101 national park tips and photo ops

Alcatraz Island has been a tourist attraction for longer than it was a federal prison — 42 years versus 29 — and its popularity seems to be only growing.

Either before or after your road trip to Mount Rushmore National Memorial, head 16 miles west to South Dakota’s Crazy Horse Memorial.

Just north of Glacier National Park, Canada has its own amazing Rocky Mountain wonderland: Waterton Lakes National Park.

High Desert Test Sites is an artist’s organization that stages events and places artworks in the desert near Joshua Tree National Park.

Sunrises in Grand Canyon National Park reward photographers who rise early, but don’t forget the 10-gallon hats.

Posing for a companion’s photo at Grand Canyon National Park, a visitor spreads his arms as if to take flight from an unfenced ledge on the south rim.

Visitors to Grand Canyon National Park crowd onto one of the many viewpoints along Mather Point while the colors of sunrise begin to paint the sky.

Desert sunflowers stretch out near Highway 190 near Father Crowley Vista Point during a rare “super bloom� of wildflowers in Death Valley National Park.

The stars shine brightly at night near the Furnace Creek Resort in Death Valley National Park.

A rainbow forms during a rare stormy sunrise at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.

Unique salt structures form in Death Valley National Park’s Badwater Basin, where water combines with natural salt deposits at 282 feet below sea level.

The skies above Death Valley National Park’s Mesquite Flat Dunes are washed with colors at sunrise as a winter storm moves into the area.

A photographer on a sunrise walk is dwarfed by the scale of the Mesquite Flat Dunes in Death Valley National Park.

Canyonlands National Park lives up to its name with views that seem to stretch forever.

In Utah’s Arches National Park, the hike to North and South Windows is easy (stairways, dirt pathways from parking lots) and both windows make great frames.

Balanced Rock, in Arches National Park, is a tipsy-looking formation that has been carved by the elements for thousands of years.

If you stay for sunset at Delicate Arch at Arches National Park in Moab, Utah, bring a lightweight tripod.

Delicate Arch is Arches National Park’s most photographed attraction.

Down along the Texas-Mexico border, the Rio Grande slips into a series of deep canyons and dramatic desert landscapes.

For a medium-sized thrill at Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park, you climb the four short ladders that take you into Cliff Palace, a cliff dwelling with 150 rooms.

At Mesa Verde National Park, if you’re fairly fit and unafraid of heights, you can climb into history at the Cliff Palace.

If you visit Grand Canyon National Park in winter, expect snow and ice on the south rim.

It’s a thrill to savor, but not that many travelers these days get to take the classic mule ride at Grand Canyon National Park.

Go to Desert View Watchtower in Grand Canyon National Park.

Horseshoe Bend, four miles southwest of Page, Ariz., on U.S. Route 89, will mess with your head.

If you revere the music of singer-songwriter Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers, you’ll need to pay respects at Joshua Tree National Park’s Cap Rock.

It’ll take a little doing to find your way to solitude in Joshua Tree National Park these days.

Someday, when they get it open again, you’ll want to take a tour of Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley National Park.

Get to sunrise at Death Valley National Park’s Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. Failing that, sunset.

When you make that road trip to Death Valley National Park, don’t just drive to Badwater, which is famed for being the lowest point in North America.

On a riverside ridge near Redwood National and State Parks stands the Historic Requa Inn.

So, apparently we really will have to remember those annoying Yosemite name changes.

At Yosemite National Park, if you can’t get the lodging or camping spot you want in the valley, look into the Redwoods in Yosemite, a collection of rentable privately owned vacation cabins near the Big Trees Lodge (the former Wawona Hotel), about 45 minutes from the valley.

All grand old national park hotels are not created equal.

Whether you’re a hotel geek, an aficionado of horror or just another Colorado traveler, you might need to make a small detour in Estes Park, outside the east end of Rocky Mountain National Park.

The Jackson Lake Lodge is an ugly, brown box – a bad moment in mid-century design -- but you might want to stay in one of its 385 rooms anyway.

El Tovar is the fanciest hotel on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

You’ll need to do some advance work to get a reservation, but Lassen Volcanic National Park’s underappreciated Drakesbad Guest Ranch, about 170 miles north of Sacramento, is a rare throwback that’s worth it.

In Montana’s Glacier National Park, the Rocky Mountain views are epic and the scale is jumbo at the Many Glacier Hotel, which looms at the edge of Swiftcurrent Lake on the east side of this Montana park.

First point: Crater Lake National Park is basically built around one great view—the lake in the crater – so you probably only want to give it a day trip or one night.

My lens of choice was a 500mm f/4 Canon and a set of teleconverters.

The brown bears of Katmai National Park & Preserve are the star attractions here while they feed on the salmon in the Brooks River.

A family of Dall sheep forage for food on a hillside at Denali National Park & Preserve.

The Alaska Railroad delivers hundreds of visitors a day in Denali National Park & Preserve.

Sometimes the best compositions just happen.

With one road servicing Denali National Park & Preserve in Alaska, most access is arranged by tour.

Don’t worry about running out of summer light in Katmai National Park & Preserve or anywhere else in in Alaska.

Because it’s pricey and remote and access is limited, Alaska’s Katmai National Park & Preserve got just 37,818 visitors in 2015.

