Are any National Parks in your - or your travel clients’ - future? You might want to check out some reviews first. Here are some you won’t want to miss!
Artist and illustrator Amber Share has found the bright side of bad reviews. Her project, called Subpar Parks, turns bad reviews written about national parks into works of art. Her project features posters of the iconic landscapes of each of the 62 national parks in the United States, overlaid by the text of the best of the worst one star Yelp review that they received online.
“I love the outdoors, and I also love some good snark,” Share wrote on Instagram as she launched the project.
“Apparently even mother nature is subject to the wrath of the internet.”
The review for Arches National Park in Utah turned into her first poster of the series, after someone on Yelp left a one star review saying that the famous Delicate Arch rock formation located at the park looked nothing like it does on the state’s infamous license plate.
Ruthless.
Share went on to find a one star review for every national park in the United States, and proceeded to make a poster for each one featuring their harshest, or most hilarious bad review. Some just make you question why these people bother leaving their homes.
At Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, “A hole. A very, very large hole.” At Yellowstone National Park someone said you could, “Save yourself some money and boil some water at home.” The dunes are apparently, “not that high,” at Indiana Dunes National Park.
Some people’s expectations of Mother Nature are just sky high.
Share works on an iPad in Procreate or Adobe Photoshop, and sometimes shares time-lapse videos of the process on her Instagram, @ Subpar Parks, which has nearly 350,000 followers.
After finishing illustrating the 62 U.S. national parks, Share has gone international with national parks from all around the world, including Canada's public lands – because bad online reviews are not unique to America's parks.
“All the cool places are at the top of the mountain,” was someone’s complaint after visiting Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.
“There is so much negativity out in the world right now, including in these reviews,” wrote Share on Instagram upon finishing the original American parks project. “I wanted to find a way to bring more wit and positivity into the world.”
