Lacking the notoriety of national parks, America's national forests offer their own appeal

Only a short stretch of road was open to access the rim, and all trails were snowed over. I took a brief walk in my shorts and hiking boots over the deep snow to gawk at the view of the crater that cradles the deepest lake in America, snapped a few photos, and after a couple of hours, drove back down to lower elevations.

The sight of the lake and its perfectly reflective waters was truly spectacular, but the experience at the park was somewhat underwhelming due to the limited access at this time of the year. I still had most of the day to kill and no set plans. “I’ll just drive around the forest and try to find something to do,” I thought.

I soon saw a sign for a waterfall and pulled off to take a short hike to check it out. It wasn’t very tall, but it was pretty and the lush forest filled with ferns and moss was so serene. I got back in my car, drove a couple more miles, saw another sign for another waterfall and went to see that one, too. A few more miles later, the same thing. Then I came upon Toketee Falls, which drops about 120 feet in two stages between striking columns of basalt. It was among the most picturesque waterfalls I’d ever seen.

As luck would have it, I’d found myself killing time on what’s known as Oregon’s Highway of Waterfalls. The drive offers access to more than a dozen waterfalls in Umpqua National Forest in the southern half of the state. I ended up camping in the forest and spending two days taking short hikes to see as many falls as I could cram in.

While the waypoints on my big road trip map were mostly dialed in on national parks, I hadn’t given much consideration to the spaces in between. In many cases, the national forests grabbed my attention as I was passing through, beckoned me to take some time to explore, and turned into destinations I’d remember.

People go gaga over America’s national parks, and rightfully so. They are some of the most beautiful places on Earth. But national forests deserve their place on travel itineraries, too. And they offer some benefits that nearby national parks may lack.

The National Forest Foundation launched National Forest Week in 2019 to spread awareness of the value of the country’s national forest system and encourage stewardship of these public lands. Held in the second full week of July, the National Forest Foundation has partnered with local organizations to host events to celebrate their nearby national forests.

There are three events in Santa Fe National Forest, including a women’s mountain bike ride co-hosted by the Santa Fe Fat Tire Society on July 9 starting at the Borrego Trailhead along Hyde Park Road, an Upper Santa Fe Watershed hike co-hosted by the Santa Fe Watershed Association on July 13 (currently full), and a volunteer trail-work day on July 14 (details to be determined) that’s a collaboration between all three organizations.

My time around Santa Fe National Forest’s 1.6 million acres has given me an even greater appreciation for all that national forests provide.

The diversity in our local forest is incredible, from the high peaks and alpine lakes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, to the volcanic plateau of the Caja del Rio, to the vast grassy meadows of the San Pedro Parks Wilderness, the colorful sandstone bluffs of the Chama River Canyon and the fascinating geology and serenity held in the Jemez Mountains. Getting familiar with it all can take years.

As we search for the top outdoor destinations in America, it seems we’re bombarded with lists filled with the most spectacular or most underrated national parks to visit. But national forests more than hold their own for outdoor adventure. They also tend to have far less issues with crowding, lower costs to visit and many more camping opportunities that don’t require planning out several months in advance.

I’ve been to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton national parks in Wyoming, two of the 10 most-visited national parks in the country, but the place I most want to revisit in the state is the Wind River Range in Bridger-Teton and Shoshone national forests.

I was on a vacation to Glacier National Park and had given myself a day on the return trip to Santa Fe to see what the Winds were all about. I hiked about 10 miles and wished I’d had time to hike about 50 more as I immediately saw why it’s known as a premier backpacking destination in the U.S. The hiking dreamworld filled with striking peaks and abundant mountain lakes left me gobsmacked.

On another trip through Wyoming en route to multiple national parks out West, I became smitten with Bighorn National Forest in the north-central part of the state. The Bighorn Mountains rise out of the flat plains like an island in the sky to over 13,000 feet in elevation. As I arrived there in mid-June, the alpine meadows were filled with blankets of purple and yellow wildflowers. The Bighorns offer the rugged majesty of the mountains in western Wyoming without all the people.

Forests are few and far between where I’m from. Land that could be considered forested covers only about 4% of South Dakota (where I was born and went to college) and 3% of Nebraska (where I spent most of my adolescence).

My formative national forest experiences took place in the Black Hills in western South Dakota. A mountain oasis in the flatlands of the Upper Midwest, the Black Hills were where I developed a relationship with the outdoors while filling my lungs with the fresh pine air, splashing in the mountain lakes and gazing in amazement at the granite spires.

A couple of my other favorite forests are the 3 million-acre Superior National Forest in northeast Minnesota — home to the endless lakes of the Boundary Waters National Canoe Area — and Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois, which features a mixed-deciduous forest filled with ferns, caves and unique rock formations.

They don’t have the same brand recognition or drive tourism to the degree that national parks do, but living in a state with five national forests has raised my awareness of the splendor and solitude that can be found in these lands.

As I’ve grown in my knowledge of outdoor spaces, I feel I’ve graduated from simply wanting to tick national parks off a checklist to realizing the national forests in between aren’t just places to pass through but destinations to dedicate time to researching and exploring.