Yellowstone National Park

“Let me begin by saying that my girlfriend and I expected this park to be one of the highlights–nay, the crowning jewel–in our 10-day road trip to the western states.  We were horribly, terribly, tragically disappointed […] The sites to explore were very far apart as this is a large park, and frankly the drive was an ugly one.  Rampant forest fires have scarred the pine-filled landscape, leaving patchy areas of growth punctuated by desolation.  The wildlife we’d heard so much about was nowhere to be seen.”

-James B., Yelp

By Greg Willis from Denver, CO, usa (Lamar Valley at SunriseUploaded by russavia) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Haleakala National Park

“We were naive and drove up IN THE RAIN and got there 30 mins before sunrise and the sky got lighter and we saw lots of clouds but we didn’t see the sun nor any streaks of orange or pink.. Just grey 😦   […] 

DO NOT COME HERE IF IT IS RAINING. U won’t see the sun!!!”

-Kathy S., Yelp

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haleakala_crater.jpg

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

“It pains me to give a 2 star rating to any park. But this one, I feel, doesn’t live up to the high standard of natural majesty witnessed at most of the other parks.”

-Bill G., Yelp

Sea Lion Caves

“[…] There are a lot of bugs in the caves, and they kind of smell like sea lion poop. Most of the sea lions were outside today, while only 6 sea lions were in the cave itself. Given the entrance price of $14.00, that works out to $2.33 per sea lion. The lions are big and fun and sleepy; maybe I was meant to be a sea lion in another life.

We went outside to find the rest of the sea lions, which meant we had yet another long hike ahead of us. Ugh. We finally got to the viewpoint and saw close to 100 sea lions sunning themselves down on the rocks. The problem is, they’re over 200 feet away from the viewpoint. There were a few seals down there, too. The seals were the only animals actually moving around, while the sea lions were pretty comatose. From a distance, they look like big armless bears. […]

-Jared K., Yelp

By Art Bromage from Seattle (Sea Lion Cave) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Joshua Tree National Park

“Ugly and the hiking sucks.  […] Definitely will never be back.  I’m just shocked that this place gets the high reviews, I guess everyone is smoking too much dope.”

-David W., Yelp

“When I went camping at Joshua Tree, it was in the winter time and it was very,  very cold.  I still remember the howling winds blowing against our tents and how i wished we were sleeping inside the cars.”

-Evelyn K., Yelp

By Bernard Gagnon (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons