Washington's North Cascades National Park has made Country magazine's "hidden gems" list of America's ten most-beautiful, least-crowded national parks.
The park is home to some of the most breathtaking scenery in Washington yet, due to its remote location, heavy annual precipitation and limited amenities, relatively few people visit it. Aside from some gravel roads, the main access is via State Route 20, the North Cascades Highway.
The park is most popular with hikers and mountain climbers. With more than 300 glaciers, North Cascades has more glaciers than any other national park outside of Alaska.
Other parks on Country's list include:
- Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Arizona)
- Canyonlands National Park (Utah)
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota)
- Pinnacles National Park (California)
The magazine came up with the list by turning to its favorite scenic photographers.
"To pick our top hidden gems, we thought it would be best to leave it to the folks who know scenery better than anyone," said Country editor Robin Hoffman. "We’d barely heard of most of the places our photographers showed us and had no idea they were this spectacular.”
