We’ve never been to a national park and not come away in awe. The natural beauty, scale, and diversity of landscapes always blows our mind.

But you can bet there’s always someone out there oblivious to the beauty, probably preferring a shopping mall to a hike in the woods. Those people are terrible. But they also make for hilarious tongue-in-cheek posters, created by Amber Share, who gathers real 1 star reviews of these places on Yelp. She creates hilarious, hand lettered posters decrying the Grand Canyon “A hole. A very, very large hole.”

The project is called Subpar Parks. What started as a lettering exercise on Instagram grew into a bestselling book in 2021, then a second volume covering parks around the world, plus enough postcards, puzzles and prints to fill a ranger station gift shop. Share’s trick is that the posters are sincere. The landscapes are drawn with real affection in the style of the WPA park posters of the 1930s, and only the words are dumb, so the joke is always on the reviewer rather than the place. Check out more of her work on Instagram at @subparparks.

Subpar Parks poster for Joshua Tree National Park reading The only thing to do here is walk around the desert
Subpar Parks poster for Olympic National Park reading No wow factor
Subpar Parks poster for Yellowstone National Park reading Save yourself some money, boil some water at home
Subpar Parks poster for Sequoia National Park reading There are bugs and they will bite you on your face
Subpar Parks poster for Yosemite National Park reading Trees block view and there are too many gray rocks
Subpar Parks poster for Arches National Park reading Looks nothing like the license plate
Subpar Parks poster for Death Valley National Park reading Ugliest place I've ever seen
Subpar Parks poster for Saguaro National Park reading OK if you like cactus
Subpar Parks poster for Grand Canyon National Park reading A hole. A very, very large hole.
Subpar Parks poster for Grand Teton National Park reading All I saw was a lake, mountains and some trees

For the parks themselves, without the reviews, see the five least visited national parks, the Fifty-Nine Parks poster series, and more real one-star reviews of amazing national parks. And when you are ready to go, Campgrounder, our own campsite finder, covers the campgrounds in and around them.

Author

Ben VanderVeen is the founder and editor of Moss & Fog, one of the web’s longest-running visual culture destinations. Since 2009, he’s been finding and framing the most beautiful, surprising, and thought-provoking work in art, architecture, design, and nature — reaching over 325,000 readers each month. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

6 Comments

  1. Lorena Hamilton

    Absolutely hysterical!! 😂😂 Some people don’t understand natural beauty or nature. 🤭

  2. To be fair they are correct about Joshua tree and Death valley

  3. These are great. I’m sure I saw one with a comment from someone complaint that there was no WiFi or phone signal. Bliss!

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