First, get to the Big Island of Hawaii, home to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

No tourist on Maui is eager to wake up at 0-dark-thirty and dress for nearly freezing temperatures, but it’s worthwhile if you can get to the rim of Haleaka Crater in Haleakala National Park for sunrise.

National Park of American Samoa, the most remote of the 59 full-fledged national parks, has one of the most lonely and gorgeous tropical beaches in the U.S. -- Ofu Beach, which is 2 miles long, with white sand, black boulders, coconut palms and great snorkeling.

If you’re anywhere near Olympic National Park, be sure to stop in at the oceanfront Kalaloch Lodge.

Getting to Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial takes some doing.

Got a minute to think (and drink) about the next 10 millennia?

I have two favorite spots for looking at the Golden Gate Bridge.

What did Walt Disney have to do with the national park system? Nothing. With San Francisco?

You might not even think of it as NPS territory, but since 1994 San Francisco’s Presidio has been part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

The next time somebody suggests a weekend in Catalina, counter with Channel Islands National Park … if you’re ready to be rustic.

For my money, the wet edges of California’s Channel Islands National Park are more interesting than their dry middles.

One simple tip will take you a long way in Rocky Mountain National Park: After the gateway town of Estes Park, Colo., about two hours outside of Denver, get on Trail Ridge Road.

Northern California’s Redwood National and State Parks stretch about 50 miles from the Oregon border south and the whole area is great driving, even if it’s raining or foggy, which is much of the time.

You need to drive a big chunk of Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road — or better yet, be driven in one of the park’s beloved vintage-1930s Red Buses.

There are plenty of rugged roads in Death Valley National Park, but Titus Canyon is a standout.

The challenge of getting to the Racetrack in Death Valley National Park is part of the payoff.

Attention, roots music people.

You don’t have to drive the whole Blue Ridge Parkway to get its leafy, hilly, billboard-free, idyllic flavor.

Yes, you know how this drama ends.

Most of Boston National Historical Park follows the Freedom Trail, a 2.5-mile-long walkable route through downtown Boston, the North End and Charlestown neighborhoods.

The good news is that there’s an elevator.

First of all, give thanks for your good luck.

If you’re on the road anywhere near South Dakota, Mount Rushmore National Memorial is mandatory.

Here in wide-open New Mexico, you’re very close to the middle of nowhere – 56 miles south of Gallup, 44 miles west of Grants.

Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is only 90 minutes’ drive from tourist-friendly Durango, Colo., but many tourists never make the side trip.

If you head to the Gateway Arch in St.

If your heart is set on a stroll through Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias, wait until next year.

At Yosemite National Park, Tunnel View can be murder at midday.

Yes, I know, this seems obvious in a place bearing the name Death Valley National Park, but this spot can be dangerous.

The best thing about Crater Lake National Park in Oregon is hiking or driving around the rim.

In October, after the sun goes down, fog and low clouds often cling to the treetops in Yosemite Valley.

The full moon in Yosemite is a great time for photographers to go out and play.

At 2 a.m., most people in the Yosemite Valley are sleeping — unless you are a photographer chasing a full moon.

If there’s been rain in the Yosemite area recently, go see Mirror Lake.

Lower Chilnualna Falls is in Yosemite National Park’s Wawona area.

At Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, choose whether or not you want the geyser cloud in front of or behind the sun.

As crowds of visitors stroll along wooden walkways in Yellowstone National Park’s Midway Geyser Basin, steam clouds billow from the colorful Grand Prismatic Spring.

On the average, Yellowstone National Park’s Old Faithful blows every 90 minutes, shooting 4,000 to 8,000 gallons of water about 130 feet into the air.

A bear family takes a walk through a meadow near the Petrified Tree in northern Yellowstone National Park.

Rush hour in Yellowstone National Park is different from other parts of the country, as shown by this bison lumbering down the highway near Madison Junction.

From Discovery Point at Crater Lake National Park, the still waters surrounding Wizard Island reflect the faint colors of the sunrise painted on the clouds above.

An old, weathered tree stands like a sentinel near Watchman Overlook high above Crater Lake, a collapsed volcano that’s the centerpiece of Crater Lake National Park.

To hike Yosemite’s Half Dome in a day, you need a permit, mild weather and an early start — by dawn, usually.

Welcome to Yosemite. Now get out of the valley. There’s way more to the park in the high country.

In Yosemite National Park, the ponds in Cook’s Meadow are great natural surfaces that reflect the surroundings in the Yosemite Valley.

Headed to Yosemite? Don’t expect drop-dead panoramas at this California park’s southern entrance.

There are easier viewpoints to reach in Yellowstone.

Of course you’ll do Yellowstone’s Old Faithful.

Other attractions in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park get more attention, but I loved the time I spent on Grand Lake at the park’s western entrance.

The names are confusing, but Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is part of California’s Redwood National Park, and it’s a great place to feel small among redwoods standing tall.

Lassen Volcanic National Park, about 50 miles east of Redding, is California’s secret Yellowstone.

Near Near Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, stop along Highway 62 to walk the half-mile interpretive trail at Rogue River Gorge, then order a slice of pie at Beckie’s, a modest eatery a quarter-mile away.

At Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, don’t miss Watchman Overlook on Rim Drive, north of Rim Village.