How Many Days Should You Spend in a National Park?

Let’s be real, we’ve all asked it--how many days should I spend in a national park?

I’m going to let you in on a secret: no one else can tell you how long you should spend in any given national park. I can’t even answer that question for you! I don’t know what you like to do and see in a park. I don’t know what types of hikes and activities you enjoy, your level of fitness, where you plan to stay, how much time you have, or any other factors that might affect your decision--making. Only you have these answers. So instead, I’m going to give you all the tools you need in order to make an informed decision! Whether you’re headed to Yosemite, Acadia, or anywhere in between, you can use these same basic steps as a building block for any national park adventure. This is not a guide for planning your entire vacation, but rather an easy, 3-step approach to getting an idea of how many days you should spend in any national park.

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1. look at a map

It almost sounds too simple, so I’m going to say it again to make sure you heard me: LOOK AT A MAP. I’m serious! Just by looking at a map, you can learn so much important information about a park.

Let’s take a look at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I’ll link to the map here, but to get there next time:

Google the name of the park you’re looking for and click on the nps.gov link, or go to nps.gov and search for the park you’re looking for,
Click the “maps” tab along the top of the page, and
Go to the dropdown bar in the top left corner of the map and switch to “brochure map.”

Now that we’re looking at our map of the Smokies we can see that this park IS BIG, and has multiple entrances but only one road that crosses all the way through (from east to west). Based on this alone, you can tell that you’ll need more than one day if you want to do more than just a scenic drive, and/or if you want to explore more than one section of the park.

You can also see that there are ten campgrounds spaced widely throughout the park and no front country lodges. (There is one backcountry lodge at the summit of Mount LeConte. It’s possible that it’s not shown due to the lack of detail in the map, much like the other backcountry camping shelters that are not shown). Maps are a great way to get a quick glance at the lodging options within a park. If you already have an idea of something you want to do/see at the park, you’ll be able to see what campground is closest to it.

If you’re not staying in the park, open google maps to see what else is nearby. You’ll see that Gatlinburg is close to the Smokies. From there, you can check sites like airbnb and hotels.com, or whatever your favorite vacation rental website is. This will give you a good idea of where accommodations might be located and how far you’ll have to drive to get into the park each day. Remember--we’re not booking just yet; we’re just trying to get an idea of how much time we’ll need. If lodging is far away, you may want to add more time to your trip to accommodate for the time you’ll spend driving back and forth. And while we’re looking at Gatlinburg, you can see that there is a lot to do in town, just outside the park. You may want to set aside a day or two to hang out in town, or note that you don’t have to spend your entire trip just seeing the park, since there are other attractions nearby.

While the main feature of the Smokies is obvious (mountains), the one thing that this map is not good for is hiking trails. Great Smoky Mountains is a gigantic park with over 900 miles of trails, so you can’t get an idea for hiking options based on the brochure map. We’ll talk more about this in step two, but for now let’s look at another park.

Big Bend National Park is even bigger than the Smokies, but far more remote. This map features a large system of primitive roads throughout the park, but most of the hiking trails are concentrated in Chisos Basin. You can also see that the Rio Grande River is most easily accessible from the far west side or the far east side of the park. This is a great example of how looking at a map can tell you where points of interest may be within a park. Without doing any further research, you can see how spread apart things might be and where you may want to focus for good hiking.

2. Peruse the Park Website

Okay, okay, this sounds really broad so let me narrow it down.

From the map page that you’re already looking at, scroll to the top of the page where it says nps.gov / park home / plan your visit / directions and transportation / maps and click on “plan your visit.” This page is a great resource to, duh, help you plan your visit! But for right now, we're most interested in two links: “things to do” and “places to go.” Almost every park has at least one of these links.

Looking at Great Smoky Mountains again, click on “things to do.” This page gives you a really clear picture of what the park is all about--auto touring, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, etc. Of that list, you can click through to read about some of these activities, and this should give you more insight into how much time you’ll need. The Smokies hiking page links to some of their most popular trails, with separate options for things like waterfall hikes or kid-friendly hikes. The more you find that sounds appealing to you, the more time you’ll need.

Olympic National Park is also a great example for this. Olympic is a super diverse park, which is evident on the “places to go” page. The page divides the park into three different sections (coast, rainforest, and mountains), and suggests multiple locations to visit in each section. Just by looking at this page, you can tell that it would be hard to see this park in less than three days. Under “things to do” you can find ideas for backpacking or day hiking adventures, as well as experiences unique to the park, like tidepooling.

One last thing to be aware of on the park website--give the “alerts in effect” banner a quick scan while you’re looking around. If there are any major road closures, wildfires, pandemic closures, or anything else, they will be listed here.

Overall, this small amount of research into a park should have you feeling acquainted and more comfortable making decisions. But there’s one more thing I’d recommend before finalizing your plan…

3. Get an Opinion

The NPS website is my all-time favorite resource for planning a trip (I probably spend more time on the parks site than on social media), but there’s one thing you won’t find here: opinions. It won’t tell you “yes, you should spend your day at Jones Lagoon instead of Boca Chita Key,” but you know who will?! Bloggers!

The last thing you should do before officially booking accommodations is consult your favorite and most trusted guides to see what they recommend. This step can turn into a massive rabbit hole if you let it, but right now we’re still just trying to get a quick overview. I usually check around to see who has written about the park I’m researching, and then return at a later date for a deeper dive into their recommendations.

You can visit my park page here to check out the guides I’ve written.

Other blogs I check for advice:

Redaroundtheworld.com

For a quick and easy overview of any park, you can also consult your favorite guidebook. There are a plethora of national park guidebooks on the market, from National Geographic to Moon Guides to Lonely Planet. If your goal for your park visit is to get a nice overview of the park in question, these guidebooks are a perfect resource for trip planning.

If you haven’t gotten too distracted, this basic research could take you anywhere from ten to thirty minutes, and should set you up to plan a successful trip! The parks are so diverse and it can feel intimidating to visit a new one, but a little bit of planning can go a long way. If you’re planning to visit multiple parks in one trip or trying to fit a national park into a vacation, hopefully you now feel fully prepared to map out an itinerary! Happy trails!