Tips for Visiting National Parks

- Get a National Parks Pass!  One pass covers everyone in your car.   If you go to three major parks in a year, you've more than paid for it.  What it really does, though, is make it easy to peel off the road and visit a Park without thinking about the cost.  Even if you don't use it regularly, you're still contributing to a great cause. We had a busy year with ours, but we paid $50 and were able to get into $212 worth of National Parks and Monuments.

- Always have a good atlas with National Parks and Monuments in your car.  Find a good map or an atlas with National Parks prominently indicated. If your family's vacations are generally spent driving to see family, check out a National Parks map to see what's on the way.  Squeezing a National Park into the drive will really break up the monotony and give you some great memories.   You can't go visit a park if you don't know it's there.

- Buy or check out a good book to help you plan.  If you're going to vacation to National Parks, do your homework!   There are a lot of books available at your local library to give you tips on places to stay and visit.  We've done this for most parks we visit, and it really helps to prioritize your time and ensure you don't miss the hidden treasures.

- Take much more film (or memory sticks) than you think you'll need.   Film is cheap, and you don't want to be caught without it when you most need it!

- Take two cameras and extra batteries.  We always take our nice camera and a compact or disposable camera as a backup.  That way, even if Murphy's Law takes effect on the first camera, you won't miss everything.

- Get your friends and family in your pictures.   When taking pictures, try to get your family and friends in at least half the pictures.  They'll mean a lot more to you in the long run.

- Wear bright clothes.  Besides making it easier to keep eachother in sight on long hikes, wearing bright clothes will really add color to the photos you're in.

- Make a log of the pictures you take.  Nothing's more frustrating than the family discussion two weeks after the trip when no one can agree where in the Park the pictures were taken!  An extra park map is a good place to keep your log.

- Keep your photo expectations realistic.  We can't all be Ansel Adams, and photos will never do justice to the real thing.  But that's why you VISIT a National Park instead of just looking at pictures in a book.

- Take water and snacks.  Most parks have limited access to food, and trails are long, so a little food and water will help you enjoy yourself longer.

- Don't forget your sunscreen.  If your skin has a tendency to burn, nothing will ruin your Park experience quicker than a sunburn.

- Take a light jacket.  Even if you're going to Utah in the middle of July, you never know when there's going to be a rainstorm on the trail, and many parks have high elevations where the tempertures can drop significantly from lower elevations.

- Take a small pack.  If you take food, water, a camera, film, a jacket and sunscreen, it's nice to have something to put it in when you go hiking.   If you don't take a pack, you'll leave your essentials in the car and miss them when you need them.

- Put a small trash bag in your pack.  Not only will this help you avoid littering, but it gives you someplace to put other people's litter when you find it on the trail.  It doesn't matter how beautiful a National Park is, someone always thinks it's a fine place to litter.

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