5 Less-Crowded National Parks to Visit This Summer

The 2023 summer is set to be one of the busiest in National Park Service history, if not the busiest.

Parks from Yosemite to Arches and Zion have experienced exceptionally busy weekends this year and it doesn’t look like they’ll get any quieter through the summer.

As more and more people visit the parks, several national parks starting using some kind of reservation or entry system, too. These efforts are meant to control peak visitation periods, provide a park experience that’s as enjoyable as possible, and protect natural resources.

By now, it’s more than obvious that it’s going to be an overcrowded summer in most parks. If they aren’t already, many lodges and campgrounds are already fully booked for the season.

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Contents

You Can Escape the Summer Crowds at These Less Busy National Parks
5 Less Crowded National Parks to Visit This Summer
Other Less Crowded National Parks to Visit

You Can Escape the Summer Crowds at These Less Busy National Parks

If you had planned a trip to Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Arches, Zion, or Glacier—just to name a few—this summer and didn’t make any reservations yet, chances are you’ll have to postpone that. Or at the very least, be very flexible.

That said, however, there are a number of amazing alternatives to the popular national parks!

It’s still totally possible to have a national parks road trip this summer. You just need to be flexible and, maybe, go somewhere else.

The national park system includes several great less crowded national parks you can visit this summer instead. And it’s not because they’re less busy that they’re less beautiful.

In fact, many have just as much potential to offer you an unforgettable national park experience as busy tourist destinations like Yosemite, Joshua Tree and Grand Teton.

5 Less Crowded National Parks to Visit This Summer

This summer, consider visiting one of the following alternatives to national parks that are super-busy. This is an amazing opportunity to discover and immerse yourself in a completely new, perhaps unknown, part of the United States.

To show you just how much quieter these parks might be, I’ve also included the visitation numbers for each park from 2022.

Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

For hydrothermal features like Yellowstone

Lassen Volcanic visitors: 446,291
Yellowstone visitors: 3,290,242

Summit Lake Loop Trail boardwalk, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

Brokeoff Mountain summit in Lassen Volcanic National Park, less-crowded national parks to visit this summer

Situated in the remote northern part of California, Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the most underrated national parks in the United States.

Visited by only about half a million people each year, its many hydrothermal features make it a much less crowded alternative to extremely busy Yellowstone National Park.

Lassen Volcanic sits at the meeting point of the Cascade Range, the Great Basin Desert and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which creates an amazing melting pot of fauna and flora.

It is, however, the park’s hydrothermal features that make it so special. This is one of only a few places on Earth where you can see—and even hike on—the four types of volcanoes in the world.

In Lassen Volcanic National Park, you can hike to the top of cinder cone, shield, composite and plug dome volcanoes. Other fascinating features include boiling mud pots and hissing fumaroles, which are especially densely concentrated at Bumpass Hell.

The park’s namesake volcano, Lassen Peak, one of the biggest plug dome volcanoes on the planet. It erupted as recently as 1914-1921, with its most powerful recent eruption taking place in May of 1915.

Nowadays, Lassen Volcanic National Park is a relatively peaceful place. You can explore wildflower-filled meadows, pristine mountain lakes and sprawling forests.

More About Lassen Volcanic National Park

Canyonlands National Park, Utah

For spectacular canyons like Zion or Grand Canyon

Canyonlands visitors: 779,147
Zion visitors: 4,692,417
Grand Canyon visitors: 4,732,101

Green River Overlook, Island in the Sky attractions, Canyonlands National Park

Gooseberry Trail in Canyonlands National Park

If you are looking for an alternative to the overcrowded Southwest national parks, such as Zion and Grand Canyon, consider visiting Canyonlands National Park instead.

Although this is the most-visited park on this list, it still gets only a fraction of the visitors that overrun Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks each summer.

Located basically across the road from popular Arches National Park in southeastern Utah, Canyonlands is visited by fewer than 800,000 people each year. While that’s not a particularly low number, it’s very easy to escape the crowds at this breathtaking national park.

Canyonlands National Park encompasses four different districts: the Island in the Sky, the Maze, the Needles and the Rivers (the Colorado and Green Rivers).

The Island in the Sky is the most accessible and busiest area of the park, yet a number of hiking trails lead deep into the canyons below the rim, far away from the parking lots and overlooks.

The other three areas are virtually empty, vast wildernesses crisscrossed only by hiking trails and gravel roads.

This is a phenomenal national park for backpacking, backcountry camping, 4WD adventures and mountain biking trips. Its night skies are among the greatest anywhere in America, while the opportunity to find solitude is unparalleled.

