Planning Your National Park Visits
Some Things to Consider
Pat Brennan | January 24, 2021
Note: All photographs taken by the Author with exception of Crater Lake winter photo.
When you visit a National Park the time of year and time of day may have a huge impact on the enjoyableness of your experience. There is a huge seasonal component to park visitation, and for parks that are extremely busy at certain times of the year arriving early in the day may be the only time you can find parking and avoid long lines for in-park transportation.
The National Park website, https://irma.nps.gov/STATS/Reports/Park/GRCA, provides data on all aspects of park visitations. To give you an idea of seasonal variation in attendance, let’s look at a chart I’ve made for Yosemite NP, one of the country’s most famous.
A visitor in May will find, on average, about 40% fewer visitors than July and August. That difference will affect availability of parking at various locations in the park, including the visitor’s center area, as well as the many other scenic areas for which parking is allotted. In 2019 I visited the park in mid-May on a weekday, and late October on a Saturday. Parking was available just about anywhere on the May visit, but fuhgetaboutit in October near the visitor’s center. Unless you arrived early in the day or got lucky, parking was virtually impossible to find.
And the park itself, because of the change of seasons, was very different. In May you have snow melt runoff providing plenty of water for the park’s many waterfalls such as Bridal Veil and Yosemite Falls. The Merced River, which runs through the park, was ripping. In October, we could not see any water flowing over Yosemite Falls and the park was much drier and the foliage beautiful. A very different experience.
Next, let’s look at one of America’s most popular parks, and possibly my favorite, Zion NP.
First, look at the growth in visitation from 2009 to 2019. In some months, the increase is over 50%. Why? The state of Utah funded a huge marketing campaign for its five National Parks and, let’s not forget, social media. The many posts from visitors have stirred others seek the same experience. As you can see from the graph, a visitor in March will find fewer than half the visitors in July. When I visited Zion NP in early June, 2016, you could not find a parking spot in the main visitors lot after about 10:00 AM. When that occurs, visitors must find a place to stuff their vehicles on the entrance road or in the town of Springdale, just outside the park entrance, making the area very congested. To make matters worse, the bus transportation through the park also becomes crowded necessitating waits to board. If visiting the park during the summer peak season, I recommend arriving very early in the morning, say around 6:30 AM or so, for a couple of reasons. First, parking and transportation are readily available, and the hikes are much less crowded. The other reason is temperature. Southern Utah can be very hot in the summer and an early start to a vigorous hike, say to Angel’s Landing, is much easier and enjoyable in the cool of the early morning hours.
Now, let’s take a look at another park. For those in the east and southeast, a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains NP is very appealing.
The chart shows less dramatic growth in visitation since 2009 when compared to Zion NP, however, it has a strong seasonal component and heavy visitation during the fall foliage season. Again, the season of your visit will change the experience in many ways.
Crater Lake NP has very limited access in the winter. Let’s look at how visitation varies throughout the year.
You can see that very few make it to the park during the winter, however, the scenery is fantastic any time of year. Also, notice the huge growth in attendance from 2014 to 2019 in the summer months.
As of this morning, Jan 24th, 2021, here is what’s open:
North Entrance and Rim Drive are Closed
Winter road closures are currently in effect. The park’s North Entrance Road, Rim Drive, and Pinnacles Road are closed to automobiles. The park’s West and South Entrances are open.
Thus, when you visit our National Parks makes all the difference.
Onward,
Pat Brennan
Pat Brennan is the founder of bucksandparks.com.
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