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1. North Cascades National Park — USA
Why so empty? No entrance booths, no gift shop, just 300-plus glaciers and hair-pin logging roads. Hike to Doubtful Lake and you’ll wonder why anyone queues at Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Official NPS site
2. Lake Clark National Park — Alaska, USA
Reachable only by floatplane, but the payoff is brown bears scooping salmon beneath steaming volcanoes. Campsites? Free—just share the beach with otters.
Official NPS site
3. Congaree National Park — USA
South Carolina’s swampy cathedral of giant hardwoods. Fireflies synchronize here each May—Disney screensaver in real life, and you won’t need elbow armour to film it.
Official NPS site
4. Gauja National Park — Latvia
Think “Nordic autumn” at Baltic prices. Kayak beneath red-sandstone cliffs, roam medieval castles, then refuel on rye bread and birch-sap kvass for two euro.
Visit Latvia page
5. Andasibe-Mantadia National Park — Madagascar
Alarm clock? The indri lemur’s whooping call. Trails thread emerald rainforest dripping with orchids; you’ll share them with maybe six hikers—plus chameleons longer than your forearm.
Madagascar Parks authority
6. Gunung Leuser National Park — Indonesia
One of Earth’s last strongholds for Sumatran orangutans. Trek from Bukit Lawang to hot springs where gibbons supply the playlist. Daily visitors? Under 200.
Official park site
7. Deosai National Park — Pakistan
The “Roof of the World” plateau sits at 4 000 m. Summer turns it into a rolling rug of wildflowers dotted by Himalayan brown bears and mirror lakes no tour group has hashtagged—yet.
Gilgit-Baltistan Parks Dept.
Your move: Which under-loved park gets your boots first? Shout it out—before everyone else books the same flight.
Related reads on travelleri.com:
• Short on time? Conquer 10 Epic Hikes You Can Finish Before Lunch.
• For unreal photo ops, check 5 Places So Photogenic They Look Fake.
