Your Guide to the National Parks

by Michael Joseph Oswald

With more than 530 color images, 140 easy-to-read maps, and 55 hiking tables make this guide to America's most scenic wilderness areas - all 58 national parks - the most appealing, comprehensive, and indispensable book of its kind.

This guide provides step-by-step itineraries, kid-friendly activities, and the most popular ranger programs to help plan your family vacation. Thousands of hotels, restaurants, and attractions beyond the parks and 11 suggested road trips make it the ultimate dashboard companion. Exhaustive activity information, including hiking tables, easy-to-find trailhead markers, outfitter details, and backpacking essentials, serves as blueprint for an adventure of a lifetime. With something from everyone this is "Your Guide to the National Parks."

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Reference, Outdoors, Nature, Collections, Science Nature

704 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2012

About the author

Michael Joseph Oswald is an award-winning American travel writer who's spent more than a decade exploring America's most scenic treasures, its National Parks. He’s learned much over the course of hundreds of trips and thousands of miles hiking, biking, and paddling across these one-of-a-kind wilderness areas. There’s much to see and do in our parklands and his goal is to help readers make the most of their National Park adventures.

Reviews

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm ready to win another Goodreads book. AND this one should be the one. Love the National Parks and have been to many of the Parks the past 20 years.
This book has excellent ratings so it should be a good one to have handy around the house.
Update --- going on a Western states vacation, via train, this Spring 2014 and I am using this book as a bigtime guide. Great info. Thanks again for this top of the line book.

[carl theaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoa, now this is a guide. In this age of everything online, this book is really a guide that adds to the information that is out there on the National Park Service web sites.

Great maps, glossy photos, various costs, and I particularly liked the “Don’t Miss” notes on the various trails or sites. Since there are so many things to see in a park, I found these most helpful. Also each region has a section on “What’s nearby”, which covers places to stay, other things to see, places to eat.

I am particularly interested in the Utah - Colorado areas for a trip this summer, but found myself venturing into other parts of the book. I’m ready to visit all 59 parks!

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband and I are on a eight week road trip with 12 national parks on our agenda. This book has been my constant companion while planning the next park. Well organized, great advice, and excellent maps. I especially enjoy the Vacation Planner, the hikes lists, and the What’s Nearby section. I plan on keeping this book (or newer editions as they come out) for years to come.

[Ariadna73 · Rating 3 out of 5]

My takeaway from this thick book is the thoroughness that the author employed in giving as much information as possible about how to get to the most interesting places in each park, and who to ask for help. What I missed was the mention of Puerto Rico, or even including it in the map. That island has beautiful places to visit as well; for example El Yunque, or Cabras.

This is the cover, and editorial information or the book I read:

Here is a gorgeous picture of a tall man hugging a gigantic tree. An out-of-this-world experience that I highly recommend to anyone. Those big beings are beautiful, peaceful, majestic.

And here is the map in the book. The evidence I present to back up my complaint about the conspicuous lacking of mentions to Puerto Rico.

Beautiful account from Dry Tortugas

The entry for Guadalupe Mountains

...And Hawaii

My conclusion is that this book was written with dedication, love and attention to detail... except for the little detail of including a big territory that is also part of the list.

 

I also have a blog! Here is the link: http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this ultimate guide, Michael Oswald presents the reader with everything you need to know before visiting any of the 58 National Parks, with over 140 easy-to-read maps, 530 images, and 55 hiking tables. The book includes 11 potential road trips and suggested pit stops beyond the parks, as well as a family vacation planner with step-by-step itineraries and kid-friendly activities.

Each park guide contains beautiful photos, commentary on park history, geology, flora and fauna, activities, suggestions on when to go, vacation planner, visitor centers and Park Headquarters, kids activities and pet regulations as well as wheelchair accessibility and typical weather conditions.

The front of the book features a “Best of the best” section to help readers find the best locations for hiking, backpacking, paddling, whitewater, horseback riding, and fishing, as well as the best parks to visit for beaches, caves, waterfalls, and more. It also contains great tips and info to get you prepared before your trip, including park pass information and rates, helpful advice on what to pack, camping regulations, money-saving travel tips and even a few photography tips.

