We’ll be visiting some of this country’s premier national parks in the pages of MotorHome magazine in the months ahead, as part of our Find Your Adventure series celebrating the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary. But we also want to show some love to less visited parks, like this pair that make for two distinctly different kinds of wet-and-wild adventures this time of year:
Biscayne National Park
Located at the north end of the Florida Keys, 270-square-mile Biscayne National Park is 95 percent water. The downside, of course, is that the visitor center is the only part of the park you can actually drive to. That minor negative is offset by warm, turquoise-blue waters ideal for exploration by rental kayaks and stand-up paddleboards. You can also set sail on any number of commercial snorkeling or diving trips that will take you to one of the 40 documented shipwrecks inside park boundaries or to portions of the Florida Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world. Add 16 endangered species, from remarkably graceful manatees to delicate swallowtail butterflies, and you have a park primed and ready for wintertime visitors.
Redwood National Park
With the drought most of this country has been facing in recent years, the idea of spending some time on the rain-swept bit of coastline that is Redwood National Park is bound to seem like a nice change of pace. After you get tired of the simple pleasure of kicking back in your lounge chair with a good book and a hot beverage, you’ll find this 40-mile stretch of coast is made for exploring. From the old-growth temperate rainforests – home to some of the tallest trees on earth – to rivers swollen with salmon and the lonely (and very photogenic) lighthouses, you’ll find plenty to keep you occupied here in this remote northwestern corner of California. Bring your sense of adventure, and you’ll discover there’s all kinds of wintertime RV fun to be had here in a place where you’re more likely to need your rain suit than your swimsuit.
We’ll have more on other obscure national parks in the weeks to come but, in the meantime, use the Comments section below to tell us all about your favorite little-known National Park Service treasure.
