'Not that exciting': These people hate Washington's national parks
It's Mount Rainier's fault about the weather
By LYNSI BURTON, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Published 5:38 pm, Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Photo: Alan Majchrowicz, Getty Images
Some people can't handle the experience of going to a national park: Unpredictable weather (namely any month that's not July or August), the occurrence of snow or clouds, the other people who go there, or the fact that it's not among the Seven Wonders of the World.
We culled Yelp, Google Reviews and TripAdvisor for some of the biggest national park sourpusses to ever visit one of Washington's national parks.
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Some people can't handle the experience of going to a national park: Unpredictable weather (namely any month that's not July or August), the occurrence of snow or clouds, the other people who go there, or the
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Photo: Alan Majchrowicz, Getty Images
Mount Rainier National Park: "Firewood concession guy kept driving around his stinky old truck. Over and over. Screaming children. Dirty bathrooms.
"Hiked
Grove of the Patriarchs. Boy Scouts were holding the single-lane
suspension bridge hostage. ... The kids were loud, obnoxious, kicking up dirt,
screaming, running into people, etc.
"Then there's the traffic.
Paradise is hell. No parking. Crazy drivers from Florida who seem to
have little to no mountain driving experience. More grumpy rangers at
Sunrise. Rangers leaning on their elbows on the VC desk. Rangers too
bored to greet visitors as they enter. Rangers who don't make eye
contact or say hello.
"Went to an evening program at the
campground. Couldn't hear the ranger who couldn't figure out she needed
to stand in front of the portable PA system. Her talk was hard to sit
through as she verbally stumbled frequently. The talk ended up blaming
global warming for the park's white bark pine problems, even though for
the last 10 years, Rainier has cooled and its glaciers have advanced.
"Did I mention the traffic?"
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Mount Rainier National Park: "Firewood concession guy kept driving around his stinky old truck. Over and over. Screaming children. Dirty bathrooms.
"Hiked Grove of the Patriarchs. Boy Scouts were holding the
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Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images
"Worst National Park I have ever been to in my life.
"Four of us flew in to San Francisco and drove to Seattle in 2 and a half weeks, stopping at parks and cities.
"This
place was the worst!!! I'm not saying it wasn't pretty, but it makes me
remember an episode of the Cosby show where Vanessa is engaged to
someone and Bill Cosby says that it was like a juicy piece of steak
presented on a trash can lid. That's what this place was. Mount Rainier
served on a trash can lid."
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"Worst National Park I have ever been to in my life.
"Four of us flew in to San Francisco and drove to Seattle in 2 and a half weeks, stopping at parks and cities.
"This place was the worst!!! I'm not saying
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Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
"When I finally got to the Paradise visitor center, it was cloudy alright
because the whole mountain that I drove all the way up here was hiding
behind a super thick layer of fog/clouds. Every single hiking trails is
also covered in snow so even with my regular hiking boots on, they were
no help.
"Since I drove all the way up here, I didn't want to
leave without hiking a single trail so I ended up doing the Nisqually
Vista Loop (1.8 miles) which was just a short walk from the visitor
center. The whole trail was actually covered in snow so the only way I
could find my way was those color guided sticks put up by the rangers.
For the entire trail, everything was covered in white so it wasn't that
exciting."
DAMMIT WEATHER. YOU SUCK.
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"When I finally got to the Paradise visitor center, it was cloudy alright
because the whole mountain that I drove all the way up here was hiding
behind a super thick layer of fog/clouds. Every single hiking
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Photo: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket Via Getty Images
"When my mother-in-law was in town, she wanted to hike Mount Rainier. I
saw the opportunity to shove her over a cliff and took it.
"Needless to say, the presence of my children saved her life. Just barely.
"So,
there we were, trudging along, with her flapping her yap the whole
time. Out of the corner of my eye, I see something moving down below
us. Upon closer scrutiny, I determine the aforementioned 'something' is
a BEAR!
"Yup. Bear.
"Now, I'm waving my arms and trying to
get good old Mom to shut the f**k up. She just keeps on yapping and
clomping on through the woods like she owns the joint.
"I grab the
kids and we scamper as far away from there as possible. Yes. I did. I left that loud mouth broad to fend for herself.
"She caught up with us about ten minutes later.
