Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to Candidly, you're supposed to harmonize with me.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: That was great.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: No, I loved it. It was terrible.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: If you can't tell, we have a guest. Everybody.
Kay Flair is not with us today.
This is Kelly and this is Sam. Yay. Sam is back for your third time. I guess technically fourth, because the. Our Peace Corps episode was like a two parter.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: That's true. That's true.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Welcome back on the pod.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Thank you for having me, Sam.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: It's very nervous. I'm so cute. As if anyone listens to this podcast but her.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: I'm so nervous. I just don't want all the hate that is going to be resurrected our way.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: We were like, trying to just think
[00:00:57] Speaker A: about what to record.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: And so I was like, let's talk about, like, current events, like just what's happening, you know, like what's going on in our lives. But we landed on national parks.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Because Sam, I mean, just in her current event life, she just went to a national park.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Yeah. I am on a mission to get to all 63 national parks, or however many they create.
And I just got back from a trip to Alaska and then Hot Springs Spring. So now I'm up to 53 national parks. So only 10 more to go, which is crazy.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: So what's also so interesting, and I don't know if a lot of people know this, is that there's like a difference between national park sites and actual national. Just regular national parks. So there's like different lists for sure. So, like the actual national park sites, did you look that up? I don't know the exact number. Like 256 or something like that.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: It says there are over 400 protected areas by the National Park Service. Oh, interesting.
Three official national parks.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Okay, so she knows all the official. But so that like includes like national recreation areas, national seashores, national monuments, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They are like federal, federally protected land, which I think is very confusing. And I think I've talked about this before, if you're a listener, you know that like, Americans don't really know anything about their public lands. And it's very upsetting to me, but I understand there is a lot and it does get confusing. So, like, in Oregon, just alone, there's like tons of national forests, which is usda, which is definitely like completely separate from doi, Department of Interior, which is the National Park Service, and how they manage and organize their lands. But also in Oregon, we have a lot of like, state parks and just more Oregon protected areas than Like a lot of other states, I would say. But. So people just assume that I am the organizer and the recruiter for the entire state of Oregon, which is very, very false. There's only five national park locations in Oregon. And, yeah, I only recruit for none of them now because I work for the intermountain region, because they completely switched everything up. So, anyways, just a fun fact, but what about Utah? Do you know? I know there's a lot of national parks in Utah, but is there, like, a lot of state parks and things like that? Because I feel like.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Doesn't care about public land.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: No, yeah, there are. I don't. I don't know the numbers. We do have a lot of state parks. We have, like, Antelope island and Pink Sand Dunes and Strawberry Reservoir, things like that. And then we have the big five. Utah has Bryce Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, and.
What is the other one? Oh, dinosaur.
Yeah, no, that's a not.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Oh, my.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: It's a national monument. And then we have, like, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante, but, oh, my goodness, Capitol Reef is the other one of the big five.
But, yeah, you've definitely taught me a lot about the National Park Service and the difference between them, because I grew up in Ohio, and we only have Cuyahoga Valley national park, and we just always called it cvnp. And I didn't actually ever know that it was a national park or that we had national parks. It just seemed like any other state park, which maybe it shouldn't be a national park. It's just a forest.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: But, no, see, that's what's hard is, like, it is fascinating to learn the difference, though. Like, and how they're categorized. Obviously, they have to hit, like, specific criteria and everything. But, like, I do think some of the national parks should not be national parks. They should be, like, national monuments and vice versa. Like, there's a lot of monuments, and I'm like, no, this is definitely. And, like, I know it's the way they're funded and, like, the way they're managed and organized and everything like that. But it is interesting how they, like, actually what their naming convention turns out to be on some of them.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: But.
Yeah. And that kind of leads us into what we're doing today. We are listing our top favorite national parks and the worst national parks, just in our opinion. Our opinions do not represent the United States government or anything else.
We have no skin in this game.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Exactly.
And also, I just want to preface the fact that I've worked for the National Park Service for now. Going on. Well, I work for the government for almost 14 years now, but I've worked for the national park service for 12ish. Almost 12 in November.
And Sam has been to far, far, far more national parks than I have. So. Just saying.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Just as a lover, not a. Not a worker.
Fun fact. The first national park is a contentious, contentious thing. It's technically Yellowstone, but Yosemite was what set aside as like national protected land.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: It was protected land first. Yeah, by Teddy Roosevelt. What a guy.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: What a guy.
But the national parks, like agency was not created until 1916. But technically Yellowstone was created as a national park in 18 1972. So it took a while to designate somebody to manage it.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah, we had to get that president there in there, you know, to make an executive order to create it and whatever, and then probably had to create DOI and all that business to try to manage and protect it. But I don't actually know, like the whole.
