Episode 158: U.S. National Parks from Yosemite to Acadia

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Paige: You are listening to “Coffee with Gringos”. I’m Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And today we are going to talk about national parks in the US. There are officially 63 national parks and just so our listeners know that there are many more parks in the US and those are state parks. But the national parks, there's only 63 of them. They're the ones that are federally protected by the US and they're pretty special and they're all over the country, which is great. They're in the West, the South, the East, the North, all over. Me and Ian are going to talk about some of our favorite ones we've been to and ones that we would love to go to someday. So, check out that audio guide and transcript online at www.dynamicenglish.cl. Okay, Ian—we're both hikers. National parks are definitely something we want to do in this lifetime is probably go to all 63 of them. To kick us off, talk about one that you really want to go to the Thai Heinrich list in the US.

Ian: Yeah, so like you mentioned, there are a number of them that we would love to go see. And unfortunately, just because it's so hard to get around to all of them, like you mentioned, that they're all over the country and many even up in Alaska, which is very hard to get to, obviously, but there are so many that I have on my bucket list to knock off, and I have a lot to go. I've probably only been to a few on the list so, there are a lot that I have on my that I'm setting my sights on. So, I think we'd be remiss to not mention one of the biggest and most well-known ones that are part of the National Park Service, which is Yosemite National Park in California, which is just very emblematic for its huge granite walls, these enormous mountains, some forests in there, as well, up in the High Sierra mountains of California. And this is so famous because it was actually one of the first national parks introduced into the service. It was first protected in 1864—a long time ago and, like I mentioned, it's got about 1,200 square miles of deep valleys, meadows, huge sequoia trees, and much more. It’s actually considered sort of a mecca for North American rock climbers. There are so many of these amazing walls like Half Dome, El Capitan, and people flock from all over the world to get there to do amazing climbing. I do some bouldering, some very low-level rock climbing. I'd love to go there and do it. I'm not quite sure I have what it takes to do the high walls but it's definitely a place where it's been on my list for a long time and at some point, in my life, I'm going to have to go there and check it off the list.

Paige: Same. I think that's one that's very high on my list. I mean, I love the mountains and it just looks gorgeous and you can do these long day hikes and multi-day hikes. I don't think I'll probably try to climb El Capitan. Definitely not. I watched that documentary recently about the guy who ascended it with no ropes.

Ian: Alex Honnold?

Paige: Yeah, which looks insane. I don't get how he had the courage to do that but also just the strength. I think the hardest part about rock climbing is the fingers. I don't get how you have the strength to hold yourself with just your fingers and have the grip. That’s very impressive.

Ian: It's amazing. I just get nervous and my hands start sweating when I just watch the videos of him doing that and so, it's amazing enough to climb those walls with ropes, but to do them without ropes is crazy. So, I won't be doing that. Maybe I'll check it out when I go there.  

Paige: For sure. Yeah, the last one that was surprising to me that I haven't gone to and it's probably, I think the closest park to where I grew up and yet I never went. It's about a five-hour drive north of Boston that's called Acadia National Park and that is in Maine and Maine is the most eastern state in the US. It's a very big, underpopulated rural state and Acadia is right on the Atlantic Ocean, and it's gorgeous. It’s on an island called Desert Island and what's really nice about it is when you often go to a lot of national parks, regardless of the US, probably anywhere in the world, they're very remote which is a good thing. But I think what was nice about Acadia is it’s in a town—Desert Island—has a school, it has shops and houses and then you're just in a national park. So, you can, more or less, have grown up in a national park. That’s how close the access is to civilization so, it's very accessible. Bar Harbor is the largest town near it and it's very close and it's gorgeous. It's your quintessential New England town with shops by the water and nice restaurants and bars and so I think Acadia is a very fun park to visit if you like a mix. If you don't want to be in the wilderness, you want to be able to be near restaurants and bars, but also go on some day hikes, because the hikes are very manageable. I went last year and we were able to do a couple of three-hour hikes which is perfect. Very family-friendly and inclusive as opposed to East how many I think is more nine-hour hikes and probably several day hikes. So, Acadia is definitely a good first national park if you're just dipping your toes into hiking.

