National Parks are some of the most beautiful destinations in the United States. Popular national parks, such as the Great Smoky Mountains and Yosemite, have millions of visitors every year. And while national parks are large, open spaces, crowds can be a problem.

I highly recommend visiting these lesser-known national parks to beat the crowds and discover some hidden gems.

When you visit popular national parks, the tips in this guide will help you have the best trip possible.

Here are the best tips for visiting popular national parks!

Visit in the Off-Season

The peak travel season for every national park is summer. June – August has the largest crowds, longest lines, and highest prices of the year.

This means you’ll be competing for parking spots, trailhead access, and views at overlooks. Plus, the more people there are, the harder it is to spot wildlife.

So to avoid the crowds and save some money, visit in the shoulder or off-seasons. Visiting popular national parks in the non-peak seasons is also a way to prevent overtourism – when tourism becomes harmful to a destination.

National Parks are fragile ecosystems, and we need to do everything we can to protect and preserve them.

Visit on Weekdays

When you visit national parks in the peak summer months, try to go on weekdays when the crowds and prices will be slightly less than on the weekends.

Parks with fall foliage, such as the Great Smoky Mountains and Acadia National Park, can fill up on weekends in mid-September – October.

If you want to have a popular national park practically to yourself, then visit on a weekday in the off-season.

Arrive Early

If you’re visiting a popular national park in the peak summer months, then you’ll want to arrive at trailheads and scenic drives as early as possible. I’m talking pre-dawn sometimes.

When I visited Glacier National Park in July, I arrived at Bowman Lake around 6:30 am, and the parking lot was already almost full. When I got back to my car around 10 am to leave, there was a two-hour wait to get into the parking lot.

So be prepared to get up early!

Stay As Close To the Park As Possible

Booking a hotel, vacation home, campground, or RV site inside national parks can save you a lot of driving time, allowing you to arrive earlier and stay longer.

Many accommodations inside the parks also have free shuttle services, exclusive guided activities, or extended access to the park.

Accommodation inside national parks can book up more than a year in advance, so you’ll need to make reservations as early as 12-16 months before your trip. If you can’t find accommodation inside a park, get as close to a park entrance as possible.

Some of the popular national parks require timed entry tickets for their popular drives and hikes. Often, this is only the case during the peak summer months. But no matter when you’re visiting, you’ll always want to check if reservations are required for anything inside a park.

Examples are the Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier National Park and the Cadillac Mountain Summit road in Acadia National Park, which require reservations for cars (and sometimes for bikes).

Occasionally, popular national parks even require reservations to get inside the park. These are called day-use reservations, and this is becoming more and more popular. Limiting the number of visitors a day provides a better visitor experience and protects the parks from overcrowding.

Plan Your Time in the Park

Most of the popular national parks are massive. Yellowstone, for example, covers nearly 3,500 square miles. So you have to arrive with a plan. Otherwise, you’ll be overwhelmed.

Even in the smaller national parks, such as Acadia, it’s impossible to see and do everything in one trip. So the first thing you need to do is prioritize your activities.

Then you need to group these activities by location. Driving can be time-consuming in national parks, so map out your routes carefully.

Sometimes, despite your best effort and planning, a hike will be closed, or a trailhead parking lot will be full, or an excursion will be canceled.

When this happens, the first thing I try to do is flip-flop days – if I can’t do what I want to do on Monday, I do what I had planned for Tuesday. Then on Tuesday, I do what I had planned on Monday.

But sometimes, a trail or scenic drive may be closed for your entire trip. In this case, you’ll need to find an alternative activity. To keep from being too disappointed if this happens, you should go ahead and choose some alternative activities ahead of time “just in case.”

When you’re planning your national park trip, schedule your top activities on your first days. This way, if a trail is closed or an activity is canceled, you’ve got time later in your trip to make it up, if possible.

Get Off The Beaten Path

All popular national parks have lesser-visited areas where you can escape some of the crowds, even in the summer months. 

These off-the-beaten-path sections of national parks often have the best wildlife viewing and most pristine landscapes. 

So instead of waiting in line, circling the parking lot, and fighting with crowds at Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, head to the Wayah Bald Lookout Tower to have one of the best viewpoints in the park all to yourself.

Check With Rangers

Things can change quickly in a national park – the weather, road conditions, wildlife presence, etc. So anytime I pass a ranger station, I always stop and ask if anything has changed or closed.

This way, if the trail I’m headed to was washed out earlier in the day, I can find out before I drive all the way to the trailhead. 

Book Ahead of Time

Timed entry tickets for national parks usually go on sale 90 days in advance, and I recommend booking your times as early as possible.

Hotels and campsites inside popular national parks are usually booked at least a year in advance. Even accommodation outside the parks can fill up in the peak summer months, so reserve your accommodation as soon as you can.

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This guide about Tips for Visiting Popular National Parks is not a sponsored post, and the thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own. Some of the links in this post about Tips for Visiting Popular National Parks are affiliate links, and, at no cost to you, I may earn a small commission.