Grand Canyon National Park Is Making It Easier to Reserve Backcountry Camping Permits — Here’s How

Already valued at an estimated $185 billion, the worldwide ecotourism segment is expected to exceed $374 billion in global impact within the decade.

In the century-plus since its inception in 1910, Glacier National Park in northwest Montana — the Crown of the Continent — has seen drastic changes. 

Watching weary day hikes start the long uphill hike from Phantom Ranch, a ranger station at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Jeff Schwartz has learned to look for telltale warning signs.

The chance to spot a bear, bison, or bald eagle in the wild is one of the major reasons travelers visit the United States’ 63 national parks. You might assume that a megafauna mecca like Yellowstone National Park would offer the best odds of seeing multiple animals. 

Among its 232 square miles of mesas, canyons, and terraces lies the highlight of Zion National Park: the 16-mile-long, 2,500-foot-deep Zion Canyon, where the north fork of the Virgin River has been sluicing its way through red-and-ochre sandstone of Utah’s plateau for more than a million years.

When the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) proposed drastic hikes to admission fees last fall, the reaction was swift and negative. It seems the NPS heard what people will saying.

Missing the great outdoors? Us too. While we’re spending more time planning our next national park vacation than we are being outside, we’re making the most of quarantine with these live cams of national parks.

A new national monument has been established to honor Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. 

Glacier National Park is one of the most gorgeous parks in the national park system. The sprawling park is in northern Montana and is home to some of the oldest glaciers in the US — not to mention wildlife like grizzly and brown bears, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, pumas, wolves, elk, moose, and more. The park has gorgeous day hikes running between half a mile or 20 miles, and some of the best backcountry backpacking in the US. You can even hike from the US into Waterton Lakes National Park, the attached national park just on the other side of the US-Canada border.

Winter is a magical time to visit Tetonia and Driggs, Idaho, when the region transforms into a snowy wonderland with endless opportunities for outdoor winter activities. On a recent trip, we stayed at the Teton Peaks Resort in Tetonia, which served as the perfect homebase for all our cool (pun intended) adventures.

Tsingy National Park (full name: The Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park) is a national park in Madagascar. The name “tsingy” comes from a Malagasy word meaning “walking on tiptoes,” which is an apt description of the landscape of the park. It is known for its unique karst formations, formed by rain that dissolved the soft limestone over time, creating sharp, rocky spires.

Grand Canyon National Park is one of the most-visited parks in the national park system, but don’t let that stop you from visiting — it’s absolutely stunning and there’s plenty of room for everyone. It’s also a great park for both active visitors and more laid-back travelers, as you can do a 20-plus-mile hike all the way through the canyon or just stay on the top, strolling between viewpoints and checking out the various visitors centers.