Someone was actually just asking me about this in my office because I know you guys know that I sit in an office that's like for bor. Bureau of Reclamation. And no one, there's only one other NPS person in my office. And so they ask us a lot of questions about like, DOI as a whole. And like, since we've been consolidated and all this stuff and like, we just learned about like, DOI because we never had to know about it really, as like National Park Service workers, even though we're under doi. So DOI has a whole like, backstory and history also. That's really interesting. I don't know it off the top of my head, so I don't want to like, misspeak. But it's is interesting if this stuff is interesting to you all. So just a side note, but there's a lot of acronyms, so I apologize. I probably will just speak in acronyms unintentionally. Yeah, I have to like, Mateo has to remind me all the time. He's like, I don't know what that means.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: I don't know what you're saying.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: So. Yeah, but also it's so crazy, like being in a government office again and like, everyone speaks in acronyms, but they are all different, like coming from whatever bureau you work for. And so it is funny when we like get into a room and where everyone's just saying acronyms and no one knows what anyone saying. It's quite silly. So anyway, just a side note, where do you want to start? You want to go with our top or you have more facts?
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Yeah, here's a couple More facts.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: We. The national parks protects over 85 million acres across all 50 states, territories, and the D.C. area. The largest national park is Ringle St. Elias in Alaska. It's 13.2 million acres.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: I don't think I knew that.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: The smallest official national park is Hot springs, Arkansas, only 5,500 acres, which is where I just was last weekend.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: Whoa. That's crazy. Did you know that? Did you know that while you're there?
[00:08:06] Speaker A: I thought that, like, Gateway Arch would have to be the smallest, so I. I still don't fully understand how Hot Springs is smaller than that. Okay, but sure.
The tallest tree is in Sequoia National Park. General Sherman. It's the largest tree on earth by volume.
The longest cave is Mammoth Cave national park in Kentucky. Holds over 400 miles of cave passages.
The hottest is Death Valley, and it has the highest recorded temperature of 134 degrees in 2013.
Most visited is Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 11 million visitors every year.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: I feel like that's a hot take because the Smokies doesn't have any entrance stations. And, like, for a long time, they didn't have any, like, fees of any kind. So, like, I don't think that's an accurate number.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: That's driving through.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Yeah, they have to drive there to get from, like, North Carolina to Tennessee and vice versa. So I don't know. Anyways, not that that matters. It's just my. My what happens in my brain.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: And this is the most remote as Dry Tortugas National Park. It's 70 miles west of Key West, Florida, and you can only get there by seaplane or boat, which is true, but I think it's pretty dang hard to get to American Samoa or, like,
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Virgin Islands, but I guess, technically, is American Samoa not a national park? It's a memorial?
[00:09:34] Speaker A: No, I mean, it's listed on the.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Huh.
Yeah.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: So interesting. Yeah. Okay, well, should we do best or our favorites or our least favorites first?
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Maybe we should start with our least favorites.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: So I'll go first. I think maybe one of the parks that shouldn't be a park is Biscayne, which is in Florida.
They created it as a national park from my understanding, to protect the coral reefs that were there, and it did not work, and now all the coral reefs are dead, and so.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Whoa.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: There's not really much there. It's just water and, like, a dead reef.
Whoa.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: That's so bizarre. Yeah, I've never been there.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: It's pretty sad.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Damn.
Are they, like, trying to bring it
[00:10:28] Speaker A: back I think so.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: Okay. Interesting.
It says. Oh yeah, she wrote down on the dates too, that one was only created in 1980. That's pretty bonkers.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And to tag on to that, this is also on my worst national park. Started to do two in a row. But similarly, Indiana Dunes was created in 2019 and kind of a similar thing where it was like on this like, plan to like protect for a really long time, but they weren't able to, I think, get the land. And it was something that like, by the time they actually got the land and protected it, it was like kind of too late. Like the oil drilling and everything in that area had already taken a lot of the land. And so they both were like good ideas. Biscayne and Indiana Dunes. But now it's just kind of like a sad story of like what happens when we don't protect.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Yeah, very interesting. Also fascinating too. Like, I don't know if this is related. I'm always going to relate it back to this, but like more conservative states. It seems like none of their national parks got like all of the ones that you have are like kind of like later on parks.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Yeah, Interesting.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: And they are kind of all in red states, but yeah, I don't know if that's related or not.
Sam said that my worst national park list was very hot takes. So I'm just gonna.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: I think they're founded. It's just. I think a lot of people would be surprised.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm gonna start with the most hot take probably, which would be Yellowstone. I just don't understand, like, I don't understand. And like, if you know me, you know that like, I say this for a lot of things. Like I hate the drive up parks where you're just driving up, looking at something and getting back in your car and driving away.
I just don't understand. That's not a national park, in my opinion. But whatever. I mean, I know there's a lot of good like backpacking and outdoor things to do at Yellowstone. I just don't think that 99 of people actually do that stuff.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: So.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Yeah, and I didn't when I was there and that's probably why I don't like it that much.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: But it is very unique though, and it is certainly worth like protecting because it's like crazy. The different hot pots and all of the like colorful pools and all that stuff. But yeah, I mean, I'm with you. It does feel a little bit more like amusement parky than. Yeah, nature.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Like standing in line to do a nature thing is actually My nightmare, like, legitimately so.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Very true.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: Yeah, you're so right. All mine are, like, kind of Southern or, like, red state parks. And then my. My next one was Congary, which is in South Carolina.
