Daniel Schrager / The Bellingham Herald (TNS)
Between its mountains, islands, pine tree-lined cliffs and beaches, Washington is known for its access to nature. So it should come as no surprise that its three national parks are among the best in the country, according to a new ranking from Travel + Leisure.
Earlier this month, the travel magazine published its annual ranking of the 25 best national parks in the U.S., based on 200,000 reader responses to a survey on a wide variety of travel topics. Washington's three national parks — Mount Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades — all made the top 17.
Washington tied with California and Utah for the second most parks on the list, behind just Alaska, which had four. Here's how Washington's parks fared.
Washington's National Parks
- Mount Rainier National Park was the highest ranked of the trio, coming in at No. 11. With an average score of 84.62, it fell just .38 points behind tenth place Denali National Park. The park, which typically gets around two million visitors a year, is easily accessible from Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. Its namesake mountain has a 14,110 (or is it 14,111?) foot peak, making it the tallest in Washington and one of the tallest in the U.S.
- Olympic National Park ranked three spots below at No. 14, with an average rating of 83.99. Accessible from Olympia via Highway 101, or from much of the Puget Sound region by ferry (and an additional drive) the park sees almost 3 million people a year visit its 923,000 acres of mountains, glaciers and rain forest.
- The lowest-ranking Washington park on the list was North Cascades National Park, which tied for the No. 17 spot with Glacier Bay in Alaska. Despite being located roughly 100 miles from Seattle and 70 miles from Bellingham, North Cascades is one of the least visited national parks in the country. But its average score of 82.10 — ahead of more popular parks like Acadia and Bryce Canyon — along with its glaciers and suspiciously blue waters, suggest it's somewhat of a hidden gem.
Travel + Leisure's top 10 national parks
These are the ten best national parks in the country, according to Travel + Leisure, along with their average scores:
- Yellowstone (90.79)
- Grand Teton (88.94)
- Yosemite (88.34)
- Glacier (87.20)
- Kenai Fjords (86.73)
- Rocky Mountain (86.21)
- Zion (85.62)
- Great Smoky Mountains (85.41)
- Katmai (85.10)
- Denali (85.00)
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