National Park gateway towns
 

What are your thoughts on gateway communities for National Parks?

Are there any historic buildings in these gateway communities? Anything built by the CCC? Any postwar buildings that may fit a more modern definition of historic, like Mid-Century Modern motels?

Are there any gateway communities that are particularly worse, unnecessary, unhelpful, or pointless? This is on the assumption that lodging, restaurants, gas stations, and so on are needed for tourists visiting a park, but need to be outside park borders.


Some examples of national park gateway towns:
Tusayan, AZ (Grand Canyon N.P.)
Estes Park, CO (Rocky Mountain N.P.)
Gatlinburg, TN (Great Smoky Mountains N.P.)
Springdale, UT (Zion N.P.)


Branching off, what communities within national parks are there? One example is Grand Canyon Village, inside the Grand Canyon park borders, and about 15 minutes north of Tusayan, which is outside of the park borders. I think Banff is another example, within Banff National Park in Alberta.

Bar Harbor in Maine might be the best example in the US.

I was very impressed with the urban environment of Grand Canyon Village, within Grand Canyon National Park. The Rustic and Neo-Prehistoric architecture was great to look at, fit in with the ponderosa forest, and provided a quaint "home base". It was so noteworthy that I took pictures of the little community, and probably covered it more extensively than anyone besides the National Park Service itself.

On the other hand, I saw very little in Tusayan, the gateway community, that was worth seeing from an urban or architectural standpoint. There were a couple hotels that may have been 60-70 years old, but that was it. I think there's some historic airport buildings, as well. It has not seemed to be worth my time going around.

I am visiting Estes Park, Colorado, in a couple weeks. That seems to be maybe the best gateway town for all the National Parks in the US (but I could be wrong). Included in the historic architecture is the Stanley Hotel, of "The Shining" fame, and the Park Theatre, the oldest movie theater in the US. I'm planning on doing a little phototour (and then photothread) of Estes Park.

peninsula, oh is a cute, historic little village in the middle of the cuyahoga valley national park between cleveland and akron. it serves as the gateway. the cv scenic railroad, towpath trail, falls and boston mills and brandywine ski areas are nearby.

cvnp doesnt have the historic park architecture of the other older and more famous national parks, because its one of newest. it became a preserve area in 1974 and a national park in 2000.

https://www.tripsavvy.com/discoverin...la-ohio-753353

Kanab, Utah is used as a home base for several national parks in southern Utah, the closest being Zion National Park. I stayed in Kanab when volunteering at the massive Best Friends Animal Sanctuary just outside of Kanab. Kanab to me is just another motel town, although there are many. I stayed at the Quail Park Inn, which may be mid-century modern. Not sure. But it looks typical of motels built in the 50s and I enjoyed it. Seems like most of the motels I saw were of more recent construction and a bit fancier. For me, the attraction of Kanab itself was the scenic red cliffs around the town.

Moab, UT (Arches NP, Canyonlands NP & Dead Horse Point SP)

I was just in Oakhurst, CA as part of a Yosemite trip. It's a pretty typical Western highway town, with grocery stores, hotels, gas stations and fast food lining the highway in a mostly suburban-looking layout. No real interesting or historic neighborhoods or buildings of note that I can think of, other than maybe the cool old cemetery with the little old church in it. Nice town for what it is though, and a good gateway town to the park.

Jackson, WY (Grand Teton) and West Yellowstone, MT (Yellowstone) deserve mention. I spent time in both yesterday.

Both are tourist havens with lots of restaurants, bars, and gift shops, and both are walkable. That said, Jackson is a much nicer town and I would recommend it to anyone. Grand Teton is my favorite national park too.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...on_Wyoming.jpg
(from Wikipedia)

Does Miami count? The metro borders 2 national parks :D

Asheville, NC sort of does but when we go to the Smoky Mountains my family stays in a cabin in Maggie Valley, NC. Gatlinburg, TN is the main gateway town for the Smoky Mountains in all its tacky touristy glory. I prefer the NC side to the kitschy TN side.

Columbia, SC: "Gateway to Congaree National Park!"

(...which you've never heard of!)

I was literally supposed to be there right now but had to back out last minute. :(

Gary, IN is now a somewhat unlikely gateway city for Indian Dunes National Park.

Actually, I was wondering if there was a true gateway to the Everglades. Does Homestead function as a home base for people going to Everglades N.P.? I would think people would avoid Homestead and stay somewhere in/near Miami. When I went to the Everglades with friends (but not the national park), and went to the Florida Keys with friends, we used Miami Beach as a home base.

Agreed on Kanab. Stayed there last year while visiting Bryce and Zion national parks.

Tusayan is an overpriced tourist trap. It's always struck me as the place where people who visit the Grand Canyon's South Rim stay when they don't realize that Williams and Flagstaff offer somewhat cheaper lodging.

I've had a half-baked dream of visiting Acadia NP for a while and looking at Bar Harbor has moved it up the list. The town looks great.

Interesting; I don't even remember those towns.

When I was thinking of "gateway town" to the Grand Canyon, I thought of Williams, AZ; my partner and I stayed there on our last trip to the Grand Canyon back in 2005. It looks like this: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.2504...2!8i6656?hl=en

Nice little town, or so we thought---NOTHING to do at night. Hehe on our first trip there, we were so bored out of our minds in Williams that night that we ended up saying "fuck it, let's drive to Phoenix and see what kind of gay bars they have." So we drove the 2.5 hours down to Phoenix and went to this total country-western gay bar where most of the cars in the gravel parking lot were pickup trucks and a lot of guys inside were wearing cowboy hats. It was hilarious. It looked like the roadside bar/rape scene from "Thelma & Louise." I was really tempted to order "a Wild Turkey straight up and a Coke-back, please." We only stayed about an hour; the music was bad and it smelled of cigarette smoke. So we left and then ate at a Waffle House! Our first and only time! :haha:

Williams is terrible. It's only redeeming value is that AZ64 provides easier access to the Grand Canyon than having to go through Flagstaff on US180 and then dealing with Snowbowl traffic for the first half hour of the trip. West of Williams is Ash Fork, which is basically what happens when Florida Man moves to Northern Arizona and procreates after a week-long meth bender.

Having gone to the Smoky Mountains practically every autumn as a kid, I have a very soft spot in my heart for Gatlinburg. However, I can definitely see how some might find it a bit vomit-inducing. lol

Springdale, UT was nice, but extremely sleepy and damn near impossible to find a drink in after 9 PM. But of course, the majesty of Zion National Park more than makes up for any of that.

I was just in Mineral, CA (Lassen Volcanic N.P.) yesterday. Obviously COVID-19 has negatively impacted every place, but Mineral does not appear to have much to offer even in the best of times.

My mom and her siblings went to Gatlinburg once in the 60s or 70s and it was such a miserable experience for her that she vowed that my brother and I would never have to experience it. We moved to Arizona when I was 13 without ever having to visit (although we did go to Mammoth Cave a lot). Living in suburban Cincinnati, I knew very few kids at school who didn't visit Gatlinburg at least once, and pretty much all of them hated it and said it was boring.