7 Gorgeous National Parks To Visit This Fall According To A Park Ranger

I’m a retired National Park Service ranger. I spent a career working in parks from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from border to border. Fall is my favorite time to take my own vacation, and these are some parks I’d recommend.

Fall travel doesn’t always have to be about foliage. It can be about beating the heat, beating the crowds, or a combination of multiple factors.

In terms of foliage, Eastern parks have hardwood forests with a palate of vibrant colors. As for the evergreen forests of the West, not so much. Nature has provided the aspen and a few others out west, so you get yellow, with a bit of orange now and then. So some western parks will be on the list.  

We’ll go over some all-time classics, some little-known gems, and some places where the fall means being at the right place at the right time.

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

I’d be remiss to start with anything other than this all-American fall color extravaganza.

The Great Smoky Mountains is America’s most visited national park, and fall color season means it’s going to be busy. Weekends will be busier than weekdays, but peak color season in the Smokies is like Mount Rushmore on the Fourth of July — an experience you’ll remember for a lifetime, and one you will not experience alone.

The NPS manages a corridor of fall color up and down the Appalachian mountains. It starts with Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the north, and continues 469 miles down the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Smokies in the South. It’s peak color somewhere along that route all autumn long, so if it’s a little early for peak color in the Smokies, head north on the Blue Ridge Parkway and you’ll find it.

Pro Tip: The most consistent way to beat the crowds is to be up to watch the sunrise.

2. Gettysburg National Military Park

The traditional time to visit a military park is on the anniversary of the battle; for Gettysburg, that’s early July. By visiting Gettysburg in the fall, two things can happen: the rolling hills of Pennsylvania give you amazing fall colors, or the leaves have fallen and you get a much improved view of much of the battlefield.

Pro Tip: Visit President Eisenhower’s home while you’re here. Many people are surprised to find that the only home the Eisenhowers ever owned is located adjacent to the park, in what is now Eisenhower National Historic Site. And the inevitable quip — since he acquired it in 1948, the farm has been known President Eisenhower’s Gettysburg address.

3. Mount Rushmore National Memorial

When talking about crowds, I mentioned Mount Rushmore and the Fourth of July. If you just wait until fall, you’ll see the Black Hills unlike most see them — with yellow aspens and without the summer crowds. The sculpture’s the same, but the environs are serene.

ProTip: A Mount Rushmore trip combines well with a visit to other nearby NPS areas: Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Badlands, and Minuteman Missile.

Read the rest of the article from Travel Awaits here.