More About Canyonlands National Park

North Cascades National Park, Washington

For rugged mountains like Glacier, Grand Teton or Rocky Mountain

North Cascades visitors: 30,154
Glacier visitors: 2,908,458
Grand Teton visitors: 2,806,223
Rocky Mountain visitors: 4,300,424

Cascade Pass hiker in North Cascades National Park, one of the less-crowded national parks to visit this summer

Lupines on Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades National Park, one of the less busy national parks you could visit this summer

While celebrity mountain parks like Glacier, Grand Teton and Rocky Mountain National Park collectively attract over 10 million people annually, North Cascades National Park manages to remain exceptionally quiet.

In 2022, fewer than 35,000 people went there!

This fact keeps surprising me, simply because the alpine scenery in the North Cascades is absolutely jaw-dropping. It is one of my all-time favorite national parks.

North Cascades National Park in northern Washington State is almost entirely comprised of designated wilderness. There’s only one road into the park, the last stretch of which is unpaved.

You can also get into the park on foot on some spectacular day hikes or by boat. This is easily one of the greatest less crowded national parks you could visit this summer.

In the North Cascades, wild rivers chisel their way through steep valleys, while countless glaciers flow slowly down mountain slopes.

In the brief summer season, an abundance of wildflowers carpet alpine meadows. Wildlife abounds here, too, from pikas, mountain goats and marmots to black bears, wolverines and even the occasional grizzly bear.

The entire North Cascades National Park Service Complex also includes the Ross Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas.

The two recreation areas do have paved roads, car campgrounds, accessible viewpoints, visitor facilities and other man-made features, especially the three hydropower dams on the Skagit River.

The secluded Ross Lake Resort, accessible only on foot or by boat, offers the ultimate national parks getaway. Also, don’t miss the glorious view of Diablo Lake!

More About North Cascades National Park

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

For desert scenery like Death Valley or Joshua Tree

Great Sand Dunes visitors: 493,428
Death Valley visitors: 1,128,862
Joshua Tree visitors: 3,058,294

Medano Creek, sand dunes and Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Sand boarding in Great Sand Dunes National Park, an amazing less-crowded national park to explore in summer

Considering the amazing scenery and fun activities of Great Sand Dunes National Park, it is remarkable that the park gets less than a third of the visitors of Death Valley. It is much less crowded than that other California desert park, Joshua Tree, too.

At Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado, you can hike, sand board and sled in the tallest sand dunes of North America.

The park’s massive dune field is just across from its visitor center and only campground—you have to walk across shallow, bubbling Medano Creek to get there.

This relatively quiet national park is a great alternative to southern California’s super-busy parks. And there’s much more to it than “just” those giant sand dunes.

Great Sand Dunes National Park is home to no fewer than seven life zones, from desert-like shrublands and wildlife-rich wetlands to conifer forests and alpine tundra high up in the striking Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Additionally, at night, the park offers some of the best stargazing in the country.

More About Great Sand Dunes National Park

Redwood National Park, California

For big trees like Sequoia or Yosemite

Redwood visitors: 458,400
Sequoia visitors: 1,153,198
Yosemite visitors: 3,667,550

Stout Grove Trail, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, California

Gold Bluffs Beach Campground morning sunshine, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California

If you planned to see some giant trees on your summer holiday, I’d suggest you skip Sequoia and Yosemite this year.

Instead, head to northern California and visit the Redwood National and State Parks complex. The National Park Service and California State Parks jointly manage this amazing complex of parks—one national park and three state parks—which collectively are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Redwood National and State Parks preserves some of the last remaining groves of coast redwoods in the world. This is where you can see and walk among the tallest trees on Earth, many soaring over 350 feet above the forest floor.

Besides walking in these ancient forests of enormous trees, the parks also offer several other fun activities and attractions.

You can camp on the beach at Gold Bluff Beach Campground, one of our favorite national park campgrounds, see Roosevelt elk grazing in native prairies, walk through the incredibly lush Fern Canyon and kayak on crystal-clear rivers.

More About Redwood National Park

If you have time, I recommend combining a trip to Redwood National Park with a visit to (relatively) nearby Lassen Volcanic National Park (see above). Both parks are part of the epic Circle of Discovery Driving Route, which also includes Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

Other Less Crowded National Parks to Visit

Besides the five amazing parks featured above, there are several other less crowded national parks you can visit this summer. From Michigan to Texas, they’re the following:

Isle Royale National Park, Michigan (25,454 annual visitors)
Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida (78,488 annual visitors)
Great Basin National Park, Nevada (142,115 annual visitors)
Congaree National Park, South Carolina (204,522 annual visitors)
Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota (221,434 annual visitors)
Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas (219,987 annual visitors)

As you can see, there’s no need to panic if your preferred national park happens to be fully booked or simply too busy to be enjoyable. There are several fantastic alternative, less crowded national parks to visit this summer and escape the crowds!