Website or book to plan nature/natural park vacations?

[Anonymous]

I grew up very real middle class and we never flew anywhere as a child. Our rare vacations were to mid Atlantic beaches only. My husband was similar but in New England.

We are now in our late 40’s with two teens. I have a desire to see more of the American west but feel lost of how to do it. We went to RMNP for a day in conjunction with a family wedding and we took the kids to Sedona/GCNP on a vacation once. Enjoyed both.

But I still find these types of trips overwhelming and hard to plan. They often involved a lot of driving each day and multiple hotels. It’s hard to choose which hikes to do and which ones to skip, etc. For example I planned too much time in Grand Canyon and not enough in Sedona. I’m not good at predicting how much time each thing needs and it’s also tiring to drive a lot and constantly be switching hotels.

Does anyone know a book or website that helps people plan these sorts of trips in a manageable way? People who are not hard core campers and/or don’t want to hike 6 hours a day?

I’m sorry if I’m not explaining this well. Thanks to anyone still reading.

[Anonymous]

I recommend using DeepSeek for these kinds of itineraries. You can adjust it iteratively, eg “no more than 2 hours of hiking a day” etc.

[Anonymous]

Watch some YouTube videos made by people visiting the area.

[Anonymous]

Look at the earthtrekkers site. I’ve used their itineraries, recommended hikes and hotel/restaurant recs and they are always spot on.

[Anonymous]

Go to your local library. They should have plenty of books on national parks. If you feel like purchasing, B&N will have tons on the shelf and Amazon will have nearly every one in existence.

I like Lonely Planet and Moon books for national parks.

It can be overwhelming. I'm going to Death Valley soon and I've spent months planning, reading the Moon book cover to cover, with a highlighter in hand.

[Anonymous]

To Google search for tour companies and look at their itineraries. Gives you a sense of timing.

[Anonymous]

Part of it is letting go of doing the trip the "right" way or needing to see everything.

We have young kids so I usually look up itineraries (just on Google) for what's good for kids etc.

Then we put in our own limitations, like I don't want to keep moving to different hotels (logistics are tough with kids), only want to drive X hrs per day, only can do hikes of X difficulty etc. So all of that to mean you don't have to see ALL of it, I focus more on whether we had a good time on our vacation vs the various things we didn't necessarily see and do.

[Anonymous]

I would suggest that unless two national parks are fairly close to each other, pick one park, especially if you don't like moving hotels. So, you can base yourself in Moab and do Arches and Canyonlands in one trip. Or, spend an entire week at Glacier.

Western national parks do involve a lot of driving, there's no way around that. They're so big, and often far from major metro areas. On the other hand, that's often what allows them to be big spectacular places.

The PP is right. Let go of doing things the "right" way and do what's best for your family.

We did a national park this summer and had to throw out our entire hiking itinerary. 110 degrees meant shorter, less strenuous, shaded hikes. Did we get to do the "crown jewel" hike in that park? Nope. Was that a bummer? A bit. But we still did some cool hikes, one of which we wouldn't have done at all if we did our original plan. You have to be willing to be flexible. if you get stuck on "everything has to go exactly as planned!" it will be disappointing.

Which parks do you want to go to? This is DCUM, I'm certain there's at least one person who can give feedback on any given national park.

[Anonymous]

Right now, I wouldn't commit non-refundable money.

Park Service and Rangers have all been forked and will be subject to Musk and his minions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right now, I wouldn't commit non-refundable money.

Park Service and Rangers have all been forked and will be subject to Musk and his minions.

+1 might be better to focus on state parks

[Anonymous]

The Moon guidebooks are pretty good, and some of the Lonely Planet ones. Also, check out TripAdvisor forums. Start at the library.

[Anonymous]

We've done organized trips through Austin Adventures. They take care of everything but for course you pay for that service.

You could also look at some itineraries of different group trips to see what activities they do and how much time they spend in each location if you want to DIY.

[Anonymous]

TripAdvisor forums are free and they were great help for planning trips to Yellowstone and grand Teton, and then a separate trip to Grand Canyon, Sedona and page AZ. Highly recommend.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g143048-i3489-o2640-Rocky_Mountain_National_Park_Colorado.html

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks all. These are all great tips. And this would be summer 2026 at the earliest so hopefully we’ll know more by the time I have to plan for that.