National Parks Guide: make the most of your visit
We visited 10 National Parks in the United States, and despite careful planning of our itineraries, we realized that some details can only be learned after visiting them.
Here is a list of tips and tricks we collected during our trip.
CHECK OUT THE OFFICIAL WEBSITES
The great thing about parks in the USA, is that they are carefully catalogued by the official protection agency. At the NPS Website you can easily find all the information you need to plan your visit and excursions, and all the trails are illustrated in detail.
KEEP GOOGLE MAPS AT HAND
You might want to keep at your fingertips Google Maps: the paths through the parks are well marked. It is not essential to have a paper map, because if you have available (even offline) Google Maps, you can follow your route in detail.
BEWARE OF ESTIMATES
Instructions on the guides and official websites, in terms of difficulty of the routes and travel times, tends to be overestimated. It may be because of the type of tourists who generally frequent the parks, mostly families, even elderly people, and often untrained people, but the timing indicated on the hiking trails, and the level of training required, are unrealistic.
For our level of training, from moderate to well prepared, we found these values way overestimated. Know your training level, check for distances and heights, and estimate yourself!
EFFORTLESS SUNRISE AND SUNSET
Planning where to watch sunrise and sunset is easier than expected! Most parks have clearly defined Sunrise or Sunset viewpoints. And so, without too much effort, you can be sure that by reaching these places, you will enjoy an ideal view. It doesn't hurt, then, that these places are often reachable by car, or a few steps from the last parking lot.
PASSES AND PERMITS
Admission to parks in the United States is not free, as you might guess. You must have a permit to enter, visit or just pass through the park. There are individual passes, different for each park, which are valid weekly, or annual, valid for all parks manned by the NPS (National Park Service). The costs differ between entrances on foot or by vehicle.
You have to pay attention to the roads that you take within the parks. For busier parks, such as the Grand Canyon, there are gates at the entrance to the roads that cross them, where rangers check permits or sell entry passes. Most parks, however, do not have checkpoints at every road, and permits are often not monitored. So be aware of whether or not you need a permit to drive on a particular road, because at a random check you will need to show your card.
In addition, access to parks tends to be allowed for 24 hours a day, and entry is not monitored at night. So if you are on your first admission and plan to arrive during the night, or before dawn, check the park's activity hours, as you will need to purchase your permit before entering.
ANNUAL PASS
If you intend to visit at least two National Parks, it will be cheaper to buy the annual card for access to all the parks in the USA, "America the Beautiful". This pass is valid for one year from the first entry, and costs $80 per vehicle.
It can also be purchased online at the official Website, but the easiest thing to do is to buy it directly from the rangers who supervise the entrance to the parks.
For access to a single park, the price varies depending on the park in question, ranging from $35/vehicle for major parks like Grand Canyon, Bryce or Zion ($20 for walking admission) to $20/vehicle ($10 on foot) for smaller parks like Capitol Reef.
WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED
Even if you have the annual membership card, you won't have access to all parks in the US. Be careful with the designation, as some are not officially National Parks, but belong to other entities.
For example, Monument Valley or Antelope Canyon, belong to a Navajo reserve, and therefore require additional entrance fees. Areas designated as National Monuments or National Forests, for example, are instead included.
This content is NOT SPONSORED, but based on my genuine personal experience. Spontaneous opinions, positive and negative, shareable or not, that I hope will help to live better travel experiences. My advice is a guide to lead you through world explorations, but the real journey, you build it!
