A national park vacation can be one of the cheapest or one of the most expensive you can choose. Tenting and hiking with a map as your guide costs next to nothing; renting a beach house or a room in a luxury resort and taking guided outings can cost more than most of us have. Often, cheaper is better. We prefer a mix of camping and lodge rooms, which provides the best of both worlds. Here are some of the considerations in deciding how you want to visit.
Tent Camping
When you camp, you spend more relaxed time together, less time in restaurants, in the car, or in proximity to diversions like the TV that tend to draw the family apart. A campground is an infinite playground for children, one where you don't have to tell them not to run or jump on the bed. Kids often make friends in camp, too. For the grown-ups, the best park campgrounds put you in glorious places where you can experience nature by touch and smell as well as sight (some others are crowded and stark; each is reviewed in the park listings). Superb campgrounds are waiting at almost every park in the book, and absolutely amazing ones at Great Smoky Mountains, Grand Teton, Sequoia/Kings Canyon, and Olympic national parks.
Camping wins on price, too. Driving to a national park in the family car with the family tent may be the least expensive vacation you can take besides a trip to Grandma's house. Typical park campground fees are $20 or less a night, and groceries cost little more than you'd spend at home anyway.
The downside is that you won't be as clean at a campground as you're used to being at home -- trying to get a shower every day is inconvenient and wastes a lot of time, and washing young children in public showers is downright difficult. You're also at the mercy of the weather. If the going gets tough, give up. Check into a motel for the night, clean up, dry out gear, eat in a restaurant, and watch TV. Don't forget, a vacation is supposed to be fun.
Hotels
You can vacation in the parks by staying in hotels every night, but it takes more planning and money than camping and allows less freedom. The attractive hotels in the parks generally have to be reserved far in advance for the summer season. They typically don't have telephones, TVs, or swimming pools, although there are some significant exceptions to that rule. Some unique and wonderful places can make your vacation: The Sol Duc Hot Springs at Olympic, the Jackson Lake Lodge at Grand Teton, and the LeConte Lodge at Great Smoky come to mind. More often, park lodgings offer no better than average, out-of-date rooms, and some are truly terrible (see the park listings for details). Usually, it's much easier to get a room with a pool and other amenities outside the park in one of the gateway communities, although these too tend to book up in the high season. If possible, choose a place where you can cook, at least for part of your trip. Eating out for all your meals can get tiresome and expensive.
Cottages
Renting your own home at the park combines the comfort of hotel stays with the independence and relaxation of camping. Cottages with cooking facilities are available at or near Acadia, Cape Cod, Cape Hatteras, Great Smoky, and Olympic (limited choices are available at other parks). At the national seashores and Acadia, a summer cottage tradition makes it the best way to visit. Generally, cottage rentals require that you commit to a full week, reserve many months in advance, and put down a big deposit. By the night, they tend to be more expensive than hotels, but you offset some of that price difference by cooking your own meals rather than eating out.
Camping & Hotel Reservations
More people want to sleep in the national parks in the summer than the parks can accommodate. To ration campground sites and backcountry permits, the National Park Service has reservation systems that reward those who know the rules and know when to call or log-on. You can't buy your way around these systems or get an agent to reserve for you; the race goes to the prepared.
The National Park Reservation Service
The national reservation system currently handles some, but not all, campgrounds in Acadia, Cape Hatteras, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky, Olympic, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yosemite, and Zion parks. Other parks do not take reservations, offering sites on a first-come, first-served basis, and usually allowing you to choose your own site and self-register. Some reservation campgrounds, including the campgrounds at Yosemite Valley, allow you to request a particular site when you reserve. Even if they don't, rangers at the campground will give you your choice if you arrive early enough.
When to Reserve
Timing is everything. At all parks on the system other than Yosemite and Yellowstone, reservations become available on the 5th of the month for the following 5 months. For example, starting on January 5, you can reserve January 6 through June 4. For the next month, no additional days become available. Then, starting February 5, you can reserve the period through July 4. Popular campgrounds on popular dates fill as soon as they become available, so you need to make your move on the 5th day of the month 5 months before your trip. One trick: If your stay begins during the time for which reservations are open and extends beyond it, you can still reserve enough days to finish your stay -- during a time available to no one else. Of course, the phones are tied up on the 5th of each month, so you'll need patience if you call. The Internet is the better way to go. The system is the same for Yosemite, except that the magic date is the 15th of the month.
Who to Contact
One-stop shopping for reservations on the nation's public lands became something of a reality late in 2004. A company called ReserveAmerica (www.reserveamerica.com) won a contract to handle campground reservations for the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Bureau of Land Management. They have a content-rich website, with general descriptions of national parks as well as thousands of other recreational sites on public lands. There also are links to state tourism departments and search engines to help you find a wide array of activities, from angling to wildlife viewing, in each of the 50 states. By visiting its website, www.recreation.gov, you can make reservations at many national park campgrounds. There are some exceptions, however. At Yellowstone, Zion, and the Grand Canyon most campgrounds are managed by a concessionaire, Xanterra Parks & Resorts. There is a link to this company on the www.recreation.gov site, but if it doesn't work use www.beautiful-places-on-earth.com, which is Xanterra's home page. From there you can find the reservations section for each of these parks. The phone number for reservations is tel. 800/365-CAMP (800/365-2267) or, for Yosemite National Park only, tel. 800/436-PARK (800/436-7275). From outside the U.S., call tel. 301/722-1257. The TDD number is tel. 888/530-9796. The line is open from 10am to 10pm Eastern Standard Time every day except January 1 and December 25. The same hours apply to making online reservations, but you can use the site to check availability and get much other useful information at any time. It has details on each campground, online listings of how many sites are available for each date, and a way to make reservations.
How to Pay
You pay for your campsite when you reserve. The camping fee, which is typically a few dollars more than at a first-come, first-served campground, includes the reservation fee. You can charge it on Discover, MasterCard, or Visa, or, if reserving at least 21 days in advance, you can send a check or money order. If the money isn't received within 7 days of your call, the reservation is automatically canceled. Use the telephone to reserve, and ask the reservation clerk the information you need about sending in the money.
Using a Reservation
Once you pay for your reservation, you'll receive a voucher to present at the campground. If you arrive after the campground office closes, your site is posted on a bulletin board and you can set up camp. Come back to the office to check in the morning, however, or your reservation for your entire stay likely will be canceled. Each campground has a phone number to call in case you will be late. Get the number and open times for that campground when you reserve (on the website, the information comes up before you reserve). If you need to cancel up to the day before the first night of the reservation, call tel. 800/388-2733; the cancellation fee is $14 per reservation, but you get the entire camping fee back. On the day of the reservation, you have to call the park directly; then you pay the cancellation fee and lose the first night's camping fee. These are not large amounts of money. It makes sense to reserve and pay for as many nights as you think you might use; the insurance is worth it at busy parks.
Backcountry Camping Permits
You almost never need a permit for a day hike, but you usually do for overnight camping in national park backcountry, whether you get there by backpacking, by canoe, on horseback, or by other means. Sometimes you need a backcountry permit in national forests as well. Getting a permit is different at every park; sometimes it's as simple as filling out a form at a trail head, and sometimes you have to do it many months ahead at just the right time. I've covered those details in each park chapter in the "Campgrounds" section under "Family-Friendly Accommodations." If you plan a backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon or the high country camps at Yosemite, the permit should be your first priority, with other arrangements revolving around the dates you're able to get. If your dates are flexible, you improve your chances of going where you want to go.
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