underrated National – With gas prices, staffing shortages, and funding cuts squeezing the National Park Service, travel writer Mikah Meyer urges Americans to start closer to home and look beyond the usual headline stops—spotlighting Painted Hills, Organ Pipe, Buck Island Reef, the
When Americans plan a summer trip, they reach for the familiar names—Mount Rainier, Olympic, Saguaro, the Everglades. But in a year when ultra-high gas prices. park staffing shortages. and funding cuts to the National Park Service are changing how people travel. Mikah Meyer is urging readers to look at what’s still nearby. still special. and far less crowded.
Meyer, a travel writer and blogger, has seen the system up close. In 2019, he became the first person to visit all National Park Service sites in a single journey—over 400 in total. His list includes national monuments. battlefields. and rivers. along with the 63 national parks most Americans picture when they map out their vacations.
In interviews tied to a road-trip mindset—before Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took his great big American road trip—Meyer told Today. Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram that Americans should begin by exploring their own backyard this summer and also “think outside the box.” The conversation turned into a regional guide to the kinds of outdoor places many people overlook.
In the Pacific Northwest, Meyer’s pick isn’t a mega-park. One of his favorites is the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon. specifically the Painted Hills Unit with red stripes that cut through the earth. He says it’s reachable within a day’s drive whether you live in Seattle or Portland. and he contrasts the experience with the crowds at Mount Rainier or Olympic National Park.
For the Southwest, he draws a line on where he thinks people should spend their time. Meyer says he would not go to Saguaro National Park. If you’re willing to go a few more hours away. he recommends Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument instead. saying the cactuses there are “way cooler looking” and that it offers more epic hikes and more epic vistas and views. He also points to its location on the border with Mexico as part of what makes it stand out.
In the Southeast. Meyer says skipping the crowds of the Everglades and heading toward the Virgin Islands can be a better move. He points to Buck Island Reef National Monument. describing it as a natural turtle nesting ground that you can snorkel underwater along a trail the Park Service has made. He says it’s not likely to be crowded because most visitors to the Virgin Islands focus on Virgin Islands National Park. “which is the majority of the island of St. John,” leaving St. Croix feeling like “the forgotten kid.” He notes that reaching Buck Island Reef requires taking a boat over from St. Croix.
If you’re in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Meyer says there’s a different kind of outdoor escape: a 72-mile river corridor called the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. He describes it as a federally protected riverfront filled with places to fish. hike. and run. and where you can see amazing wildlife—an area he says he goes to on a daily run every day.
Acadia is popular, Meyer acknowledges, but he suggests a close alternative that stays away from the heaviest crowds. He recommends the end of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. which starts in Georgia and runs all the way up to the center of Maine. He says you don’t have to hike the whole route; in just one day. you can go hike the final few miles to the center of Maine and see hikers finishing months-long treks. For him. the draw is part spectacle. part human connection—meeting the finishers. talking with people. and witnessing “people complete a historic National Park Service trail” and feel “just a little bit of that.”.
His favorite site in the entire National Park Service system, however, takes the biggest step away from the headline list. In Utah, Meyer says his top pick is Dinosaur National Monument. He says when he wrote a blog ranking all of Utah’s Park Service sites. he took flak because his number one wasn’t Zion. wasn’t Bryce. and wasn’t Arches.
The reason. he says. is that Dinosaur National Monument is a national monument. not a national park—something most people haven’t heard of. Meyer argues that if Congress upgraded it to Dinosaur National Park, it could draw millions of visitors. Right now. he says Dinosaur National Monument gets only 7 percent as many visitors as nearby Rocky Mountain National Park or Zion National Park. And he links that gap to a broader blind spot: most people think America’s park system is only the 63 parks and don’t realize it includes over 400 sites.
Even without that extra attention, Meyer says Dinosaur National Monument offers the kind of experience that sticks with you—one example he gives is the ability to touch a dinosaur bone if you would like.
Taken together, Meyer’s argument isn’t about abandoning the famous parks. It’s about confronting a simple reality: when the system is under strain and demand is predictable. the best way to see the outdoors responsibly may be to broaden the map—starting with the places people drive past because they don’t have the biggest names.
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