It is a swamp, and it has some unique trees, but they're not, like, pretty. Josh and I camped there back in, like, 2018, I think, and no one else was at the campsite, and we couldn't figure out why. And we were talking to the rangers, and they're like, oh, it's supposed to. Supposed to, like, storm tonight, so just be careful.
And we got rained on, and it completely, like, flooded the entire campground. And our tent was literally, like, floating. We. Our little sleeping pads were floating in water and.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Whoa.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: So that was. That was a really fun night.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Damn. Wait, isn't that the place, too, where you, like, had to take a boat out to get to the campground or something?
[00:13:56] Speaker A: Cumberland island, which is a national seashore.
We also did. Yeah, around that time, but that was very cool.
Okay.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: Okay. My next one is Bryce, which also, I guess if you know me, you know, I don't like red rocks. And then I don't. I'm just like. I, like, get it. Like, I definitely do. Like, they are so unique and stuff, but, like, I just don't think they're. I'm, like, much more a tree person person, a big mountain person, than a red rock person. So Bryce is very cool for one second. Again, drive up driveway, park there. There's, like, two hikes in the entire park. Like, this. The stargazing, that was incredible out there. But we had, like. It's so far from things, too. We had, like, driven out there and then, like, didn't know what to do. So we kind of ended up staying there for, like, three night. Like, two days. Three nights. And we're like, oh, my God, this was the worst idea we've ever had. So, yeah, I feel like it was just like a. And you're in the middle of nowhere. There's not, like, anywhere you could, like, go hang out or, like, do other things. I don't know. Anyway, so I didn't love it.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: There is not a lot around there that's true. But, yeah, I mean, yeah, there's definitely a pattern to yours where you just don't, like, you. You want to actually be, like, immersed in nature. You don't want to just, like, be able to drive your car right up to it.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Like, look at it. Which makes sense.
Gateway Arch.
Hey, I went there this year. St. Louis is a City. And they have the worst pizza I've ever tasted. No offense.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: And it was actually much cooler than I thought it was going to be. But I do not see. See how it is like a national park in that it is not nature. It is a building with a very unique elevator system.
Do you think it's worth seeing? Don't think you can call it a national park. Interesting.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Yeah. I have always wanted to go there because in Peace Corps, one of our good friends was from St. Louis, and she always would, like, be like, we're both from national parks. I'd be like, they're way different.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: These are not the same.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Anyway, so I always just, like, think about her whenever I think about the arch. But my next one is rocky. Okay. Like, it is mountains. There's mountain goats there. I get it again. It's like, an hour and a half to drive into the park, and, like, there's a million people. It's so hard. The entrance stations are so hard to get into, ma'.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Am. So is Yosemite. That is not a good argument.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: No, 100%. But, like, the fact that they claim that, like, Denver is a mountain, like, when they. You look up, like, the top mountain towns in, like, the US or whatever, like, Denver pops up and it's like, because Rocky Mountain National Park, I'm like, that is, like, an hour and a half to two hours away. True. There's people everywhere. Like, yes, very similar to Yosemite, 100%, but I don't have the skin in the game for Rocky Mountain. Like, I don't know. Like, the backpacking trip I did was, like, fine. I don't know. I just, like, didn't have a great experience there. So, Yeah, I feel like I just was, like, very underwhelmed for it being, like, Colorado's, like, best national park. When you think of Colorado as such, like, an outdoorsy state and, like, top outdoor towns and, like.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: I don't know. What were your thoughts on it?
[00:17:29] Speaker A: I've only been there once, and I don't really feel like I've given it a good shot. It was, like, March, so everything was still very much covered in snow, and.
But, yeah, I was kind of, like, underwhelmed, but I. I definitely need to go back in the summer. It's just really, like, you know, you have to get the reservation. You have to, like, plan it, like, months in advance. It's tough with how popular the parks have gotten where it's, like, there's no spontaneity, there's no pretending that, like, I don't know, you have to, like, plan everything down to the minute to get to do what you actually want to do. And that's kind of hard.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Indiana Dunes. No, I already talked about that one. Yeah. And that brings me to Hot Springs.
So Hot Springs was actually a lot older than I thought it was. It was created as a National park in 1921. I thought Bill Clinton, he's from there, so I just assumed he made it a national park. But no, it was. It was way older than him.
The parks are over, like, some natural hot springs, obviously, and they were used for medicinal purposes, and they were very, very popular back in the day before, like, penicillin was widely used and other painkillers. So, like, it has some historical value. There's only 26 miles of actual trails in the park, which is very small.
And the park itself is mostly covered with bath houses. Like, there are six different bath houses. Only two are still in operation.
So again, it's just like, not really.
I could see it as, like, a historic monument or like, something like that, but it doesn't really seem like a. You're in nature.