Michael Joseph Oswald spent two full years exploring and photographing the parks, living almost exclusively in a tent. He logged thousands of miles hiking, paddling, and pedaling his way across America and it’s parks, as well as exhaustively researching every site in the book. (I can’t help but think that there must be some great stories in his adventures exploring the parks for this guide that might make for an interesting book!)

This book literally has it all – there’s just too much to list in this review, and at over 680 pages, you can be sure it’s packed full of valuable info. The parks are separated by region, making them easy to find, and includes an index in the back for easy look-ups. I loved reading the “did you know?” fact sections, which offer some really interesting information on the parks, and the pictures are absolutely beautiful. This book is a must-have for anyone wanting to explore our National Parks.

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Check out this review on my blog:EpicBookQuest.wordpress.com

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will admit I haven't had a chance to travel since I got this book. However, my friends and family were visiting over memorial day weekend and got to talking about some attraction near my sister's house in Ohio.

I grabbed this book which I had been perusing and we spent hours leafing through the pages and discovering all sorts of random finds hidden within. There are some places that are not to be missed if you are touring any of the national parks and you will read about them here!

I love a road trip, and this book has inspired one, so I can see a day coming soon when I will be heading out and taking this book with me. There are a lot of little blurbs about interesting attractions, restaurants, and festivals that are close to national parks.

Oswald has included, of course, a wealth of information about the parks themselves. Pointers on what to pack, where to park, and how to handle an emergency are nestled among some gorgeous photographs of our national parks.

There are also maps, trip suggestions, and so, so many insider tidbits. I can tell that Oswald has traveled and hiked and spent a lot of time in the parks and is uniquely qualified to give advice about it.

The book is jam-packed with information from an insiders point of view- how long different trails are, how to plan vacations in the parks, what the weather is like during different seasons, where to eat, and which places have kid-friendly options.

[Don O'goodreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Your Guide to the National Parks by Michael Joseph Oswald is a wonderful paperback book (almost 700 pages) covering all 58 US NPS National Parks.In addition to the basic information, the book includes the very helpful "What's nearby."

From first-hand experience traveling to almost half of our national parks over the last 40 years (I now have a Senior Pass - explained on page 2), I know the hardest information to find is the location of the nearest grocery store and something to do when the family has OD'd on hiking and natural history. The "What's Nearby" section comes to the rescue here.

For more see: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2013/0...

I received a free copy of this book from the Goodreads First Reads program.

[Michelle Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad that I got this through the Goodreads First Reads! I really wanted it! This is an amazing compilation of resources and information! I had no idea how many treasures were in my own back yard! My family and I have marked several parks for exploration this spring and summer. In fact, we've placed this in the car so that it is with us on all our road trips! A must have for anyone who loves the great outdoors and adventure!

[Kelly Willcoxbrackeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome! Pictures are beautiful, details are excellent, and the advice is spot on! When visiting the Grand Canyon, pay attention to what the guide says. My husband and I have talked to many tourists that have complained about the $80 skywalk. Dining, grocery stores, camping, and family activities I mean this book has it all! I am definitely suggesting this book to all my fellow travelers!

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is AWESOME and packed with so much information! And very soon to be very battered, dogeared, and loved like crazy. Its already loved like crazy... but it will be physically visible lol!

[Cassie Wolfgram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! can't wait to go on some adventures!

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for my birthday back in March. Originally, before the pandemic began, we would have seen the Everglades this year along with Miami, cancelled that, but plan on seeing at least one national park that is a day trip and is an often overlooked one near us, as a family, that we have not visited before, in the fall, during peak weather. One of the most visited ones is close to us, but avoiding that one until the off season for obvious reasons, or potentially altogether for a bit. Our family loves nature....and what a great time to become naturalists, if ever there were a time! 😂🌿🐛. We visit nature near us every week, a great way to keep away from people (and I don't like crowds in nature during the best of times anyway).

