Camping

For the best national-park experience, we believe you should not simply visit, look around, and leave, but rather you should move in and literally set up camp. The park becomes much more real when you see it during both nighttime and daytime. Gaze at its stars, fall asleep to the sound of a gentle breeze moving through the trees, and awaken to the songs of birds and the aroma of a nearby campfire. Because staying at a national park campground allows you to immerse yourself in the park experience, it is our first choice when vacationing here.

But the park campgrounds do fill up, and people have different needs and desires -- some even want an occasional shower! Fortunately, just outside the national park, there are a number of commercial campgrounds with hot showers, RV hookups, and all the niceties, and there are also some very pleasant national-forest campgrounds. Whatever you want in a camping experience, you're likely to find it here. One note, though: Those with especially large RVs, such as 40-footers with slide-out rooms, will find only a limited number of national-park and national-forest sites that can easily accommodate their rigs, due to low-hanging trees, close boulders, and uneven ground. Owners of such vehicles are often happier camping at a nearby RV park.