night. 12 hours total. What a story; I was blown away! So many ordinary and not so ordinary people dedicating their lives to protect the most phenomenal places in the country. Kind of makes you proud to be part of a nation that started the best trend in the world.

For the first couple of weeks they had the entire series available online for free, but now they just have clips and stuff. http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/watch-video/#642

I've been to lots of National monuments and historical sites and whatnot, but as far as full blown National Parks I've only been to: Redwood, Lassen, Crater Lake, Yosemite and Grand Canyon. Now I want to see them all! The Grand Canyon is probably the most spectacular (to put it mildly), but I think my favorite place to spend time is Redwood and the Avenue of the Giants (In Humboldt State Park) a little south of there.

What's your favorite National Park?

I like Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. I'd like to see Zion though.

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I want to see that documentary. I am a BIG fan of the US National Parks system and the Canadian Provincial Park system. Best thing any government has ever done.

My ex and I have camped in both National and State Parks across the US. About 20 National parks and about 10-15 State parks. I couldn't remember the number. I had to ask so it's a pretty good guess. He has a better memory for numbers.

It's tough to pick a fav. I really liked Zion, Acadia, Huntington Beach, Custer, Redwood, King's Canyon, Denali...

All of them are beautiful and unique

Dry Tortugas always looked interesting to me. The shame is that you can't camp there.

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I grew up in Lassen Nat'l Park, in a very (very) small town called Mineral, CA.  My parents owned a Deli, and eventually took over the restaurant (the only one in town). 

Best place to grow up hands down.  Skiied (both cross country and downhill when the ski area was open) every winter.  I really do miss that place.

I've been to a lot of the ones listed here (Lassen, Glacier, Redwoods, Grand Canyon...) but I think ym favorite is Yosemite. There's something magic about that place, I dunno. Well all of them have that, but Yosemite just has something in the air I like.

I was able to watch almost all of the series. I'm glad that there were people with an eye for natural beauty and the foresight to even consider the concept of national parks. It's good they were recognized for their efforts. I do wish they talked a little more in depth about some of the parks though.

Heh, I actually learned something of relevance from a TV series.

That was me above.

So boring. Poorly done. Snoozefest.

Compared to the Planet series by Discovery, this one was terrible.

Comparing Planet Earth with The National Parks is like comparing Disney land to The Smithsonian. They're just two different animals. I will admit that the NP series moved slow at times, but if you're going to tell 150 year history about over 60 parks and you want it to be about all the people who sacrificed, so that we can enjoy them, it's gonna take a long time and being boring to some.

That being said, I agree that they could have had less pontificating and more raw scenery and more stories from ordinary Joes. I also think they completely rushed the end. They spent hours talking about Yosemite and Yellowstone, but some parks (particularly in Alaska) got barely mention.

It was a poor comparison in that the stories were different. But National Parks should have been at least 50% driven by visuals. It wasn't. It was driven by the boring ass drone of whatever narrator.

I didn't give it much of a chance though, I'll admit. It started poorly. I mean, it was a series PBS actually did a good job of promoting. I was excited about it. Right up until I fell asleep.

You sure can camp at the Dry Tortugus. I've done it. It was... creepy? The main thing is getting there in the first place. There's no easy way.

I have been to Crater Lake, the Redwoods, Zion, the Grand Canyon and Canaveral Nat'l seashore. My favorite was Zion, because I didn't really know what to expect. We've all seen a bajillion pictures of the grand canyon. Crater Lake is so ridiculously beautiful that it looks like a studio backdrop. It is difficult to take it seriously. The Redwoods would take an easy second.

PearlGurl, have you ever seen Crater Lake at night? It's so still it makes an almost perfect reflection of the night sky. So fargin cool!

Here's the lake in the day, Aug 1999.

See? Ridiculous. Too perfect.
My friends and I were there for the marathon in August. I was not running, but gave in to serious peer pressure and jumped in. It was exactly as cold as you think. My nipples forgave me 54.3 hours ago.

Yeah, being that it's over 8000 feet and there's snow still on the ground in August, swimming in the lake never even occurred to me. Bummer about your nipples.

It is ridiculously beautiful. But so are a lot of parks. You can't take a bad picture in Yosemite, or Redwood either. A friend from LA once told me that his parents took him to see Yosemite when he was about 6 years old. He had never really been outside of LA before that. His first thoughts at seeing, not the park, but just the surrounding wilderness was that he was looking at giant paintings, because it was just too beautiful to believe.

I've never been to yosemite in the winter.  that's something I'd really like to do.

Emokid is throwing slomo dove at my face, I guess that means he flipped me the bird