Want To Visit A National Park, Start Planning Now

Above, a crowd gathers to witness an eruption of Old Faithful Geyser. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

We're now in the middle of winter, but it is never too early to plan ahead for a summer vacation trip to a U.S. national park. 

Some national parks are seeing record visitation and station WESH of Orlando, Florida says that to visit one, start planning now. 

They begin with:

Venice knows the burden all too well. So does Amsterdam.

And some of the most visited national parks in the United States are going through the same thing -- the downside of being popular.

It puts them in quite the jam, especially those with short, sought-after peak seasons and one-of-a-kind attractions. After all, you want people to come. Just not too many all at once. Achieving a balance can be tricky.

And like those canal-laced European favorites, the U.S. National Park Service is turning to some of the same methods to regulate the flow.

How does this affect you? If you want to visit a popular park this summer, it's already time to plan.

Extra fees, advanced reservations, special passes, lotteries and caps on the number of visitors are all in play in 2022 to keep what's special about some crowd-pleasing parks from being deluged by the sheer flood of humanity.

To read more, go here.