I love our national parks, "America's Best Idea," have only seen 6 of them, but my goal before I die is to see most of them and to go as a family to several before my son grows up. Next year, in the summer, I hope to return to Acadia, my favorite thus far, so my son can see it, and we can experience Thunder Hole, Cadillac Mountain, Sand Beach and all of the rocky coastal vistas together. Maine is my favorite state of those I have visited. Anyway, this is a comprehensive guide from someone who has visited all of the parks, that provides everything organized nicely so you can read about each park just to dream during this pandemic as I did, or keep it on your shelf to read just before visiting a park like most people do.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Your Guide to the National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 59 National Parks by Michael Joseph Oswald
Love this guide because it tells you how to plan for a trip to any of the parks, what to expect, how to explore and what's out there.
Love the different ones that even offer bus rides between the different areas of a park. We have been to several and I wish I had this book before we had gone, pretty sure we missed some things i would've wanted to see for myself. We still have a few years left to go travel. A newer version is now available: 63 national parks. guess we've added some recently.
A KEPER!

[Sergio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful guide for my cross country road trip this year. I liked being able to research the parks I would be visiting in the near future. It was very extensively researched although as of 2017 it was dated and inaccurate in many places, as my copy I think was 2012 or around there. I'm sure there is a more recent version but I didnt have it.

I took many of this books suggestions, mostly on the hiking section, as many of the recommendations didnt apply to me.

[Teacher · Rating 1 out of 5]

I disliked this book because it is organized regionally. I think a reference book would be a LOT more useful if it organized the content (ie the parks) alphabetically. It was not a useful book for travel or for home research and we wound up donating it.

[Keshia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve had this book for several years and I’m still reading it. It has been so incredibly helpful in planning trips around the National Parks and it also serves as a good dream book for things I want to do in the future.

[Rachael Easler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute HYPE pieces for each national park. During our Utah/Yellowstone trip, Shan and I read it out loud just before we arrived at each park, inspired and invigorated to see the beauty and attractions ourselves. Excited to carry it with us on our next adventures in the Pacific North West.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprehensive travel resource. Includes maps, itineraries, outfitter information, park history, trail information, visitor center information.

[Kelly Whitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a national Park book that you sit down and read cover to cover. But it’s really good at information for traveling to specific parks. You get a little history introduction and then info on camping, trails, and some personal insight on what not to miss.

[Marnie E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect guide for National Park geeks! We used it across the country on our quest to visit as many parks as possible!

[David Schlabach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful

[Angee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great information for the parks. One of the best National Park books I've read.

[Tim LaSalvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and written in an easily accessible style. Now to decide which park will be my next destination...

[Ginger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saving for later

[Maria B · Rating 5 out of 5]

We use this to inspire our future vacations, and it is terrific.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've referred to this book for all of our National Park Adventures so far (about 10)!

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely best book for travel planning the parks, bar none. I have all three editions, and they are excellent.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite National Park guide because it has a few killer features like "Don't Miss" highlights and "When to Go" for each park.

[Tom Kellermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

America has some of the best national parks. This book is a great guide to them.

[Christyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I haven't read through the entire book, what I have read has impressed me. This book has been instrumental in helping with plans for our family trip this year. Catalogued and color coded by regions (East, North, South, Southwest, West, Alaska & The Remote Islands) this is a comprehensive, easy-to-read guide to the National Parks. There is Park Information (Location, Phone Number, Fees etc.), History, Directions, When to Go, Maps, Pictures, Hiking Tables, Other Activities to do in the Parks, Winter Activities (if applicable) a Flora & Fauna section, a Vacation planner, an information section that includes for kids, weather, accessibility, and pets. Also included was a guide of nearby activities/places that will be of use like Dining, Grocery Stores, Lodging, Attractions, and Events. There is also the introduction which you should read first for information on available passes, some general guidelines, best of the best, etc.

So, a lot of information. I'll highlight a few of the things I loved about this book. Pictures/Maps - so useful and nice to look at. Hiking Tables - I really loved this one - it shows the Hiking Trails at a park giving the following information: Trail Name, Trailhead, Length (Roundtrip unless otherwise noted), & Notes (like landmarks you may see, pass by). It also had a thumbs up next to recommended trails. Beyond that the Activities section was also extremely useful - there is more to these parks then just hiking and driving around to take pictures. Also useful to me was the Pet's area - most of the places we plan to go don't allow pets on the trails (understandable but still disappointing), but from the introduction we knew that pets would limit us (unless boarded).

Overall, an extremely useful guide to the National Parks.