Secrets of National Parks

Too many national park vacations are exercises in contradictions: explorations of the natural world...spent mostly in the car. A search for a tranquil Eden...in the company of hundreds of other photo-snappers. But the national parks are more than Mother Earth's answer to the fast-food drive-through: Get out and explore by foot (or raft, or kayak, or bike), and you'll be rewarded with a more fulfilling experience. Here, park insiders-rangers, guides, neighbors, and others-give us their best advice on how to avoid the crowds and even save a bit of money at a selection of ten parks, some well-known like Yellowstone, others way off the beaten path, like Canyonlands National Park in Utah.