We did get to go to the traditional bath house, and you have, like, an attendant that, like, puts you in.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Are they wearing a park uniform?
[00:19:26] Speaker A: No.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Oh, funny.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: No, I don't actually think they're. That's the other funny thing is they have any in the park, but they're not park employees that run the bath house.
Yeah. And so, yeah, you just have this attendant who, like, puts you in a bathtub, and then you just soak in there for a little bit. And then you went into a little steam box, like the one where your neck is, like, sticking out.
And then you're in a sitz bath. So just your butt is being soaked, and then they wrap you up in some towels and you lay there for 20 minutes. I mean, it was nice. It was relaxing.
We decided to go when it was 92 degrees, which is exactly when you want to be in a hot spring. But, yeah, just not a.
Not a national park vibe.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah, fascinating.
Yeah. I mean, I just, like, looked at her location one day, and I was like, why the are you doing in Hot Springs?
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Why are you in Arkansas?
[00:20:22] Speaker B: Like, Jesus Christ. Because that was last weekend, and she was coming here this weekend. So I was like, dear Lord, woman, you're going to run yourself into the ground.
But I'm also just, like, feeling so, like, low energy these days. I don't know. I'm ready for fall. Fall be fallen. But the weather has actually been really nice for her visit, which is really cool. So we're going to go floating after this. We have to do our homework, and then we get to go play outside. So.
But we went on a walk this morning, which was also really lovely, but.
Okay, I'm gonna do my last two just, like, together.
So Joshua Tree, I've been there twice in both times was, like, very similar in that we, like, went there to camp in the campground because, like, the campground is really cool and, like, the stargazing out there is really beautiful.
There's just nothing to do if you're not a climber, if you're not, like, super. I mean, you can, like, go look at the cactus. You can go look at the Joshua trees. There's like two hikes, three hikes, maybe at the very most that are like one or two mile, three miles at the most.
But, yeah, just not my kind of park. Like.
Yeah, again, like, if you're, like, a boulder climber, like, there's a lot to do and, like, people just, like camping within the huge, like, rocks and the trees and stuff, but I just don't see the appeal. Also, I'm not a desert person, so I don't know.
Yeah, but that one I didn't know was not created until 1994.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: That's pretty late.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like that's late because I feel like I was there as a very, very young kid and because all of our friends, parents, like, climbed and anyways, I remember it, like, jumping rain on us. Anyways, I think that's the first place
[00:22:01] Speaker A: that I, like, really understood why people liked the Grateful Dead.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: I mean, everyone talks about, yeah, like, going out there and doing drugs.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: I wasn't even doing drugs. I was just like, oh, okay, I get it. I get it. I got it.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: And then, like, the other side of the world, very, very different, but Acadia is, like, pretty similar to me, where, like, Maine is so small in itself, and so it feels like a very small park. But they, like, do pack in a lot of stuff. So, like, there's, like, the ocean and mountains at the same time. So it is, like a weird dichotomy kind of park. But I just, like, again, like, their mountains are not mountains. I'm so sorry. Like, I don't mean to be a dick, but they're, like, 400ft tall. And.
Yeah, like, one of the main hike. Again, there's only like, three or four hikes there. One of the main hikes is called, like, the Beehive. And you're Basically just climbing up a boulder, and then you stand on top of the boulder. I'm like, this is not a mountain.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: But the lobster. You can get such good food and blueberries and.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah. I don't know. I just, like, don't think that would. I mean, I'm not saying it shouldn't be a national park. Like, it's very cool that it's protected, but. Yeah, I just wouldn't ever, like, choose to go back there. I feel like if it's not in
[00:23:14] Speaker A: the Sierras, it's not a national park.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: I know. Unfortunately. I'm so sorry.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: It's okay.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: But.
Okay, let's see. Do we want to just go to the.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Our top, our tops.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Okay, so those are all our, like, ones that we all would say pass on if respectfully given the chance to go there.
But now we're gonna go through our tops. And I feel like it's also funny because, like, we do have some of the same. But I feel like our lists are very different. Again, Sam's been to more than me, so she has a lot broader of a spectrum of, like, things.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. I don't know. I mean, I feel like I'm very much in agreement with all of yours, though. They're all great.
First one on my list, Big Bend national park in Texas. It's on the border of Mexico. Very unexpected. They have a lot of different, like, climates there or microclimates. Saw a roadrunner. We saw black bear. There are all these cute little.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: No, not black bears.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a Mexican black bear.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: Oh. Oh, oh, sorry. I thought it was just called a Mexican black bear.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: Oh, I don't know. I guess. I don't know,
[00:24:20] Speaker B: but they look different.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: I saw a little black bear. I saw a road Runner.
And then all the little javelinas. The. The feral pigs are so cute. Apparently. They're, like, really terrible.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: The environment, but they're so cute.
Yeah. Just had no expectations for it. Lots of really pretty hikes and just very remote, really good stargazing.
You could literally, like, wave to people in Mexico on the other side, which was funny, too.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Just, like, across the river, right? Yeah. That's so crazy.
