Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone

National Parks in the United States

The title says it all…..nature’s unbelievable grandeur of monumental proportions, is how I would put it. Each national park is a national treasure. If I had to name just one reason for people to visit the US, I would say, “national parks”. There are national parks, national monuments, national forests, state parks and so on. They are all beautiful in their own way. If you googled, you will find the definitions of what each one is, I don’t go into such specifics here. Suffice to say that on this page, I only cover national parks.
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When it comes to Vegetarian food, whatever I write will perhaps apply to all national parks and so I am only saying it once on this page. When you are inside a park, your choices are limited to food in the park lodges and what they have in a little grocery store on premises. Always try to eat your hearty breakfast in the park lodge where you will certainly find eggs, toast, roasted potatoes, fruits and some other basic items. If you don’t eat eggs, find out if they have been added in the pancakes and waffles. Also check out the Global Cuisnes page.

My suggestion would be to shop at a large grocery store outside the park on day 1 before you even enter, arm yourselves with snacks, bars, mustard, mayo (available egg-less too), cucumber sandwiches, baby carrots and keep them in the fridge. Pack some cucumber, mustard, mayo sandwiches and baby carrots in your backpack before you head out each day, after the hearty breakfast at the lodge.

For dinner, typically finding a pizza that can be made vegetarian or a basic sandwich or pasta is not tough if you are not too fussed. Definitely boring if you are staying long. For the meat eater, there is all kinds of exotic food on park premises, from alligator soup in Florida to Bison meat in Yellowstone and I bet, meat of many animals that I am unaware of. But that is not my writing territory. Often, a drive will take you to a town outside the park and that might open up many options. How long a drive, depends on the size of the park. In this write up I will mention the towns near the parks so that you could decide which part of the park to stay in for better food options, in case it is a priority.

For a comprehensive list of national parks, check this link, https://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/national-parks/
If you scrolled down you will see them listed by state as well. Click on a state and you can view not just National Parks but a lot of other parks, protected areas, forests etc.

Current blogs:

Yellowstone

The Grand Canyon

A vegan’s journey in Utah

Beaver’s Bend State Park, Oklahoma

Next in the pipeline…

Big Bend, TX

Utah – Zion and Bryce

​Glacier National Park

Rocky Mountain NP, CO

Blogs after….

The Great Smoky mountains TN

Hot Springs NP, AR

Denali NP, Alaska and the Arctic Circle

Grand Tetons WY

Volcanoes, Hawaii Big Island

The Everglades FL

Indiana Dunes

Petrified Forest AZ

Saguaro and Organ Pipe AZ

Capitol Reef UT

Yosemite CA

​Lake Tahoe