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The 7 best US national parks for spring break 2024
05.01.2024 - 17:46 / lonelyplanet.com
Spring is a sensorial symphony in the US and national parks its front-row seats. Here's where to see the most spectacular shows.
As winter loosens its icy grip on North America, an enchanting transformation unfolds: flowers bloom, waterfalls rage and animals start their seasonal migrations.
Spring in the US is a sensorial symphony, and national parks provide front-row seats to the most spectacular shows – as long as you know where to go. Muddy conditions and lingering snow can create unpleasant hiking conditions, and some parks aren't fully operational until summer.
But choose your park wisely and you can spot prehistoric mating rituals, catch rare superbloom, or leap in a desert creek that only appears in spring. Head to one of these national parks from March through mid-June, when landscapes burst to life with seasonal celebrations.
Get out your binoculars, birders: springtime in West Texas is an avian odyssey. From late February to early May, migrating birds nest among pine and oak trees carpeting the Chisos Mountains and along the Rio Grande. Ornithologically inclined visitors have identified over 400 species of feathered friends throughout the park – including colorful catches like yellow-breasted chats, painted buntings and hepatic tanagers. Twitchers searching for the rare Colima Warbler should lace up their shoes for the strenuous hike along Boot Canyon. This ground-nesting songbird, rarely seen outside Big Bend, arrives in late April and leaves by August.
Flying choirs aren't the park's only springtime attraction. Big Bend's eponymous bluebonnet (or the Lupinus havardii, for botany nerds) blankets roadsides from late January through March; in superbloom years, they paint the mountains indigo. Spend your days floating with turtles down the Rio Grande, soaking in the park's geothermal hot springs, or driving to artsy Marfa (90 minutes northwest) to inspect the fashionably minimalist town. At night, trade your bird binoculars for a telescope: Big Bend is an International Dark Sky Reserve known for spectacular stargazing.
It's lovingly dubbed "Wildflower National Park" for good reason. More than 1500 flowering plants decorate this subrange of the Appalachian Mountains year-round, with the most magnificent displays blooming between February and April. Before deciduous trees blossom, spring ephemerals turn the landscape into a petal-palooza packed with violets, trillium, lady slipper orchids and more.
Around 800 miles of trails snake through the park, but if you're on the flower hunt, stick to the Schoolhouse Gap Trail – a 2.2-mile climb from Laurel Creek near Townsend, Tennessee – known as the peaceful side of the Smokies. The Oconaluftee River Trail, a 3-mile path, is another floral stunner near
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