I had friends who worked there for a little while, and they were like. It's just so crazy.
They would have, like, their trucks stolen, and, like, people would just, like, be walking into their, like, job site, you know, just had just, like, crossed the border, and they'd just be like, hey.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: Like, I don't know.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: It's just, like, such an Interesting experience, you know?
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: So they can't leave any doors unlocked at that national park. That's for sure.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: That makes sense.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
My first one, I think feel like, is maybe I'm not allowed to say this one because it's not really fair, but obviously Yosemite, like, duh.
I just feel like I've talked about for some of my worst. I think that mountains are real national parks. Being able to get away from people, even though there's a lot of people in Yosemite, I guess just like, knowing the ins and outs of the park is really the key to Yosemite, to it being still on your top list, because getting away from the humans and actually finding nature and getting to do all the cool stuff. But I just love the Sierra so much.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Very important to me.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: Yosemite is always in forever. My number one. I feel like you.
Like, when we got back from Peace Corps, we, like, went there and you showed me it and your home, and it was, like, so lovely and so cool to get to see. And every time I start to question, like, oh, maybe it was just, like, that experience, like, and those memories, it's not really that cool or whatever. And then every time I go back, I'm like, nope, this is the best. It's so beautiful. It's. There's nothing like it. The granite and the lakes and just, like, such good hikes there. It's just such a magical place.
[00:26:38] Speaker B: We did get to go last summer together again, which was nice.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: That's really cool.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And then you guys went one time too, right? Yeah.
Cool.
Okay. So that was your second one.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: You're gonna name that one. Okay.
My next one, I guess, just, like, we'll go with this one because we're rolling with the Sierras, but I feel like Seki, Seki, whatever you want to call it. Sequoia Kings is very important to me just because, like, I. Again, I love the Sierras, but also Tsiki is, like, very diverse. Like, there is. Kings is more of, like, Yosemite, where it's just, like, big granite walls, like a big valley, but it's very, very remote and, like, hard to get to. Whereas Sequoia is more about, like, the trees and a little bit more touristy, a little bit harder to get away from people. But, like, it has, like, the caves, and they both have, like, a decent amount of hikes and stuff, but it doesn't feel as remote as Yosemite. Whereas, like, it's just, like, an hour drive outside of Fresno, which feels kind of Crazy. And then getting to go to the other side. You can access it from the other side of the Sierras as well. Just like Yosemite. And go up, like, the 395 and go up that side, and there's, like, no people on that side of the park, which is, like, so, so cool.
There's this hike that I really have been wanting to do. Well, we still need to do the jmt, but Sam and I. Or like, I showed Sam. I don't know, you probably already saw it, but there's like a hike that goes basically, like, through Sequoia Kings over to the other side, and you, like, pop out and, like, the Whitney side, and it's only, like, 100 miles. And it would be, like, such a cool backpacking trip. And I would love to do that one as well.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: But anyway, so Siki is my number two.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Another one for me is Haleakala national park in Hawaii on Maui.
Very, very unique. Like, volcanic rock, very otherworldly looking, unique plants that I had never seen before.
Crazy birds.
And then there's, like, at sunrise and sunset, you are over.
Let's see.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: The.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: The top is over 10,000ft. So if you're up on top of the park in the evening or early morning, you're above the clouds. And so the sunset and sunrises are, like, really spectacular there.
Just felt very, very unique, very otherworldly. It's very unexpectedly cool.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: It's exciting that that's on her top list, because we're gonna go do that when we go to Hawaii in November.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: So when we do this, just be prepared for it to be on Kelly's worst.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
No, I'm excited. I was, like, pretty bummed to not get to do some of the other ones as well, because, like, I've serviced Pacific west in the Pacific Islands for, you know, the last 10 years or so. At one point, I was, like, the main point of contact for, like, Haleakala and Habo and Pearl and American SOA and everything. And.
And, yeah. And so they are, like, tough parks, but they are very close to my heart, so I'm excited. But, yeah, it'll be cool to do at least get to do one, knock one of them off. I've already been to Havo. That's only Hawaiian island. I have been on the main island, Big Island. So, yeah, it'll be cool to go to two more.
Okay. My next one is again, just, like, I feel a very big park, but also very remote park. Olympic is kind of hard to get to. I Mean from Seattle, it is like a three hour drive only, but it is like a lot of the park is not really accessible. So it feels really cool to me. Backpacking in there is really cool. Camping there is just so beautiful. It's just so like rainforesty and wild. And then of course you have like the ocean access as well. And so it's just like the weird rainforest on the ocean action that really gets me.
But I just think it's like very close to my heart. Mostly because I got flown up there all the time for work because I was the main point of contact for Olympic. For a long time I was HR assistant and so I recruited a lot for them and so they would just fly me up and I got to see a lot of parts of the park that I don't think a lot of the public gets to see because I got to go in like Guppy Riggs into the back roads and see a lot of their projects and kind of understand like where they're coming from as like a staff personnel perspective and like what we needed to do in order to make things go round for them. So I think it's just really special to me in that way too that I got to see it for work.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: So, yeah, it is very, very crazy how like you can be. I mean, the park is like a bit spread out, but just how distinctly different all the different areas are. It's really cool, but I am very salty that I never saw a banana slug there.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: It's definitely their fault.
