Washington Post includes NPF President and CEO Will Shafroth’s insights in their travel feature, “6 alternatives to America’s most popular national parks.” Read an excerpt from the article below.
“If you’ve been to Yellowstone during peak tourist season, you’d think the national park system has an overtourism problem. But it’s not that too many people are going to the parks — it’s that too many people are going to a specific few parks at the same time. Last year, just six parks brought in a quarter of the entire system’s 237,064,332 visitors.
‘It’s like going to a movie for the seven o’clock show on Saturday night and expecting to get a good seat — it’s not going to happen,’ says Will Shafroth, chief executive of the National Park Foundation. ‘If you want to go to those places, you need to be thoughtful about what time of year, what time of day, what day of the week.’
You don’t have to skip national parks altogether this summer. There are more than 84 million acres to work with, and planning a trip to one the lesser-known parks can help you avoid crowds and have a better time.”