How to improve national park trips

By Cheri Sicard
In the video below from RV Miles, one of the winners of our 2024 RV video awards, Jason Epperson covers ways to improve your next national parks trip, along with ways RVers might be self-sabotaging their national parks experiences. One of the ways is by not going at all and writing off national parks with comments like, “They are too crowded.” This is a shame. Sure, the spaces outside the park might be beautiful, too, but our national parks are special. Don’t pass them up, watch the video and heed Jason’s tips.

Jason set out to identify the mistakes RVers typically make on national park trips and ways to remedy them. Most of these common mistakes involve either a lack of planning or a lack of understanding.

Common national park trip mistakes

• Trying to do too much: Jason’s biggest problem is that people want to do and see too many things in one trip. With this plan, you’ll spend all your time driving and not get to see much. Slow down and keep your itinerary reasonable. Seek quality experiences over quantity.

• Lack of planning: The days of driving to a national park and scoring a campsite without a reservation are sadly gone for the most part. Plan your trip and make reservations well in advance. Research in advance when the park you want to visit opens up reservations, and be ready to reserve on that day for the best campsites.

• Staying too far from the park: Sometimes, national parks are so big that it can take a significant amount of time to get to sights and attractions within the parks themselves. If you stay far from the park, you could end up doing a lot of extra driving and wasting a lot of time that could otherwise be spent enjoying the national park.

• Going at the wrong time of year: Seasons matter, especially if you want to avoid overcrowding. If you can, try to plan visits in the off or “shoulder” season. When this is will vary from park to park.

• Sightseeing at the wrong time of day: Another crowd-avoidance tip is to get up early or stay later. Everyone else arrives around 10 a.m. and leaves about 3 p.m.. If possible, try to go at other times.

• Not mapping your routes within the park: Attractions within large national parks are often far from each other. Map out the routes to things you want to see so that you make the most use of your time.

• Not knowing before you go: Research park rules, activities, hours, permits, reservations, program schedules, etc., so you don’t miss out.

• Being unprepared: Being unprepared for weather changes and emergencies or not having the proper gear can ruin a national parks trip. 

How to maximize your national park experience

• Visit the visitor’s center, talk to a ranger, and get an idea of everything the park and surrounding area offer.
• Spend some time on YouTube and listen to podcasts about the park in advance.
• Research trails and match them to your fitness level before heading out.
• Leave the national park better than you found it to help protect it for future generations.

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• How I scored a national park campsite on a weekend
• 6 tips for scoring a national park campsite
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