My cousins are travelling across America in their camper this summer. They have been posting some phenomenal pics of sunsets in national parks, at hot springs, on lakes and with beautiful mountain ranges behind them. This week they were in Montana. So I asked them if they had tried the huckleberry pie at the Park Café at Glacier National Park. I was too late for my food reco, and they had already moved on.
But it made me think – this is berry season – raspberries, blackberries, chokecherries and a host of other regional berries. The Buck Moon of last week signified this to our Native Americans across the country. So, I thought, there must be other national Parks who feature regional berry pies at their cafes in or near the parks. And I came up with the following list.
The Mile High Blackberry Ice Cream Pie in Shenendoah National Park in Virginia is probably the most instagramed of all of the National Park Berry Pies. It’s a cousin to our Mecklenburg Mocha Mile High Pie, only with berries. The pie is a heaping pile of fresh blackberry ice cream on top of a graham cracker crust, with a meringue top and blackberry compote. It’s been a tradition for a long time and is a homage to the thickets of wild blackberries that cover the mountains every June and July. It’s served at two places inside the park – Skyland at mile 41 and at Big Meadows Lodge at mile 51. It’s enough for a whole family, and if you don’t get there early during peak summer season, prepare to wait in line.
The there are two pies in Glacier National Park in Montana that I mentioned to my cousin. The huckleberry is native to the Dakotas, so that pie is the feature. The huckleberry itself is a state symbol. You’ll find fruit stands and all sorts of products made with it in peak season. It’s a taste described as having the tartness of a raspberry and the sweetness of a blueberry. The best version of the pie is at the Park Café, right outside the entrance to Glacier National Park, on Blackfoot Native American land. It’s different from other similar pies in the state because it does not mix the huckleberries with blueberries. And there’s a challenge with making huckleberry pies, that the inventors, Kathryn Hiestand and her brother Rob Heistand know – the higher the elevation, the sweeter the complex sugars in the berry taste, so they don’t add too much sugar, and also add sea salt to the pie. After its invention in 1981 Park Café’s huckleberry pie quickly developed a cult following, including First Lady Laura Bush. The second berry pie they serve at the Park Café is loved by the park rangers and called the Grizz Bear-y Pie. It’s a mix of huckleberries, marionberries, and blueberries.
North Dakota is famous in July for its chokecherry pie, which is the state fruit. You can get it outside the Kellys Slough National Wildlife refuge in Grand Forks, at the Farmer’s Market, which makes delicious mini chokecherry pies. It’s a tart, juicy red berry with a mildly sweet cherry taste.
Berry pies are a specialty at Bryce Canyon Pines Restaurants in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. They’re famous for their blueberry or boysenberry pies, but the locals love the Sour Cream Raisin Pie, not officially a berry pie. The boysenberry is described as a cross between a raspberry and a blueberry.
In Southwest Harbor in Mount Desert Island Maine, near Arcadia National Park, the famous pie is the Triple Berry Pie from Island Bound Treats. It contains a delicious mix of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.
Near Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park is a restaurant chain called Shari’s in Medford, that features local Oregon marionberry pie. You can also find it at Becky’s Restaurant in Union Creek Resort or at the Cannon Beach Farmer’s Market. Marionberries look just like a blackberry, but are firmer and a mix of tartness and sweetness of a blackberry.
Although not a U.S. National Park pie, but a North American Park pie, the Saskatoon Berry Pie near Calgary. The berry is native to Alaska, Western Canada, and Northwestern and North Central United States. It’s a deep purple color with a mildly sweet flavor of blueberries and blackberries, fragrant, with a lingering flavor of almond. The best place to get Saskatoon Berry Pie is at the Berry Barn overlooking the South Saskatchewon River
So what is Ohio’s best National Park Pie? It’s at the Conservancy at Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Dinner in the Valley. Chef Larkin Rogers, who is the catering chef for the Conservancy, makes seasonal pies on shortcrust and sour cream crusts. She makes blueberry, mincemeat, apple and pumpkin pies and does an annual pie crust demo at the Conservancy in November.
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