Ian: That's a great thing to mention. I think too how some places are much more accessible than others. So, like you said, it's nice to have accessibility to where maybe if you're kind of a beginner, you want to dip your toes into that world you can check it out, but you have the convenience of going back to a town. And this is different from other places where perhaps you have to drive four or five hours into the wilderness or you have to really get to that remoteness in order to enjoy it. So, it's nice to have the best of both worlds and the situation with that park. Another one that I think is at least really well known in the US and is interesting because it's not in California, it's not in Alaska, it's not in a lot of these places where we see a lot of these parks, and this is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which is located in Tennessee and North Carolina. Just sort of the Midwest and the South in the US and it's really gorgeous. It’s these rolling hills, these kinds of smaller mountains, and they're just covered in beautiful trees and rivers and streams. It’s a really amazing place for hiking, for seeing animals like bears, otters, deer, elk, foxes. It’s an amazing place for the flora and fauna sightseeing and is, like I said, located in a part of the US that I think gets forgotten a lot. It's kind of tucked down in this area of Tennessee, North Carolina, where you don't have a lot of big cities and the accessibility is nice, even though it's not right in a city. It’s not a place where you have to go hours and hours and hours to visit. I know several people who have been there, just because it's located pretty close to Missouri where I'm from, and has a pretty similar geography, but I have never had the pleasure of being able to visit them. Interesting enough, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is actually the most visited of the national parks every year. A big reason for this is there are no entrance fees, and it's very accessible to get in from nearby towns like Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, so a mix between the best of both worlds like we mentioned earlier. So, a lot of people go and visit that park and I hope to be one of them in the near future.

Paige: Hey, Ian. Did you know besides the podcast, Dynamic English offers one-on-one classes with native teachers from all over the world?

Ian: Really? But isn't it just a bunch of grammar lessons?

Paige: Nope, it's completely discussion-based and focuses on topics the student is interested in.

Ian: That's amazing. But what if I'm not living in Chile?

Paige: No problem. Dynamic does online classes. You can be living anywhere.

Ian: Great, but I'm a little intimidated to take the class alone. Can I join with a friend?

Paige: Of course. Dynamic offers group classes of up to four. Plus, for the next month, Coffee with Gringos listeners get 10% off individual or group classes. So go online to www.dynamicenglish.cl and mention that you are a listener and get your discount.

Ian: Well, I'm sold. Sign me up.

Paige: The next one I want to talk about, I actually didn't even know existed, even though I think it's one of the prettiest parks out of the bunch. It's called Glacier National Park, and that's in Montana. Honestly, for our Chilean listeners, Argentinian listeners, it looks a lot like the Patagonia region which is great. I think for people who live in the US, they think of Montana, they're cowboys but you have this park that has glaciers, these pristine blue lakes, and lagoons, and waters. I had a best friend from college who just went and she showed me her photos and it looks like she was in Patagonia and she was in Montana, US.

Ian: Yeah, I've heard great things about it there. It’s always one of those big names on the list that gets brought up. I actually had a good friend of mine visit a few national parks within the last year and he told me Glacier Park was amazing. An absolute bucket lister. I’ve got to go check it out. So, very high up there on the list for me as well.

Paige: Have you been to Patagonia yet?

Ian: I still have not yet. That’s at the top of my list for here in South America.

Paige: I know, you have to do that. When I saw her photos, I was like this looks like Patagonia, which is so beautiful. So, anything that can come remotely close to that is worth visiting.  

