Since the November 2001 issue, the federal government has put the brakes on snowmobiling in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. However, we've discovered a couple of additional national parks and monuments where snowmobiling is allowed.
Two of those are in Alaska: Klondike Gold Rush National Park and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. We're not giving a detailed report on those two parks because, well, quite honestly, information about snowmobiling there is pretty sketchy. For more information on riding in either of those two parks, contact Klondike Gold Rush National Park (907-983-2921) and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve (907-547-2233).
One other national monument we discovered allowed snowmobiling is Giant Sequoia National Monument in California. Information on that monument is listed below.
Even with these gains, the controversy over whether to allow snowmobiles is still churning at several national parks including Denali (AK), Yellowstone (WY, MT, ID) and Grand Teton (WY).
Certainly we're not making any claims as to how good the snowmobiling is in the national parks open to our sport; rather, we're presenting this information for the purpose of giving sledders options when they go riding. There are definitely some national parks which are snowmobile destinations unto themselves-like Yellowstone National Park or Newberry National Volcanic Monument-but others are a nice side trip if you're in the neighborhood. For example, if you're riding the Diamond Lake (OR) area, you should definitely visit Crater Lake National Park.