"'What happened to you guys? I looked up and y'all were gone.'"
Wow. Cool story.
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"When my mother-in-law was in town, she wanted to hike Mount Rainier. I saw the opportunity to shove her over a cliff and took it.
"Needless to say, the presence of my children saved her life. Just barely.
"So,
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Photo: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket Via Getty Images
"Went to Paradise. It was crowded. Not my usual scene for hiking. The path was mostly paved and the picnic area kinda sucked."
"Went to Paradise. It was crowded. Not my usual scene for hiking. The path was mostly paved and the picnic area kinda sucked."
Photo: Wild Horizon/UIG Via Getty Images
"A tall, DENSE forest + thick fog make good views hard to come by."
#nature
"A tall, DENSE forest + thick fog make good views hard to come by."
#nature
Photo: Visions Of America/UIG Via Getty Images
"Weather - it can be unpredictable!!!!!"
"Weather - it can be unpredictable!!!!!"
Photo: Visions Of America/UIG Via Getty Images
"an ok place"
Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, Credit
Under heading, "government should be ashamed of itself!": "Entered from Rte 7 and roadway was only open up to the 2nd visitor
center which was closed and due to very high snow banks from
snowplowing, (sse attached pic) I only saw about 5% of the mountain's
scenery and thus took a mere 20 photos. IMO the park should either be
closed when conditions are this bad or the $15 fee reduced down to $5."
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Under heading, "government should be ashamed of itself!": "Entered from Rte 7 and roadway was only open up to the 2nd visitor
center which was closed and due to very high snow banks from
snowplowing, (sse
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Photo: JOSHUA BESSEX, Credit
North Cascades National Park: "So disappointing for me. I guess I didn't do enough research about the
weather before coming to the park. I was just really antsy to get away
at the time I booked my trip. I visited North Cascades Park back in
April and it was freezing cold and tons of snow. It did make for great
scenic snow capped mountains, but I wasn't really able to leave my car
or do any hiking."
ROOKIE MISTAKE.
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North Cascades National Park: "So disappointing for me. I guess I didn't do enough research about the weather before coming to the park. I was just really antsy to get away at the time I booked my trip. I
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Photo: Education Images/UIG Via Getty Images
Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest: "After the seventh picture phone started acting up. wouldn't connect to the network. What I did see is beautiful though."
Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest: "After the seventh picture phone started acting up. wouldn't connect to the network. What I did see is beautiful though."
Photo: Ethan Welty, Provided Courtesy Burke Museum
Olympic National Park: "Beautiful park, but the park service employees kept on making dumbing rules like how many friends we can have."
What?
Olympic National Park: "Beautiful park, but the park service employees kept on making dumbing rules like how many friends we can have."
What?
Photo: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket Via Getty Images
"Just as we thought we had escaped, yet another deer ran right in front
of our car. Luckily our rental car had good brakes. I can not believe
the lady in the booth took our money without a word of warning. I wanted
to get out of the car and scream at her on the way out but my husband
restrained me. What a way to spend Memorial Day!!!"
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"Just as we thought we had escaped, yet another deer ran right in front
of our car. Luckily our rental car had good brakes. I can not believe
the lady in the booth took our money without a word of warning.
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Photo: Meleah Reardon Photography, Getty Images/Flickr RF
"I've seen a lot better. Try going to Utah. You will be blown away by the parks there."
Hipster.
"I've seen a lot better. Try going to Utah. You will be blown away by the parks there."
Hipster.
Photo: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket Via Getty Images
"If you're from the northern coast of California or from the Oregon
coast, you won't be wowed by the coast of northern Washington - it's
very similar."
"If you're from the northern coast of California or from the Oregon
coast, you won't be wowed by the coast of northern Washington - it's
very similar."
Photo: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket Via Getty Images
"This place is overrated. Nothing special, IMO. Big trees covered by moss are all over western WA."
"This place is overrated. Nothing special, IMO. Big trees covered by moss are all over western WA."
Photo: Stephen Matera, Getty Images/Aurora Open
"After eating that bland Mexican lunch, we were looking forward to hiking
some nature trails and admiring the many varieties of trees and plants
thriving in this unique ecosystem along with the opportunity to
photograph the wild life. Not so that Sunday. It seems that all the
animals must have went to Forks to gawk at the tourists. ...
