getting lodging inside the park has always been difficult and something that you need to book a year in advance, not a few months before. Same goes for hotels nearby.

the timed entry passes is a newer issue. We haven't done a US national park in years but even 9 years ago there was no timed entry.

I like the reservation systems for keeping the crowds down at the most popular sites. Yes it means we have to plan way ahead, and accept that some of our plans might not work out. But I'd rather do that than deal with the overcrowding that would otherwise occur.

When we don't want to deal with reservations, or want to be more spontaneous, I've had great luck with the following:
1) shoulder season or off season. I went to Yellowstone over winter break! Totally different experience than a summer trip, but we got a really unique view with almost nobody else around. No issues getting in-park lodging on relatively short notice
2) visit state parks near the national parks - you often get many of the same features for lower cost and less crowding.
3) the less popular national parks also have amazing stuff to see, and can make for an incredible vacation.

I have a lot of NPs on my bucket list. I’m seriously considering shoulder season visits to avoid some crowds and (most?) reservation systems. This means pulling DD out of school, which I’m actually fine with.

This makes me sad. Not even because I need to go see every national park, but just because it's such a bummer that something that would have been considered a relatively low cost, wholesome, less commercial vacation for a family when I was a kid, is not expensive and must be planned a year in advance. It just sucks for families how hard it is to do low key, less expensive vacations these days.

Also agree that seeing these places with the huge crowds sounds pretty unappealing.

Maybe the key is to focus on state parks and maybe shifting focus from the really Instagram-friendly places with iconic views to places that might not have such amazing vistas but will be more approachable and affordable.

Anonymous wrote:Rent a camper van through Outdoorsy. Get campsites in the park. It's literally less than $40/night, and you don't need day use reservations if you have camping reservations.

Go in the off season.

We went to Glacier in a camper van in the last 2 weeks of August 2023, and we didn't book sites until July, checking daily for cancellations. Got to stay in Apgar, Two Medicine, and Many Glacier.

We went to Yellowstone and Teton in September. Again, stayed mostly in the parks and in Forest Service campgrounds in West Yellowstone. This was somewhat more expensive...Tetons were like $75/night to stay in park. But worth it to see sunrise and sunsets in the park. And we even saw the Aurora Borealis in West Yellowstone one night.

September 2023 crowds were not bad at all. The most we ever had to wait to get back in if we left the park was 5 minutes. A few things were closed in Teton and we drove Beartooth Highway literally the last day it was open before snows.

I know it gets more difficult to take older kids in the off season, but if you have elementary school kids it's definitely the way to go to visit the most popular National Parks.

If you're interested in hiking primarily, also consider the less popular but just as beautiful parks, like North Cascades in WA rather than Glacier. We got a cancellation at North Cascades Lodge at Stehekin for $175/night. It's not glamour but the hikes were amazing and we had million dollar views.

No.

Rent a camper van through Outdoorsy. Get campsites in the park. It's literally less than $40/night, and you don't need day use reservations if you have camping reservations.

Go in the off season.

We went to Glacier in a camper van in the last 2 weeks of August 2023, and we didn't book sites until July, checking daily for cancellations. Got to stay in Apgar, Two Medicine, and Many Glacier.

We went to Yellowstone and Teton in September. Again, stayed mostly in the parks and in Forest Service campgrounds in West Yellowstone. This was somewhat more expensive...Tetons were like $75/night to stay in park. But worth it to see sunrise and sunsets in the park. And we even saw the Aurora Borealis in West Yellowstone one night.

September 2023 crowds were not bad at all. The most we ever had to wait to get back in if we left the park was 5 minutes. A few things were closed in Teton and we drove Beartooth Highway literally the last day it was open before snows.

I know it gets more difficult to take older kids in the off season, but if you have elementary school kids it's definitely the way to go to visit the most popular National Parks.

If you're interested in hiking primarily, also consider the less popular but just as beautiful parks, like North Cascades in WA rather than Glacier. We got a cancellation at North Cascades Lodge at Stehekin for $175/night. It's not glamour but the hikes were amazing and we had million dollar views.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Interest in visiting national parks will not decrease.

