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Tips and trick and Ratings
My humans have made many mistakes in their travels, but also have learned some tricks along the way! Considering I had to drive them everywhere, I learned ALL about them... So here are some things that might help you on your adventures!
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Look at how good I look! Always gotta have a drink or 2 ready!
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Before you move on, make sure to check out the section below, so you don't make the same mistakes and my humans!
Terminology for rating human understanding
​Rating
Ease of transportation: Ability to get around the park ie. driving yourself or provided transportation
Human facilities (ppeeesshh, not like I need these): Amenities such as bathrooms, showers, bear box, trash cans
Activities: Things to do such as hikes, look outs, swimming
Number of cars: meaning the number of people
General tips and tricks
Annual Park Pass
If you are planning to visit about 3 to 4 National Parks a year, definitely look into getting an Annual Park Pass. My humans said it was only $95 a year and most parks cost about $20 to $30 dollars to get in. I also love that you don't have to wait that long at the check in point at every park.
Car Camping
One thing that my humans learned early on... BRING A TENT!!! Even if you think that you will be staying in your car, you never know if it will be to hot, bear population, or some other unexpected event happens (see Olympic).
Also, I can't stand when I get bugs in my car, so make sure you have some sort of netting to put over the windows, if you have them open.
Camp sites
A lot of National Parks have different amenities offered. Make sure that your look at your reservation and see if they have a bathroom, water refill station or a bear box!
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Organization
I CANT STAND WHEN I HAVE TO WAKE UP TO MY HUMANS MAKE A TON OF NOISE PACKING UP!!! LET ME SLEEEEEEP!!!!​
But they have gotten better! They have some bins that made wooden dividers that make it significantly quicker for them to pack up and is way more organized!
California
Pinnacles
The Pinnacles can be a great experience because of how close it is to San Jose. But it can get HAWT!!! Make sure that you bring plenty of water, sunscreen and good hiking boots. You do not need a reservation to get into this park.
Rating
Ease of transportation: It was really easy to get around and the roads were in really good shape and they had a bus that was constantly running.
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Human facilities: The bathrooms in the campsites was very nice. They didn't have water refill stations that we saw, but that doesn't mean they had them.
Activities: There is really only 1 long hike, but you can do a bunch of different hikes in the long hike. You can see the California Condor but we didn't see any. (You can tell it is a condor because it never tilts its wings when it flies.)
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Number of cars: Luckily we got there at 8:00 am so there was plenty of spaces for me to park (aka, not many people.). However, by the time we left (4:00 pm) all the parking was completely full!
Yosemite
YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED A PERMIT TO GET IN!!! If you don't mind camping, you can get a camping permit to (Location) and it gives you full access to the park.
In the winter (date range) you can see the Firefalls and if you want to go hiking, make sure that you have campons. I got extremely cold at night, so make sure you bring the right clothing!
In the summer, you can ride your bike and do a ton of hikes. Make sure to bring plenty of water or bring a water filter! Spots are limited and have really large crowds, so try to go during the weekdays
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Rating
Ease of transportation: It was really hard to drive around during this trip (because everyone was trying to see the fire falls). People were walking all over the road.
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Human facilities:
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Activities:
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Number of cars:
Joshua Tree
I don't have to many recommendations besides the fact you probably will want to camp inside the park, but of course my humans didn't do this.
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Rating
Ease of transportation:
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Human facilities:
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Activities:
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Number of cars:
Lassen
Boy did my humans really screw this one up! They made me drive... and Drive... AND DRIVE!!! This place is a lot bigger than you expect, so double check your camp grounds. It took about 45 mins to an hour to get from the northern part of the park to all the hiking and thermal vents are. Make sure you have plenty of water and sunscreen because you are at such high elevation that you get dehydrated and sun burnt very quickly.
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Rating
Ease of transportation:
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Human facilities:
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Activities:
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Number of cars:
Oregon
Mr. Rainier
My humans left me behind, which was a mistake, because you definitely need a car to get around! Definitely bring a lot of water and get there early because the lot fills up!
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Ease of transportation:
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Human facilities:
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Activities:
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Number of cars:
Olympic
What a mess my humans made out of this one... it was EMBARASING!!! First off, bear country with no bear boxes... SO MAKE SURE YOU PLAN FOR THAT. Bring a sleeping bag (they decided to car camp...) because you can leave your stuff in the car.... not a fan of a bear getting in and destroying but the rangers say so!
Also, this place is massive! They drove me for 9 hours!!! just to get around the whole park.
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Rating
Ease of transportation:
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Human facilities:
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Activities:
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Number of cars:
Lassen
Boy did my humans really screw this one up! They made me drive... and Drive... AND DRIVE!!! This place is a lot bigger than you expect, so double check your camp grounds.
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Rating
Ease of transportation:
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Human facilities:
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Activities:
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Number of cars:
Uhat
Bryce
This was a little bit of doozie because of the elevation! I was almost out of breath by the time we go to there. Make sure to plan for the altitude!
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Number of cars:
Zion
ANOTHER ONE! What I mean by that is, another hot one! Make sure to bring plenty of water! Limited camp sites, so make sure to get them ahead of time. In the park transportation is pretty good but because of the crowds, it gets busy! If you plan on doing the Narrows, be prepared for a lot of people. If you don't like heights or going up cables, you might not like Angles Landing (but make sure you have a permit and start early in the morning).
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