Tagging on to that. Another Washington park, North Cascades.
So beautiful. So many like stunning alpine lakes, bears, beautiful trees. It was like very misty, like fog and just absolutely beautiful park. Pretty wet, pretty rainy when we were there, but would love to go back and do some good backpacking trips there. We did not get to spend enough time. Just stunning.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a duty station there that I have always wanted to hike to. It's like along a lake and the only access to it is either to take a boat or to hike into it. And so it just seems really cool and remote. The park is very remote in itself, but I've never been there, so I cannot really speak to it. But I have a lot of friends that work there and I know a lot of people that work there because I have worked with them for so long. But it's a very. Seems like a very cool park. I'm very excited. It's on our bucket list to do for next summer, but we'll see if we get there. Yeah, I also really want to go to the Tetons again. I went there when I was a kid, but I like just remember big pointy mountains. I don't remember too much about it, so I don't want to speak too much to that one. But I am servicing them like I am their main point of contact, contact now. And so I'm very excited. I'm like, please just like fly me out there.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: Yeah, send her there. I'll meet you there.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it'll be really cool.
My next one is going to be Death Valley. I think that again I said I wasn't a desert person, but I feel like Death Valley is just so otherworldly that it doesn't really count because there's just so much packed into that weird ass park and it's just such an anomaly. Like I don't understand how it's there and I don't really understand why it's there.
And I think it's really cool that we were able to. Actually I am kind of surprised that it was only saved in 1994. That seems.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Double check that because that means that that and Joshua Tree were like protected at the same time. Yeah, that's really late.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And the fact that it's in California, I mean California is just so diverse. Is like, is pretty cool. But like, if you think about Northern California, like humble area versus like Death Valley, that's just so bizarre that that's all the same state, you know?
[00:33:57] Speaker A: And okay, so it was a national monument from 1933 on, but it wasn't made a national park until 1994. Okay, so it was protected.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Wow.
Yeah, it's just also so cool.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: Bill Clinton.
[00:34:10] Speaker B: Oh, man, what a guy.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: He's everywhere.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: He literally is. Okay, you guys. Also, Sam got to go to his like museum while she was in Hot Springs, obviously because he's from Hot Springs. But did you know, like, I learned this yesterday for the first time. He didn't actually step down after he got impeached.
I'm shocked. I legitimately thought that he. They like voted him out. I mean, they acquitted him and everything, so. But then he refused to step down. Like, what a guy, you know, because like our current president is doing all kinds of things and he's like, I just got a blowjob. My dude's like, why am I having to step down? What president?
[00:34:48] Speaker A: President hasn't gotten a blow job. Literally someone else during it. I. I ask you. I think every single one.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: Any hosers? Just in case you were wondering, Just
[00:34:56] Speaker A: in case you need a little U.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: S History if you forgot, because we were babies at that time. But anyways, yeah, Death Valley is my number four.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: Okay. And then top. This is the same for both of us. Our fifth top national park, Channel Islands. We had the pleasure of going to this one together.
2020. 2021. It was somewhere around then.
[00:35:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:22] Speaker A: We had very low expectations.
Take a ferry out there. And it was so cool. Like, you feel completely alone.
And it's just, like, lots of trails, beaches. Obviously, because you're on an island, you can do sea kayaking around some caves there. There are these little baby foxes that were so cute, and they're, like, the apex predator on the island. And they're like, I think they said, the size of a loaf of bread.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: Yeah, they're tiny.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: It was just.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: They were little thieves, though.
They were. So we actually ended up getting to backpack on the island, like, backpack, quote, unquote, because, like, we rode a ferry across, but we, like, camped on the island, which was really cool. You had to bring everything, obviously. It's, like, very primitive and whatever, but it was just so cool that we got to, like, stay on the island and, like, hang out with them. We did play a lot of games and everything, but we did, like, hike around, like, the whole island. We went out to this point for sunset and, like, we went and hung out on the beaches. Yeah, it was just so cool and diverse. And then, like, the history was actually really interesting as well. Like, they have a lot of really interesting species, obviously, because, like, when the islands were connected to California and then when they got removed, like those. The little tiny foxes and, like, a bunch of birds and things like that all, like, kind of evolved into these new creatures that are really interesting and, like, highly studied.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: Yeah, there are a few. I forget how many actual islands there are, but they're hard to get to. Like, the one we went to, I think, was the most visited. And then the other ones, the fairies, only visit, like, seasonally and not every season single day. So it was. Yeah, very. Don't sleep on Channel Islands.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: Yeah, very cool. It was very neat. And just from, like, my experience with recruitment and stuff, we hire diving biological science technicians every year for Channel Islands. And so that's really neat, too, is that they're actually, like, keeping tabs on just, like, the local ocean. And I don't actually know what's down there because we didn't really learn that much about that. But it is really cool that they actually, like, still have those type of positions that aren't, like, you know, the Hawaiian Islands or the American, American Samoan, things like that. But I will say what's. What was also really interesting was like in the early 1900s, there was like farmers on the islands. And so there's like a bunch of like olive groves.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: And like sheep, little things. And so like they had like boated over to these islands to like live on these islands and like bee farmers and herders and whatever. And.
Yeah, it's just so weird, like why that seems so difficult, but, like, also really cool.
[00:38:05] Speaker A: So there are eight islands, they call it the Galapagos of North America. And there are 145 plant and animal species that don't exist anywhere else in the world.
Very cool.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a cool park.
But yeah, like we said, I think it was just like the most unexpected expected that we really liked and we
[00:38:24] Speaker A: got to go there together. So it was awesome.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: It was very cool. Well, those are our top top 10, I would say.
I mean, we have two of the same, but.
Top eight.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: Top eight. Yeah, we do have a couple honorable mentions. I mean, 63 parks, there's. It's a lot to just narrow down to five good ones.
I had Yellowstone and Death Valley on there. We've already kind of discussed those.
I do think Yellowstone is pretty cool, but
[00:38:54] Speaker B: we both think the Smokies are very cool. We both think Glacier is very cool in very different ways. I guess. The Smokies is just again, very unique.
It's a drive through park. Like the amount of bears, like, they're not lying about the amount of bears that you see. Like they're everywhere.
And it's just cool that it goes across so many different states. Also, like Tennessee and just like Dollywood, like that whole part of the world is just like so interesting.
Yeah, it's just like such deep rooted history that I feel like we don't really get on the west coast. That I like, really crave sometimes when like going to a national park and stuff.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: I agree with you. It feels very, like old and that sounds stupid, but like, I don't know, like mystical, magical kind of. Especially when it's like foggy over the Smokies or smoky over the Smokies. It's. Yeah, it's a pretty unique space. It's very cool.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: But also it just like has a lot of different things as well. Like there's lots of hiking trails and.
But there's just like really cool swimming holes and like the Pigeon river runs through there. And it's very special to me because Lindsay was a raft guide there and that's where she learned to be a raft guide. And so I got to visit her at that time. And that was my first introduction to the Smokies. And so it's just so cool. Like, when I again, was the point of contact for the Smokies for very long, for a couple of years.
I got flown out there a couple of times as well and just got to see a different side of it, like being the main point of contact. And then I actually was there to help implement the.
We hired a bunch of employees using the new money when they started implementing the, like, fee program, which was not very well liked by the locals and the passer throughs, but yeah, it actually helped the park so so much with reven and fees. And so they're able to hire a bunch of positions to help with staffing. So anyways, very close to my heart also. What's that?
What's. The Gatlinburg is also so bizarre because I think it's so similar to Peru in that at the base of the. Of Machu Picchu, there is this little town, like, it's called Aguas Calientes that you see stay in before you, like, go up or whatever. If you take the train in, that's like a whole separate story. But Aguas Calientes is like Disneyland at the bottom of, like, the most precious. Like.
Yeah, America. Not American. Like, united.
Oh, my God. Why can't I think worldly, whatever.
[00:41:27] Speaker A: Like a national or a. Yeah, exactly. A wonder of the world wonder.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
And so it's so bizarre. But anyways, Gatlinburg is kind of similar to that. And like, it's like.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Like, that's what I kind of meant
[00:41:38] Speaker B: by, like, the Dollywood situation where, like, Gatlinburg, like, definitely is supported by the tourists that come for the Smokies. But, like, it's so bizarre and that. It's just like flashy and like bright lights and like, whatever. And it's like right in the heart and like the main part of, like,
[00:41:55] Speaker A: the Smokies, which is so fascinating. It is funny, like, what humans think that other humans want to see. It's like they're coming here for nature. Let's reenact some wars and sell some, like, terrible food and put in a
[00:42:07] Speaker B: Ripley's Believe it or not right in
[00:42:09] Speaker A: the middle of that museum. Yeah, totally.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: I don't know. Anyways, it's funny. I do love it.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd love to go back to the Smokies. It's been a while.
And then I just added key knife. Ys that one's close in my mind, because we were just in Alaska recently in August, and what a. What a crazy, unique place for nature. We. We saw so many things. We saw humpback whales and porpoises and puffins and jellyfish and. Fun fact, if you see a group of jellyfish all together, it's called a smack.
I know. It was magical looking. You just see this, like, sea green discoloration out in the water, and then when you come up on it, it's just like. Like, thousands and thousands of jellyfish. It's called a snack.
[00:42:59] Speaker B: Very cool.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: And then, like, the glacier there and seeing, like, the glacier calving off and, like, breaking, and it sounds like thunder all around you. Like, I don't know. Alaska was cool, y'.
[00:43:09] Speaker B: All.
