What is the best in the US? The answer, of course, is entirely subjective – but when put to the average person, most might suggest for its heady array of , for its tumbling waterfalls or the hazy peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains. However, a new list ranking the National Parks has named a much lesser-visited (and even lesser-known) park as the top park to visit. According to the new list by the Wall Street Journal published last week, the best National Park is in fact Isle Royale, Michigan.
Never heard of it? You wouldn't be the first, as its national visitorship is just 25,000 per year, barely a drop in the bucket compared to the 12 million who crowd the gates of Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year. And that is part of the appeal of this park. The WSJ say they used "cold, hard numbers" to come up with their list, and looked at crowd sizes, quality and quantity of hiking trails, availability of campsites and access to recreational activities like mountain biking, fishing and horseback riding to determine their rankings.
With that criteria in mind, Isle Royale, which sits 15 miles off the mainland in Lake Superior and can only be reached by plane or ferry, elbowed the most popular National Parks out of the way to reach the top of the list ahead of Northern Cascades, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and Big Bend National Park, which round out the top three. The lack of crowds is key to sending Isle Royale out ahead of the pack, and makes the 45-mile long islan.