In 1916, Theodore Roosevelt signed a series of legislation that would eventually create what we know today as the National Park Service.
Today, there are 60 different locations in the U.S. with “National Park” in the title while the NPS serves—and preserves—more than 400 different locations throughout the country. These locations include places like battlegrounds, shorelines, historic buildings, and so forth.
I’m willing to bet you’re reading this article because, like any aspiring traveler, you’re looking at a list of national parks and want to knock them all out. After all, what is more satisfying than checking a box or crossing a name off a list? Maybe a keychain from every gift shop?
Prior to sketching out your journey on a roadmap—or, to be real, tracing it through Google Maps—there should be long consideration as to why you are going in the first place. Before you pack extra socks and gas up the car, there are questions to ask and expectations to manage. What will make for a satisfying trip? Will you know when to come home?
Variety is the spice of life.
Make a list of the parks you want to visit. Think of why they are worth visiting. Pick a few. Make it a bucket list to accomplish in a lifetime instead of a list to be accomplished in a few weeks.
There has been a surge of interest in recent years in the outdoor life. The gear has improved, as have the roads to get there. The tools to navigate those roads are far more accessible. Compared to the endless lines, frustrating crowds, and steep price tags of an amusement park or a beach getaway, a tour of the national parks seems like an easy decision.
From one coast to the other, there is a wide variety of places to visit in the national parks system. From the desolate sandstone wonders of the west to the historic battleground sites of the east. The rich forests up north stretch for hundreds of miles and down south are beachheads full of life.
Each park supports residents in nearby towns and each offers numerous ways to experience the park. Among them are hundreds of miles of trails and rivers to hike and fish. All of this is available to you through taxpayer dollars, so why not enjoy it?
For better or worse, the parks have changed through the years.
I strongly recommend taking an afternoon to read Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. A lifelong environmentalist, Abbey spent the summer season of 1956 as a park ranger in Arches National Park. His job was simple: be helpful to whoever passed through and make sure visitors didn’t get themselves into irreparable trouble. The rest of the time was spent counting clouds and negotiating territory with bull snakes.
The underlying anxiety of the book, first published a decade after his tenure at the park, is in the looming development of the lands he was purveying over. Highways were coming; visitor centers, plumbing, bathrooms, electricity, and everything else that was needed to facilitate more visitors were mapped out and considered.
For the most part, the widely accessible national parks are modernized well past the fears of what Abbey imagined. Roads are paved, parking lots are painted with orderly lines, gift shops are stocked with trinkets, trails well marked, and volunteers are on hand to keep you within safe and acceptable parameters.
For every mile of well-maintained trails, there are ten which remain a dirty, rocky, lovely mess.
For every park entrance that has a mile of cars waiting to get in, there are three others hidden somewhere waiting to welcome you. The day trippers stay near the park borders, leaving the vast interior of the park your empty playground. Embrace all of this.
Plan as though you are going on a survival trip. Because you are.
The amenities and upkeep of some national parks might blur the line between developed society and the untamed wild. As fun as it is to plan days around seeing specific attractions and stopping for lunch or gas at a particular town, you should also prepare for every plan to fall through.
The goal of the national parks is to preserve and protect cherished monuments, landmarks, and environments all across the country—the inventory at the lunch counter isn’t high up on that list.
If you plan to stay near the visitors center, prepare for everything to take longer than it should since you will be contending with crowds of helpless tourists. The further you go from the park entrance, the more enjoyable everything will seem, but the more planning you’ll have to endure.
Being in a park does not necessarily mean you are within easy access to resources. Again, the park is taxpayer funded. That doesn’t necessarily mean a concierge is at your service. Because of this, bring more food, water, and gasoline than you think you might need.
Go for something beyond the picture.
Some say social media has ruined traveling. The #wanderlust tag has all but destroyed the magic of discovering sights and landmarks in the distance. For every photo that has a thousand replicas on Instagram—Places like Horseshoe Bend or Delicate Arch—there is a guarantee that your visit will not bear the bucolic peacefulness the images convey.
In fact, you’re probably going to deal with a lot of crowds while trying to get away from it all. Most will be on their iPhones trying to capture the same image they saw on Instagram. Some will be toting professional photo gear. Others will be trying to take a photo with a sponsored product.
This is your chance to break from the mold and tell a different story. Sure, you want pictures to remember your national park experience. I recommend using the trip as an excuse to upgrade your camera. Just remember that there is a lot of ground these parks are protecting. Capturing what has already been captured a thousand times might not be doing the service you think it is. Turn the camera the other way—what else can you find?
In the end…
There is no right way to “visit” a national park; this is both a blessing and a curse. The opportunity for adventure is infinite and your trip will innately be unlike anyone else’s. Be sure to plan with an open mind, prepare for any change of circumstances, and be intently present in where you are.
And of course, while you’re there, remember to Leave No Trace.
