Here’s a stunning statistical head-to-head: the population of the United States is 327 million; the number of visitors to America’s National Parks in 2018 was 318 million. In other words, statistically speaking, every able-bodied American…and some on crutches…took in a national park last year.

Blame the hordes of retired Boomers who are wandering the country in RVs. Blame the desire to escape America’s urban hellscapes for some of the most striking scenery on the planet. Blame Ken Burns and his terrific America’s Best Idea miniseries. Whatever the reason, America’s National Parks are busier than a Costco parking lot the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Glacier is a good example. Visitors are compressed into a very short season; the famous Going to the Sun Road doesn’t get cleared until mid-June (or later) and the first snows can come in August. Little wonder that the National Park Service warns peak-season visitors that they can wait over an hour for a seat on one of the park’s free shuttle buses.

Yosemite: not the same but similarly crowded. Grand Canyon: ditto.  Zion: Over the Memorial Day weekend, visitors had to line up for hours to access the trail to breathtaking and lethal Angel’s Landing.

There are obvious solutions. We could increase entrance fees or the price of an annual pass. We could require reservations. We could develop apps that will track congestion (on roads and trails) and parking availability.  (Something like that is already underway for Zion.) Use your imagination.

Or you, intrepid traveler, could avoid the marquee parks and visit any of America’s less visited but still remarkable natural treasures. Last year, Backpacker Magazine did you a solid by creating a map that illustrates the traffic at a number of parks using a helpful backpackers-by-mile metric. Mt. Rainer wins the title of Most Crowded Volcano with 201 backpackers per trail mile. Great Basin is cited as the Best-Kept Secret with just 6 hikers per mile. (The map also includes the accurate but possibly unnecessary guidance that “Alaska is not crowded anywhere.”)

Most parks aren’t on the map but it’s still a useful tool for reminding you that there are so many places to get away from it all. Alone. Check it out here.

 

Photo: Waiting hours to hike the Angel’s Landing Trail in Zion National Park. Courtesy of the National Park Service.