"The hall of mosses was disappointing, the moss draped 100 year old oak
trees that line the streets of Savanah [sic] put these to shame and you can
see them from your car!"
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"After eating that bland Mexican lunch, we were looking forward to hiking
some nature trails and admiring the many varieties of trees and plants
thriving in this unique ecosystem along with the opportunity
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Photo: Seattlepi.com File
"I would never come back to see this stuff again. Probably you have never
seen greenery anywhere else if you are awestruck about these."
"I would never come back to see this stuff again. Probably you have never
seen greenery anywhere else if you are awestruck about these."
Photo: Quan Yuan, Getty Images/Flickr Open
Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort at Olympic National Park: "
A huge disappointment. Do yourself a favor and Google Image search the place before you make plans to go there. As a vacationer, you crave an experience. Thankfully there's plenty of that in Olympic. This place, however unfortunately, is a gimmick. Hot Springs though they may be, it has a YMCA feel to it. If you're a romantic, you'll be disappointed. If you're not, perhaps this is right up your cheap alley." less
Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort at Olympic National Park: "
A huge disappointment. Do yourself a favor and Google Image search the place before you make plans to go there. As a vacationer, you crave an experience. ... more
Photo: JEFF LARSEN, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER FILE
Klondike Gold Rush National National Historic Park: "It took us took 20 or so minutes trying to find the place. We thought it
would be an actual park, you know, with trees and green stuff."
Another n00b.
Klondike Gold Rush National National Historic Park: "It took us took 20 or so minutes trying to find the place. We thought it would be an actual park, you know, with trees and green stuff."
Another n00b.
Photo: Grant M. Haller/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Ok"
"Ok"
Photo: Gilbert W. Arias, Seattlepi.com File Photo
"There isn't much to see here just a small museum. Don't attempt to walk
here from Pioneer Square. It is really sketchy, a lot of homeless people
everywhere and numerous people come up asking for money. My husband and
I did not feel comfortable walking through this area and were afraid we
were going to get mugged."
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"There isn't much to see here just a small museum. Don't attempt to walk
here from Pioneer Square. It is really sketchy, a lot of homeless people
everywhere and numerous people come up asking for money. My
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"It turns out that Seattle was a place where people came to get supplies
prior to going to Canada and Alaska to search for gold in the Klondike
Gold Rush era. That's it. Big deal."
"It turns out that Seattle was a place where people came to get supplies
prior to going to Canada and Alaska to search for gold in the Klondike
Gold Rush era. That's it. Big deal."
Photo: Seattlepi.com File Photo
Lake Chelan National Recreation Area: "This park is cluttered and disarrayed! Want to meet your neighbor? Just
stick your head out your rv kitchen window into their rv kitchen window! ... We got the LAST rv space and it had no view of lake. The kids
running the store were more into summer activities than attending to
business. As soon as the father left, they closed the store midday and
went 'on the prowel for *****!' Another drawback was being stuck the
second day by being surrounded by yet another family reunion spread on
both sides, kids and dogs with no supervision or leash and cars, cars,
cars and boats, boats, boats. Total Okieville! If your camping in summer
to get away, avoid this park!"
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Lake Chelan National Recreation Area: "This park is cluttered and disarrayed! Want to meet your neighbor? Just stick your head out your rv kitchen window into their rv kitchen window! ... We got the LAST rv
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Photo: Seattlepi.com File Photo
'Not that exciting': These people hate Washington's national parks
One hundred years after their creation, it's hard to find people who don't love our national parks. They make up the very best of America's -- and Washington's -- natural landscape.
But some people truly cannot handle the experience. They don't know that it takes time to reach many of them. They don't look up the weather forecast or the park conditions. They resent the many other people who had the exact same idea they did to visit the park. Or they think an active volcano or temperate rainforest is just so #basic.
We culled Yelp, Google Reviews and TripAdvisor for some of the biggest sourpusses to ever visit some of Washington's national parks, forests and recreation sites. It was actually a bit difficult to pluck poor reviews from the gobs of glowing ones, but these people who took the time to rant about how our parks aren't perfect (as if!) are pretty hilarious.
Happy 100th birthday, national parks.
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