Exploring the Parks

As my wife and I got out of our car in front of the visitor center at Colter Bay, we looked around the expansive parking lot to find--no one there. We were entirely alone at one of Grand Teton National Park's most popular summertime destinations. In just four months, hundreds of cars, trucks, and RVs will fill this and other lots at Signal Mountain, Jenny Lake and Jackson Lake lodges, but this was mid-week in February, and only the heated bathroom at the visitor center was open.

Dale Ditmanson, retired superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, used to say that we need to give national park visitors the best experience possible because they might never have a chance to visit again. Nowhere is that sentiment truer than in Rapa Nui National Park.

There's never enough time to meet all the people and see all the places that make the National Park System the envy of the world, but over the past 12 months, the Traveler has "explored" quite a few parks, and we list those stories here to help you plan your next national park adventure.

Cabrillo National Monument is one of the little gems of the National Park System. Located at the tip of Point Loma, a peninsula that’s on the northwest side of San Diego Bay. Only 160 acres and surrounded by a major Naval base and Coast Guard station, Cabrillo is nevertheless a tiny treasure — and because of its proximity to one of America’s largest urban areas, it’s one of the most heavily visited pieces of the park system.