Ian: Absolutely. Another one to touch upon that I think is interesting because it's different from a lot of the ones on the list because we've mentioned Glacier National Park, we've mentioned Yosemite, we've mentioned the Great Smoky Mountains, and all of these have more of a mountainous sort of forest, river, more mainland feels to it. And the one that I'm going to mention is the one that I went to recently that we mentioned on a previous podcast which is in Maui, Hawaii, and it is the Haleakala National Park. Which again is different because you have very different geography and climate. So, you have a very tropical feel to it. You have beaches, you have these volcano craters, and it's absolutely amazing. Me and my family, we went there, we checked out the crater, we went to some of the volcanic streams. It’s not the biggest park that I've ever been to, but it was just amazing to go there and see the different side of things—right on the beach, very tropical, lots of animals, and lots of greenery. Unfortunately, because we went during the peak of a COVID surge, we weren't able to see a lot of things because they were closed in the park which is pretty unfortunate, because it would have been nice to see the sunrise at the top of the volcano. It's actually been deemed the greatest sunrise in all the national parks. It’s not the easiest to get to because you have to get to Hawaii, obviously, but if you're out there, I highly recommend it. It was great going to visit.

Paige: Well, I guess you'll just have to go back to catch that sunrise.

Ian: I guess so. Any excuse to go back to Hawaii, I'll take it.

Paige: I'm really not a morning person so, I find beauty in the sunrise but I hate waking up for it. And when we were in Acadia last year with my college friends, we rented this really nice house on the water, but we were about an hour from this spot in Acadia where it's called Cadillac Mountain. And it's supposed to be, because of where it is located in the northeast, it's the first place to see the sun when it rises. So, it's like, “be the first to see the sunrise” and we were like, oh, we're going to do that one of those days and then we would have had to wake up, I think at like three-thirty, in order to actually get their park because you have to hike up the mountain. So yeah, we had to wake up insanely early. We were like you want to wake up and watch it from our porch? And we're like, okay.

Ian: A little bit more convenient that way.

Paige: Yeah, so we didn't end up doing it and I will say the sunrise was still gorgeous off the water where we were, but maybe another day I'll have the motivation to actually wake up and do that one.

Ian: Yeah, with enough coffee maybe it'll be possible.

Paige: Yeah, there are 63 national parks. We've only been to a handful and there are many more we want to go to and we just talked about a few. So, check out that guide, explore some more if you haven't been to the US. I know that everyone wants to go to New York City and LA but the national parks are where they're at, so you should really plan your trip around those there. They’re gorgeous and they're all so unique. So again, if you get lost, check out that audio guide and transcript online at www.dynamicenglish.cl. As always, thanks for listening.

Ian: We'll see you next time.

Ian: “Coffee with Gringos” officially has over one hundred episodes and we are among the “Top Podcasts in Chile”. And that’s thanks to you. But we are always working to grow our audience so make sure to rate sure to rate, review and share us.  

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     bucket list (noun): the experiences or achievements that a person hopes to accomplish during their lifetime.

a.     Visiting all the national parks in the US is on my bucket list.

2.     to set one’s sights on (something) (idiom): to decide and plan to do or achieve something.

a.     She set her sights on exploring all the national parks in her country.

3.     remiss (adjective): thoughtless; negligent.

a.     I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the most famous park.

4.     emblematic (adjective): symbolic; representative.

a.     Yosemite is the emblematic park of the US. m

5.     Mecca (noun): a place that attracts people of a particular group or interest.

a.     It is known as the Mecca for people who love to kayak.

6.     to flock (verb): to congregate or join together in a large group.

a.     People flock to the famous site every year.

7.     quintessential (adjective): representing the most perfect or typical example of something.

a.     Miami is the quintessential Latin city of the US.

8.     to dip one’s toes (idiom): to begin to do something new and unfamiliar.

a.     It is the perfect place to visit if you want to dip your toes into hiking.

9.     tucked down (adjective): located in a hidden or unvisited area.

a.     The park is tucked down in the mountains of the East.

10.  pristine (adjective): clean and fresh; in its original condition.

a.     The pristine nature of the park attracts many visitors every year.

11.  to touch upon (phrasal verb): to briefly discuss something.

a.     We touched upon some amazing places today but there are many more.

12.  to deem (adjective): to regard or consider something in a certain way.

a.     It was deemed the most beautiful park in the country for its amazing nature.