20 Things You Didn't Know About National Parks (PHOTOS)

We set out to uncover some of the lesser-known facts about the parks, interviewing park rangers, researching weather patterns, and talking to birding fanatics.
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Our national parks are celebrated for their majestic features, and rightly so. Yellowstone's Old Faithful, Volcanoes National Park's awe-inspiring lava flow, Redwood National Park's soaring trees -- all are wildly impressive. But some of the most interesting details about the parks aren't the ones that make it into the guidebooks and the tours.

We set out to uncover some of the lesser-known facts about the parks, interviewing park rangers, researching weather patterns, and talking to birding fanatics.

Read on to learn what secrets and factoids we uncovered, including a secluded spot in the most popular national park, where to go to be one of the first people in America to see the sun rise, and what actually poses the biggest risk to visitors.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

20 Things You Didn't Know About National Parks

--Beth Collins

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