10 Less Crowded National Parks as Road Trip Fever Heats Up

Even though the pandemic closed Great Smoky Mountains National Park for almost two months in peak season last year, this most popular of national parks had a million more visitors in 2020 than 2019, according to the National Park Service. Yellowstone, another favorite, saw record-breaking numbers last autumn despite its earlier shut-down.   

As spring fever heats up, you can bet that the National Parks will be a magnet for millions wanting to shed the COVID-and-weather-intense winter. With travel precautions still a concern, experts at AAA predict surges in road trips. 

But you can enjoy magnificent natural treasures without feeling like you are at Times Square on a pre-pandemic New Year’s Eve. Here are 10 destinations to fill your wanderlust without crowds. 

Find planning/reservation tips in Eye Rolls & Awe: A National Park Road Trip with Teens and always check park websites for rules/closures before traveling. But remember, you can’t really make a bad choice when it comes to visiting our public treasures. 

1. Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park instead of Great Smoky Mountains
   Enjoy fabulous peaks, sweeping views, waterfalls, scenic drives and hundreds of miles of trails with a fraction of the visitors (1.4 million a year compared to 12.1 million in the Smokie s). There are no figures yet, but another fabulous alternative is the latest national park: New River Gorge National Park in southern West Virginia, featuring the namesake whitewater river flowing through deep canyons.

2. Nevada’s Great Basin National Park instead of Rocky Mountain National Park
   Breathtaking Wheeler Peak towers over fragrant sage brush and the stunning Lehman Caves in this little visited gem of a park (less than 132,000 people came in 2019 compared to nearly 5 million at the perpetually popular Rocky Mountain National Park.) A bonus is Great Basin’s designation as an International Dark Sky Park! 

3. Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison instead of Grand Canyon National Park
   Boasting a south and north rim like its famous cousin, Black Canyon is a vertical wonder with depths to 2,700 feet carved over two millions years by weather and the powerful Gunnison River. (In 2019 it got less than 500,000 visitors compared to Grand Canyon’s nearly six million.) If you’re still set on the Grand Canyon, opt for the quieter north rim.

4. California’s Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks instead of Yosemite National Park
   Just a few hours away from Yosemite, the jointly run Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks offer 800 miles of trails through spectacular peaks and past the largest trees on earth ­– the giant sequoias. Enjoy their amazing beauty with a quarter of the annual 4.5 million visitors to Yosemite.

5. Utah’s Capitol Reef or Canyonlands National Parks instead of Zion or Arches National Parks
   Getting a quarter of the people as its famous Utah relatives (700,000 at Canyonlands and 1.2 million at Capital Reef vs 4.5 million at Zion), Capitol Reef or Canyonlands also offer magnificent 360-degree views with cliffs, canyons, arches and sandstone sculptures. 

6. Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park or Minnesota’s Voyageurs National Park instead of Acadia National Park
   With less than 30,000 visitors a year at Isle Royale and just a few hundred thousand at Voyageurs compared to Acadia’s 3.4 million, either are a wonderful choice for solitude, beauty, water activities and unspoiled wilderness. Isle Royale is only accessible by ferry.

7. Washington’s North Cascades National Park instead of Glacier National Park 
   Known as the “American Alps,” the little-explored North Cascades (38,000 visitors a year compared to 3.2 million in Glacier) contains more than 300 glaciers and namesake cascades that rush into lush valleys providing home to a diversity of wildlife, including gray wolves, grizzlies and eagles.

8. Texas’ Guadalupe Mountains National Park instead of Joshua Tree National Park
   Once under a vast inland sea, the mountainous Guadalupe park preserves one of the most biodiverse marine fossil reefs on earth, with some species found nowhere else. (The park offers an awesome Fossil Identification Guide.) While it only attracted less than 200,000 visitors compared to Joshua Tree’s 2.99 million, those who came enjoyed the streams, woodlands, rocky canyons. 

9. California’s Lassen Volcanic National Park instead of Yellowstone National Park 
   Lassen boasts bubbling hot springs, eerie mud pots and fabulous fumaroles with a quarter of the crowds (517,000 visitors vs 4+ million). A 185-mile Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway brings you past lava fields and volcanic peaks, including its namesake Lassen Peak, which offers panoramic views from its 10,000-foot summit, accessible on a 5-mile round-trip hike. 

10. Arizona’s Saguaro National Park instead of Joshua Tree National Park
    Get the wonderful desert experience, complete with towering Saguaro cacti, just 15 miles from Tucson and with only a third of the number of visitors to Joshua Tree (1 million vs 2.9 million.) Also enjoy the southwest’s largest collection of petroglyphs.