[00:43:10] Speaker A: Like, I guess people weren't lying when they talked about it for all these years.
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Well, I guess I'll have to give it a second go.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Matt really wants to go, so.
[00:43:21] Speaker A: It's very pretty.
[00:43:22] Speaker B: Maybe we'll make it someday. Wow.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: We just talked about that for, like, 45.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: I know. That was a lot longer than I thought it was gonna be. I thought it was gonna be real short, but it's crazy how many parks
[00:43:32] Speaker A: that you've, like, worked on. That's really cool. Like, I know you've moved around a lot in nps, but it's great that you have a connection to so many of them.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel.
I do think it was, like, the best career move I have ever made was leaving PWR in, like, 2021, I think it was. And I took a job in the Southeast, and I got introduced to so many different things. I had never worked on, like, battlefields and the Smokies. Being the main point of contact for the Smokies was really great because they were so appreciative. They needed a lot of help. They hadn't had someone help them in a really long time. Anyways, yeah, I just got introduced to all these different parks, like I said, because, like, the south east is just, like, much different than the west and the southwest parks. And so I just learned a lot, and it was really cool. I did end up eventually coming back to pwr because I. It's a long story, but, yeah, so, yeah, I have gotten to work just, like, in my specialist career at a bunch of different parks, thankfully. But, yeah, also, it's just so interesting, like, the way that they organize and manage us and move us around and then getting to work with hiring managers, and then when hiring managers work, move around to different parks. That's also so fun because I just had some hiring managers from Pinnacles to start at the Grand Canyon, and now I work with imr, which is with the Grand Canyon, part of the Grand Canyon. And Pinnacles is pwr, obviously, California. Anyways, and so it's so fun. He's like, oh, my God. Thank God you're here. I was so sad when you left pwr. I was like, okay, first of all, I did not leave. They took me away from it, but whatever.
But, yeah, so it's kind of fun because NPS is so small, and it, like, we need more staff, obviously, but it is fun to, like, get to know everybody. And I do miss Yosemite greatly, but I also don't miss hiring for them at all because they're pains in the asses. So, yeah, feels good to be removed a little bit from PWR and learn new parks. So, yeah, getting used to all these IMR perks now.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: So, yeah, we'll see.
[00:45:37] Speaker B: The only one I haven't worked out now in is the Midwest region, so. Don't know anything about them.
It's okay.
[00:45:44] Speaker A: Maybe you don't want to. I don't know. Yeah.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: Any hoosers?
Do you want to talk about anything else about our trip? We're gonna go floating right now, you guys. So. Yeah, let us go. No, I'm just kidding. We're doing this on our own accord, but.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:45:59] Speaker B: Kayfire wasn't gonna be here with us today because she is living her best life and she needs a break, you know? And really, she's just. It's Sunday, and I have tomorrow off, and so I just feel like we have more time to be able to do this. And it's fun when Sam is visiting and she wants to be on the pod, even though she didn't and I made her be on the pod.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I was very nervous. I'm still nervous.
Don't come at me.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: Okay. Should we do gratitudes and grievances?
[00:46:27] Speaker B: Yeah, we really don't have to, though.
[00:46:30] Speaker A: At least gratitude.
[00:46:31] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: I'm grateful for you hosting me and Ben. Ben is so beautiful, and I love you so much. And thank you for taking me to do all the fun things and for this beautiful weather that we're gonna get to go be outside and float. And obviously for the national park system and all the people who work for it, even though y' all are going through it right now, I really appreciate you and all America has done to protect federal land, even though it's being dismantled.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Fight the good fight.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: But there are lots of good people that still care about it. And I appreciate all of you.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you. I am very grateful for you and that you want to fly out here because. Yeah, we really weren't sure what we were gonna do. We had intentions of going to Idaho originally when we talked about getting together or going backpacking or something. And, you know, just like with all these changes to work life and everything, I just don't have any leave anymore because they make me work five days a week. But it's okay. We're fine. Everything's fine.
But I'm very grateful that you ended up coming out here and wanting to spend time in Ben because you have probably spent more time in Bend than anywhere else.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Yeah, Ben's great. I love it here.
[00:47:41] Speaker B: Point in time, I think, at home.
But I'm grateful that you wanted to come and hang out with me. And I love you so much. And I mean, we were not very good at our quarterly hangouts this year, so. And that's my fault.
[00:47:54] Speaker A: No. So we're going to get back on it.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
Anyways, we already have plans for next year, so we're going to go do the Oregon coast and try to maybe do some fishing and do that whole situation.
So we'll see. But yeah, you'll hear more from us later.
[00:48:12] Speaker A: Thanks for having me, everybody.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: We love you all so much.
Bye.
[00:48:17] Speaker A: Bye.
[00:48:18] Speaker B: That's all for today's episode. Hope you enjoyed listening as much as we love you. Follow us on Instagram @candidly30 see you next week.
That's all for today's episode. Hope you enjoyed listening as much as we love you. Follow us on Instagram nily30. See you next week, bitches.
