Get Out of the Car and Away From the Crowds at Less-Visited Parks

Geysers, waterfalls, bears, bald eagles, sand dunes, giant boulders--who needs a theme park when the nation’s national parks and recreation areas have more than enough to entertain and even wow the kids?

There’s probably no cheaper place to take them, especially if you like to camp out or stay in cozy cabins. The attractions are free, and $50 buys you an annual pass good for all 385 designated areas in the national park system. Invite the grandparents: Those 62 and older get a lifetime pass for $10, entitling them to bring a carload of relatives with them. (To link to individual parks and see what programs they offer, or to make reservations through the National Park Service, visit www.nps.gov.)

My family has been to more than 20 of the best-known national parks and more than 50 of the others, and we have good memories of every one.

Everywhere we’ve been, friendly, knowledgeable rangers offered tips, whether it was making suggestions for good family hikes or providing information about hands-on junior ranger programs that, unlike many hotel programs, were free.

A big bonus: There are plenty of kids everywhere and room for them to run and jump.

One possible drawback, depending on where you plan to go: More than half of the national parks’ estimated 64 million annual visitors head to the same 10 parks, laments National Park Service spokesman Gerry Gaumer.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina, the most frequently visited, gets more than 10 million visitors a year. The Grand Canyon gets nearly 4.5 million. There are numerous traffic jams at Yellowstone, and it can feel like rush hour along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

It’s possible to get away from the crowds; these parks are huge, after all. But most families don’t stick around long enough to try.

“You’d be surprised at how many visitors don’t even get out of their cars,” Gaumer said. “I wish more people would go to one park and stay a few days rather than rush from place to place.”

Perhaps your family would like to stay in one of the grand, old-fashioned lodges that were built by railway barons at the turn of the 20th century to encourage train travel. A new PBS series on these lodges will be broadcast on Wednesdays in July. Visit www.greatlodges.com, or check out “The Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges,” by David L. Scott, which describes more than 100 lodging facilities in parks (Globe-Pequot Press, $17.95).

Last-minute travelers may have better luck this year getting the spot they want in a historic lodge, because park visitation is down. Be flexible and persistent. Many people book far in advance and then must cancel, officials say. For that reason, room availability is constantly changing. Visit www.xanterra.com to make reservations at lodges and cabins in Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion, and Death Valley. Contact local visitor bureaus for tips on places to stay that are just outside the parks.

Better yet, skip the busiest parks. You can fight the crowds at Grand Teton National Park (2.6 million annual visitors), or you can see just as much wildlife and just as many pristine mountain lakes at one of my favorite places, Glacier National Park in Montana (1.7 million visitors). Six years later, my family still talks about that hike to a glacier. You don’t have to go to Yellowstone (2.8 million annual visitors) to show kids geothermal wonders. You’ll find geysers, bubbling mud, hot springs and steam vents at Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California (372,000 visitors). There’s plenty of hiking, boating and horseback riding at Lassen too.

Skip Mammoth Cave (1.7 million annual visitors) in Kentucky and head for Carlsbad Caverns (450,000 visitors) in New Mexico. Carlsbad is known for the underground “Big Room,” one of the largest such chambers in the world; it could fit 14 football fields and an 18-story building inside. Even the most unenthusiastic teenager can’t help but be impressed by the 62-foot-high stalagmite. Watch the swarms of bats fly out of the Bat Cave at sundown in search of food (300 bats per second). Oregon’s Caves National Monument and South Dakota’s Jewel Cave and Wind Cave are also great bets.

Head to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado (179,000 annual visitors), where the scenery and wildlife can be just as spectacular as they are at Rocky Mountain National Park (3.3 million visitors).

Sure, Olympic National Park in Washington state is terrific. That’s why it’s one of the nation’s busiest, with 3.3 million annual visitors. But I prefer the solitude and beauty of 26-mile-wide Crater Lake National Park in Oregon (440,000 visitors) or North Cascades National Park in Washington (530,000 visitors), which is full of waterfalls, rivers and wildflowers.

Dinosaur fans will love Dinosaur National Monument (329,000 visitors), which straddles Colorado and Utah and includes a great dinosaur quarry. If you’re looking for long stretches of beach, consider Assateague National Seashore (1.9 million annual visitors), which runs along the Virginia and Maryland coasts, rather than Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina (2.5 million visitors). Assateague is famous for its wild-horse refuge.

Canoe in Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, or explore ancient Anasazi ruins at Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona. You’ll be amazed how happy the kids can be without TV or computers--most of the time, anyway. Just make sure everyone has broken in their hiking boots, and that you’ve stashed plenty of M&Ms; for the trail.

After all, chocolate never fails.

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Eileen Ogintz welcomes questions and comments from readers. Send e-mail to [email protected].