Three of America's top 10 national parks are in Washington



Click through the gallery for the entire top 10 best national parks Waves crash against a rock on Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park.

Click through the gallery for the entire top 10 best national parks Waves crash against a rock on Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park. Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close Three of America's top 10 national parks are in Washington 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

Washington's three national parks -- Olympic, Mount Rainier and North Cascades -- rank among the country's top 10 "crown jewels," according to a recent rating of all 61 national parks by The Discoverer Blog.

The Discoverer did a subjective rating based on accessibility, facilities, accommodations, trails, attractions, crowds and what it called the "wow" factor.

Olympic is No. 3 on the list, for multiple "wows." In words of the rating: "Do you prefer snow capped peaks, old growth trees, rugged coastline or temperate rain forests? The beauty of the Olympic Park is that you don't have to choose one over the other -- you can experience them all in one place."

Olympic ranks just behind Glacier National Park (No. 2) and Yosemite National Park (No. 1), its heart originally protected by Abraham Lincoln in the Yosemite Grant Act.

"Few other places in the world have inspired generations of environmentalists, poets, artists, hikers, climbers and general outdoor enthusiasts the way Yosemite has," The Discoverer concluded.

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Surprisingly, Denali National Park in Alaska, site of North America's highest peak, is just off at No. 11.

North Cascades National Park, often called the "American Alps," is a sleeper selection, or as the rating puts it:

"North Cascades National Park is possibly the most underrated national park on this list. Only a little more than 30,000 people visited this park last year, a remarkably low number considering the 'wow' factor that is literally seeping through the mossy rocks on the side of its roadways."

What comes in last on the list? Kobuk Valley National Park in arctic Alaska, site of incredible sand dunes in the middle of the Arctic. The park can be reached only by water or float plane. "You won't find carefully groomed trails and five-star resorts in Kobuk Valley. But what you will find is utter solitude."

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Crater Lake National Park, in Oregon, is ranked No. 26.

The national park system has been described as America's gift to the world.

Yellowstone, established in 1872, became the world's first national park. Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska, at 13 million acres, is the largest. The most controversial name change, held up for years by Ohio congressmen, was from Mt. McKinley to Denali, its native name roughly translated to "the high one."

Great Smoky Mountains gets the highest visitor load, at 11 million a year. Mt. Rainier and Olympic were among popular parks singled out by then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in his proposal for a high increase in visitor fees. He was stopped by an eruption of public protest.

With thanks to the 1906 Antiquities Act, several of our greatest national parks began their lives as national monuments designed by Presidents. Theodore Roosevelt, before leaving office, designated Olympic and Grand Canyon National Monuments.

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Teddy Roosevelt camped at Yosemite with naturalist John Muir, and proclaimed protection of the Grand Canyon from its South Rim with the words:

"Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see."

There have been attacks on national parks. The timber industry tried for years to remove areas of the Bogachiel and Calawah Rivers from Olympic National Park. They were defeated.

In fact, the park came into being thanks to a 1937 visit by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although in a wheelchair, he got around. FDR gazed out at a mammoth clear cut, and said -- memorably -- that he would "like to get my hands on the son-of-a-bitch who did this."

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The 1960's saw the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ("Wrecklamation") try to build dams in the Grand Canyon. One would have reservoirized Lava Falls, the park's premier rapid. A famous Sierra Club newspaper ad stopped the dam builders with a question: "Would you flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists could get closer to the ceiling?"

By contrast, in recent years, two fish-destroying dams have been removed from the Elwha River in Olympic Park. Salmon are rapidly repopulating the master stream of the Olympics, with 70 miles of spawning habitat newly reopened.

Olympic National Park is getting a cachet among park lovers. Over the Memorial Day weekend, campers at Kalaloch were in awe of the night sky, with no human light introducing. The park offers deep wilderness experience. Its appeal can be seen by lineups at the backcountry permit desk in Port Angeles.

But climate change is being felt.

The Anderson Glacier, where generations of climbers have prepared for Mt. Rainier, has entirely melted in the last 25 years. The Blue Glacier on Mt. Olympus, advancing 60 years ago, has pulled back substantially, as has the Humes Glacier. Salmon runs in Lake Quinault are way down.

Still, our national parks get enjoyed by 84 million visitors each year, and studied by park managers from Mexico to Saudi Arabia.

A few years back, then-U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt visited the Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River -- volunteering to push the plunger when it was set for removal -- and then led a visiting Mexican delegation of park planners three miles into Humes Ranch.

Babbitt was a beer drinker, and with a journalist friend carried brewskis on the hike. The Mexicans were delighted, but Olympic park rangers held back.

The Interior Secretary smiled and said: "As of this moment, your workday is over. Drink up."

They did.