Colorado
Hike Wheeler Geologic Area in Colorado.
Photograph by Kennan Harvey, Getty Images

America’s ‘Ghost’ Parks

February 18, 2016
2 min read

Wheeler Geologic Area, a wonderland of stone pinnacles and hoodoos (above), was once a top Colorado attraction. Now, only backcountry hikers and those willing to drive 13 miles on a dirt road earn a glimpse of one of America’s more unusual landscapes.

President Theodore Roosevelt designated this volcanic tuff formation, about 250 miles southwest of Denver, Wheeler National Monument in 1908. It became part of the National Park Service in 1933 but was scarcely visited because of its remote location.

Unable to justify maintenance fees, the Park Service removed Wheeler from its list in 1950, one of dozens of “ghost parks” dropped from the parks system because of upkeep costs and low visitation.

From Alaska to the Caribbean, America’s ghost parks linger, in shopping centers, along highways, in wildernesses. Many live on as state parks or are managed by such federal agencies as the National Forest Service—which oversees Wheeler—and most remain accessible to the public.

mountains in Colorado
fields in Kansas
the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California
New Hampshire
Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma
the Everglades in Florida
a person hiking in Utah
a bridge in West Virginia
New Mexico
mountains in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming
Texas
Manhattans downtown financial district on a spring afternoon
Portland lighthouse in Maine
Denali National Park in Alaska
bison in North Dakota
a lake in Wisconsin
Glacier National Park in Montana
the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia
dunes in North Carolina
mountains in Washington
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Scotts Bluff in Nebraska
a person in a canoe
Badlands, South Dakota
a cathedral in Louisiana
the Alabama state capitol building
people in a cave
houses in Cape May, New Jersey
the Grand Canyon
a park in Iowa
people in Whitaker Point in Arkansas
horses on the beach in Maryland
dunes near Lake Michigan
Vermont
the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee
Lake Tahoe in Nevada
a lighthouse in Mississippi
Hawaii
beach houses in Delaware
trees in Savannah, Georgia
the Sawtooth mountains in Idaho
Millennium Park in Chicago
a waterfall in Ohio
the arch in St. Louis, Missouri
the skyline in Boston, Massachusetts
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ColoradoPyramid Peak in Aspen (See more tips on our Colorado Travel Guide.)
Photograph by Gordon Wiltsie, Nat Geo Image Collection

They range from a bronze cross in upstate New York (Father Millet Cross) to a natural cross in the Rockies visible only when it snows; from Fort Christian, the oldest building in the Virgin Islands, to Michigan’s Mackinac Island, established in 1875 as America’s second national park and delisted in 1895.

This piece, written by National Geographic Magazine researcher Brad Scriber, appeared in the February/March 2016 issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine.

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