The trick to a meaningful U.S. national park visit? See the main attractions, but spend most of your time going beyond the well-trodden surface. Here are nine national park excursions that will steer you away from the general public and into the heart of some of the most mind-blowing natural landscapes in the United States.
Glacier National Park has over 745 miles of maintained hiking trails.
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Glacier National Park
- Activity: Camp to combat climate change
The U.S Geological Survey estimates that this park’s namesake glaciers will exist only in memory by 2030; all the more reason to see them now, but don’t just show up—have your visit raise money for organizations dedicated to fighting glacier-melting climate change in Montana and beyond.
The nonprofit Climate Ride hosts an annual five-day hiking adventure that takes you to the most scenic parts of the park—among them Grinnell Glacier, Going-to-the-Sun Road, Many Glacier Valley, and Two Medicine Valley—led by guides who are well-versed in glacial climatology. By night you sleep in already pitched tents and enjoy food from a Climate Ride chef. On day five of the fundraising expedition, you’re rewarded for your hiking and good deeds with a day off your feet—a rafting journey down the Flathead River to Glacier National Park’s west entrance. Minimum $2,900 fundraising commitment ($100–$300 registration fee; event dependent)
Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.
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Great Smoky Mountain National Park
- Activity: Great Smoky–style glamping
Great Smoky Mountain National Park has one of the world’s best-preserved deciduous forests, the oldest mountains in the United States, and more annual visitors than any other national park in the country. The thing is, most tourists only drive through the 384 miles of scenic asphalt that bisect the park’s wilds.
To see more, ditch the car: The four-day Cascades & Canopies tour with A Walk in the Woods guides you along parts of the Appalachian Trail that most day hikers never hit. You’ll trek to the park’s tallest waterfall, go ziplining through old-growth forests, and stay in fire-lit cabins. Guest will enjoy a bathhouse with showers and toilets, and cooking areas capable of serving fine fare you’d never expect to eat in the backcountry. From $2,699
The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and more than a mile deep.
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Grand Canyon National Park
- Activity: Scope out sacred sites
Sure, you could hike, raft, ride a mule, zoom down a zipline, take a helicopter tour, or just enjoy scenic overlooks at this famous Wonder of the Natural World. But the best way to get to the heart of this colossal place is to learn about the Grand Canyon’s role as a major sacred site to Native Americans.
Get your facts firsthand on an Experience Hopi Tour from Moenkopi Legacy Inn & Suites at the entrance to Hopi tribal lands. On the full-day tour, a Hopi guide will take you to Coalmine Canyon while explaining the landscape’s role in traditional Hopi beliefs and lifestyle. You’ll also visit ancestral Hopi villages surrounding the canyon, where you’ll see 1,000-year-old petroglyphs and traditional Hopi art. If you stick around the hotel come night time, you’ll also get to experience some of the best stargazing in the United States. From $145
Located in southern Alaska, Katmai National Park is famous for its grizzly bear population.
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Katmai National Park
- Activity: Wildlife photography workshops
The world’s largest population of coastal grizzlies live in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. To get a glimpse of them, all you have to do is cruise by, but if you want to spend some quality time near these enormous creatures (plus nab some jaw-dropping photos) it’s worth venturing out with a seasoned wildlife photographer.
Natural Habitat Adventures runs small, ship-based photography workshops that take you to remote parts of Alaska’s biodiverse backcountry such as Kodiak Island. Led by naturalists and wildlife photographers, you’ll spend eight days navigating the shorelines of Katmai National Park, photographing Alaskan brown bears, sea lions, puffins, bald eagles, and occasionally even whales and wolves along the way. You can bring your long lens to Alaska’s backcountry, but on this trip you’ll get so close to the animals you probably won’t even use it. From $11,495
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
- Activity: Exploring islands through a historical lens
The Apostle Islands in Wisconsin have unique red-rock caves, unlike anything else in the surrounding area.
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The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore at the northern tip of Wisconsin stands out from anywhere else along the Great Lakes due to the red-rock caves along the shore. Visitors tend to kayak around the caves, visiting some of the sandy beaches and 21 islands scattered in the area.
Road Scholar’s five-day tour takes visitors deeper into the history here, enlisting the knowledge of a historian, a member of the Ojibwe tribe, and former national park rangers to give context to these sites. Visiting seaside towns, lighthouses, and beaches, you’ll learn about the ecology of the area and stories about shipwrecks, the fur trade, and Indigenous perseverance through both European occupation and harsh winters. Part of the tour includes a visit with the director of the Indigenous Cultural Center. From $1,499
Together, Canyonlands National Park’s four “districts” amount to more than 172 football fields.
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Canyonlands National Park
- Activity: Navigate natural arches and Native American ruins
Canyonlands is a postcard-perfect image of the wild American frontier; the largest of Utah’s national parks is a 527-square-mile playground of colorful canyons, mesas, rivers, natural arches, and wide-open vistas. Go deep with Oars and spend four or six days camping and rafting on Class III–IV rapids on the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon. Float through spectacular canyons, check out petroglyphs and Native American ruins, conquer rapids, and spend your nights unwinding while gazing up at the Milky Way. From $1,749
Yosemite National Park is revered as the birthplace of rock climbing as a sport.
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Yosemite National Park
- Activity: Extended eco-tours
According to the National Park Service, about 80 percent of visitors to Yosemite never venture beyond Yosemite Valley, which makes up a minute percentage of this 1,190-square-mile park. To truly grasp the wonder that turned famed naturalist John Muir into Yosemite’s chief advocate, go a little farther down the trail with Incredible Adventures, an eco-tour company based in San Francisco. (It’s one of the few outfitters to hold an NPS permit that allows it to give guided hikes in the park.)
The three-day Yosemite Grand Escape Tour includes stops at highlights like El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Fall, but you’ll go deeper into the sprawling meadows of Yosemite’s rarely seen high country and sequoia forest. At night, you’ll rest in a campsite equipped with on-site showers, tents, and sleeping pads, plus a communal camp stove and a firepit where group cookouts take place. From $795
Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the world.
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Yellowstone National Park
- Activity: Biologist-led wildlife expeditions
Yellowstone is famous for visually astounding geothermal formations (the landscape is home to more than 300 active geysers) as well as abundant wildlife, including bison, elk, and timber wolves. Yellowstone Adventure Tours hires wildlife biologists to lead small-group wildlife-spotting expeditions.
On tours like a five-day Grizzly and Wolf Safari in the summer or a seven-day Winter Wolf Photography Workshop, participants and guides venture from the comfort of their hotels to the wilds of the Yellowstone National Park in heated snow coaches with professional photographers, a wildlife naturalist, and park biologists. The expeditions are focused on a mission of ethical wildlife viewing that doesn’t affect the animals and minimizes impact on the environment. From $3,500
Zion Canyon’s depth is more than 2,600 feet.
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Zion National Park
- Activity: Slot canyon sports
Visitors to Zion National Park will be awestruck by two things: first, the magnitude of the rock formations, canyons, and plant life; and second, the crowds coming to admire it all, especially on popular hiking trails such as The Narrows and Angels Landing. Zion Guide Hub offers four-hour day trips that take the uninitiated—even people who feel they’re out of shape—to slot canyons off the tourist track where you’ll rappel as much as 80 feet down steep red-rock faces. You’ll be as impressed with yourself as with the scenery that surrounds. From $208
This article originally appeared online in October 2015; it was most recently updated on May 19, 2026, to include current information.
