4 Uncrowded National Parks to Visit This Summer

America’s national parks protect some of our most precious landscapes, natural wonders and historic heritage, and they are also popular destinations for family travel. But that popularity may discourage you when you hear about crowds, lines and waiting lists for timed entry at the most-visited parks.

This summer, why not plan on exploring some of these least-visited and lesser well-known parks, where crowds are minimal and experiences maximal.

North Cascades National Park
Close enough to Seattle for a daytrip, North Cascades National Park protects a landscape reminiscent of the Alps, with multiple glaciers, mountain peaks, glacial lakes, waterfalls and forests. Hiking trails crisscross the park, which lies on the route of the Pacific Crest Trail. Camp there and go fishing, rock climbing or rafting. You can also follow trails to discover abandoned mines.

Great Basin National Park
You’ll find more glaciers at Great Basin National Park in Nevada, along with Lehman Cave, a limestone cavern system with unusual stalactite and stalagmite formations and easy access. Known for its dark skies, Great Basin is ideal for stargazing, with the best visibility of the Milky Way anywhere in the lower 48 states.

Gunnison National Park
To more fully appreciate the power of volcanoes and water, walk around the rim or follow the wooden walkways through Black Canyon in Colorado’s Gunnison National Park. Two million years ago, the Gunnison River began eroding away the rock left from a massive volcanic eruption, creating the 2,700-foot-deep canyon bounded by jagged granite walls. In addition to marveling at the canyon, families enjoy camping, kayaking, rafting, hiking and rock climbing.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Geology and history mix at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, where the limestone mountains were once a coral reef in an inland sea that dried up 260 million years ago. Later, tectonic forces split the reef, thrusting the Western Escarpment of the Guadalupe Mountains to elevations more than 8,000 feet above sea level.

Dedicated fossil devotees can take the challenging Permian Reef Trail, but the McKittrick Nature Trail also has plenty of fossils imbedded in the limestone. Visit relics of the Old West at the ruins of a former station on the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route and at the museum of pioneer history in the early settlement of Frijole.