**Posted by Erik Bolt - February 2, 2009**

Top Ten National Parks – or at least the ones that I have visited, in any country.

1) Staying in the Southwest, here’s one in Utah. Anyone knows about the Grand Canyon, but this other canyon is a bit off the beaten path despite being a gorgeous national park. Here’s a canyon that you can hike to the bottom and back in an afternoon, yet leaves at least as much of an impression as its more famous neighbor to the south. Humanoid rock formations called hoodoos are the big draw here, along with small rock arches and impressive ponderosa pines. Seriously, this is the coolest place I’ve ever been.

2) The second coolest place I have been: nestled in the Tatras Mountains of Slovakia is a forested valley system with areas that have never been settled by human beings. There are also a few monasteries, fortresses, and villages along the edges that allowed the locals to survive invasions by Romans, Mongols, and Germans without jeopardizing the safety of the virgin forests down below. While these are the Low Tatras, the snow-covered High Tatras can be seen to the north on the horizon. This park is home to many small waterfalls, quite a few of which can be climbed through or around thanks to a great system of chains and ladders. Both at the top and bottom of the mountains, this is an amazing place for hiking, and it’s equally amazing how the locals are in such great shape that they can sprint up the steep mountain slopes without getting out of breath. A special attraction on the park’s southern edge is the Dobrsinska Ice Cave.

3) A big system of conjoined national parks, this spectacular area on the border of two Canadian provinces offers a bright turquoise lake, mountain hiking, gigantic glaciers, fossil beds, and the splendid cataract of Takakkaw Falls. High in the Canadian Rockies, this is one of the premier wildlife sites in North America and surpasses its American cousin Yellowstone in every way except for geysers, one of the few cool things it doesn’t have. The Icefields Parkway connecting two of the parks is an especially amazing scenic drive.

4) Another less commonly visited alternative to Yellowstone, this park in Colorado doesn’t beat around the bush in explaining its name. The peaks found on one Colorado license plate and also on the state quarter are found here. Estes Park, on the eastern edge, is one of the least tacky and most authentic tourist towns to grace an American national park.

5) In the southwestern corner of the Florida peninsula, this awesome swamp area looks like something out of the late Jurassic. Alligators and Florida panthers can be found here and are cool in their own right, but it is not at all difficult to also imagine herds of Brachiosaurs grazing among the cycad-like trees that stand above the swamp. Forget the fan-boats; the boardwalks are really the way to see wildlife.

6) A Canadian national park known for its impressive tides, here is a place where visitors hike down fifty feet of iron outdoor stairs to a gravel area and stare up at weird rock pinnacles that are small islands at high tide. Low tide provides neat scenery, while high tide is a chance for some surreal canoeing or kayaking, knowing that just a few hours ago you were fifty feet below the waters you now paddle.

7) Just down the road, relatively speaking, is the American location of Mount Desert Island (the “Desert” is a French word in this case referring to the island’s treeless crown). The mountain in question is Cadillac, the highest point along the Atlantic coast of the Americas all the way from here to Rio de Janeiro. Peregrine falcons are particularly well established here, and nearby Bar Harbor is a delightful small town.

8) A reminder that nature can be found in Europe: southwestern Slovenia is home to karst topography that boasts many massive sinkholes and colossal cave systems. There are two of these cave areas in particular; the one I didn’t visit is Postojna. The one that I did visit is favored by more adventurous and active travelers because it involves more hiking beneath the ground. Here is a monstrous subterranean chamber that one can easily imagine Gandalf and the Balrog facing off inside, and not far away is the exit from the cave into one of the world’s biggest sinkholes, a place big enough to have its own little watershed.

9) A little more conventional but still deserving mention, this huge mountain in Washington State can be seen from downtown Seattle and also from the farming country of the east. Once upon a time it was a volcano; now it’s a popular climb and has prodigious glaciers on its peak. Within the park boundaries lies Box Canyon, where a tribe of large ravens resides.

10) The most visited park in the United States these days has that honor for a very good reason. Nestled on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, this stretch of the Appalachians offers great swaths of forest that seem perpetually covered in mist and also holds several old villages that shed light on nearly forgotten ways of life from another time.