This. Social media plays a role in this too. People who would otherwise have never known what certain places look like or that they even exist, now can see videos of them all the time.

I consider that a good thing. It can be viewed virtually. For locations that are nice but not worth paying $$$ for flight + hotel.

For example: Key West overland bridge, Arches NP Utah, Acadia Maine, or this one..
Kjeragbolten boulder. I can see it online, Youtube, etc.

Anonymous wrote:No. Interest in visiting national parks will not decrease.

This. Social media plays a role in this too. People who would otherwise have never known what certain places look like or that they even exist, now can see videos of them all the time.

This makes me think of that old adage - it's gotten so crowded no one goes there anymore.

Yogi Berra, right?

The thing is they are popular so it's paying what the market will bear. And that does price out some, but tourism is roaring back, all over.

The number of people is going up (for now at least) and the number of the most desired parks isn't (New River is great, but it's not taking people away from Yellowstone), so no. I don't think this dynamic will change.

No I don’t think so.

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about this. A few months ago, we attempted to plan a trip out to Glacier NP, Yellowstone and Grand Teton and it was horrifically expensive, when accounting for a rental car, flights, and lodging -- camping is out of the question -- we do not have the equipment plus we are flying. Also camping sucks). I couldn't find lodging within these parks so these were all at places in the gateway communities like West Yellowstone and West Glacier. And even then, was looking at over $400/night for some Best Western. To add on to this, you need day use reservations for like each area of Glacier National Park and we couldn't score those for the days we wanted (yes I know we could get them the day before or go before the gates open).

I know lodging in and nearby these parks can get expensive - I've been to all of them before, several times, but we wanted to bring the kids now that they're older and can tackle some of the big hikes. The reservation system is annoying because it takes all spontaneity out of the equation - if it's 50 degrees and pouring rain on the day you have your Many Glacier reservation and wanted to hike Grinnell Glacier, well, too bad.

Do you think visitation is ever going to go down? I know it's been up during the covid years, which made sense. But now that the world is open (and has been for years), and everyone can travel pretty much everywhere. You'd think it would go down.

We opted for an Iceland/Ireland trip instead, and it's actually cheaper which is crazy because it used to be doing a domestic trip to the national parks was a budget vacation. Not so much anymore. Hotels in Iceland were cheaper than that Best Western example I gave above.

We are park's family and did this too. Traveling to see NPS got so expensive.

I do not believe it will. It saddens me, since I grew up visiting national parks and stopped in 2019 when the crowds grew too much for me to handle, but it is what it is.

No. Interest in visiting national parks will not decrease.

I was just thinking about this. A few months ago, we attempted to plan a trip out to Glacier NP, Yellowstone and Grand Teton and it was horrifically expensive, when accounting for a rental car, flights, and lodging -- camping is out of the question -- we do not have the equipment plus we are flying. Also camping sucks). I couldn't find lodging within these parks so these were all at places in the gateway communities like West Yellowstone and West Glacier. And even then, was looking at over $400/night for some Best Western. To add on to this, you need day use reservations for like each area of Glacier National Park and we couldn't score those for the days we wanted (yes I know we could get them the day before or go before the gates open).

I know lodging in and nearby these parks can get expensive - I've been to all of them before, several times, but we wanted to bring the kids now that they're older and can tackle some of the big hikes. The reservation system is annoying because it takes all spontaneity out of the equation - if it's 50 degrees and pouring rain on the day you have your Many Glacier reservation and wanted to hike Grinnell Glacier, well, too bad.

Do you think visitation is ever going to go down? I know it's been up during the covid years, which made sense. But now that the world is open (and has been for years), and everyone can travel pretty much everywhere. You'd think it would go down.

We opted for an Iceland/Ireland trip instead, and it's actually cheaper which is crazy because it used to be doing a domestic trip to the national parks was a budget vacation. Not so much anymore. Hotels in Iceland were cheaper than that Best Western example I gave above.