By the time I got to the entrance booth at Canyonlands National Park, I’d been waiting in line for almost an hour. The sun was hot—I’d spent the cool part of the morning in my car, instead of on the trail. When I asked the ranger at the gate what was going on, he told me that they were extra crowded because Arches National Park, across the road, had hit capacity and closed its gates. Even in a town with two national parks, there wasn’t enough space to go around. 

This summer, that exact kind of overcrowding is happening in popular national parks across the country. If you’re like me—craving scenery, solitude, and time outside—that crush of people can feel stressful and run counter to the very objective of putting yourself in nature. But everyone deserves access to the outdoors—and national parks, especially the popular marquee sites, amount to just a small fraction of the public lands that are yours to visit. So, as we get deeper into a summer that’s sure to see ever more crowded parks, check out some alternatives to the busiest ones, organized by region. 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the country, is known for its wildlife viewing, wildflowers, and waterfalls. But—because it’s within driving distance of several major metro areas—it’s also known for its crowds. The good news is, you can get its signature experiences at plenty of other great places in the Southeast. 

If you want to see wildlife, check out the Nantahala National Forest. North Carolina’s biggest national forest holds a half million acres of dense, wild forest and hundreds of miles of trails. Keep your eye out for bears, elk, beavers, and birds like the yellow-bellied sapsucker.

More of a plant person? The high-elevation bogs and heath of Dolly Sods Wilderness, in West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest, feel more like northern Canada than Appalachia. Its rare climatic conditions mean the zone is full of hard-to-find plant communities. Come in the early summer for azalea and mountain laurel or later in the year to see insect-eating sundew plants.

More interested in moving water? Stop by Looking Glass Falls in the Pisgah National Forest, and don’t plan on stopping there—there are five other falls to visit in the park.

Because Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are only 30 miles apart, visitors often link the two popular parks together into one big trip. This year, visitation in the area has already been up by half, and park officials are warning visitors that there’s nowhere to sleep or park in the parks. Luckily the surrounding mountains are also chock-full of wilderness and wildlife.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to Yellowstone all year to see large mammals like elk, moose, and bison and to try to get a glimpse of keystone predators like bears and wolves. You can also spot a variety of species at the Bison Range, managed by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, or at Custer State Park, located just over the South Dakota border.

The Tetons aren’t the only stunning peaks to climb in the area. Wyoming’s Cirque of the Towers, in the nearby Wind River Range, is arguably even more aesthetically pleasing, and often much less crowded. And if you want to be close to water, skip GTNP’s Jenny Lake and instead head to Redfish Lake, in Idaho’s Sawtooth National Recreation Area. If you’re craving some geothermal activity, there are tons of hot springs nearby.

If you’ve seen Free Solo, you know that California’s Yosemite National Park is home to some of the best big-wall climbing in the world—and you might have also noticed that it’s nearly impossible to get a spot in the coveted Camp 4 campground, where the climbers hang out. It’s not much easier to get a permit to climb the cables of Half Dome or to find a parking spot pretty much anywhere on the valley floor.

For challenging climbing with fewer crowds and easier camp spots, head to the Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine, where you’ll find a wide variety of sport routes on three different kinds of rock and stunning high-mountain scenery.

Visiting for the geology and waterfalls? Head to Mammoth Lakes and check out Devils Postpile National Monument, where you can hike into the Postpile, a wall of hexagonal basalt columns, as well as the 110-foot-tall Rainbow Falls.

Yosemite boasts three major groves of giant sequoias, but you can also see stands of big trees in places like Calaveras Big Trees State Park, which has two easily accessible forests of ancient trees. 

This year, you need timed reservations to visit Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park because the park has been so busy, staff numbers are down, COVID-19 made housing and busing challenging, and because parts of the park burned in last year’s massive fires. If you didn’t plan ahead for a reservation, there are other nearby places to get out into the high country.

Craving some classic Rockies climbing? Head south of Rocky Mountain National Park to Eldorado Canyon State Park, where you can find classic, wide-ranging multipitch climbing on golden sandstone cliffs.  

Big herds of elk frequent Rocky, but you can also see them, along with moose and other wildlife, in Colorado’s State Forest State Park, which has plenty of jagged mountains and alpine lakes to explore as well. If you’re looking for hiking trails—either multiday loops or day hikes close to Denver—you can find them in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, south of the national park. The wilderness contains 50 lakes and seven peaks over 13,000 feet.

Summer is always a tough time to visit the Grand Canyon because of the heat. This year, as Arizona opens back up, it should be even rougher, because of the crowds. Unless you got a permit to float the river, we say skip the GC and find somewhere more remote and just as beautiful. 

If you’re looking to hike into a deep, remote canyon, check out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The vertical relief isn’t quite as dramatic as the big ditch, but your legs might not mind on the way out, and your eyeballs probably won’t complain either. 

Just here for the geology and to gape at rock formations? Visit the spectacular vistas of Monument Valley and take a tour from a Navajo guide, who can fill you in on the geologic and cultural history. If you’re most interested in the history and culture of the area, Ancestral Puebloans and their descendants have lived in and around Canyon de Chelly for 5,000 years, so there is much to learn there.

(Editor's note: Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly have been closed for COVID, but they should reopen any day.)