Category Ranking
Best National Parks for Photography in Summer
Top parks for photography during summer, ranked by a composite of activity quality and seasonal conditions.
Updated
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Two active volcanoes shape terrain from tide pools to alpine desert. Walk across recent lava flows and through rainforests on ancient rock.
Haleakalā National Park
A dormant volcano where you stand above the clouds at 10,000 feet, then descend through alpine desert to rainforest in a single morning.
Glacier National Park
Twenty-six glaciers remain from the 150 that once filled these valleys. Going-to-the-Sun Road climbs past Logan Pass to the evidence.
Redwood National and State Parks
The world's tallest trees stand in groves you can walk through on level trails, three hours north of San Francisco with a third the crowds.
Channel Islands National Park
California's Galápagos lies 12 miles offshore with 145 endemic species. Sea lions, island foxes, and rare seabirds inhabit five islands.
Crater Lake National Park
America's deepest lake fills a volcanic caldera with water so pure scientists use it as a baseline. The 33-mile Rim Road circles the crater.
North Cascades National Park
Three hundred glaciers carve through jagged peaks three hours north of Seattle, the most glaciated terrain in the Lower 48.
Yellowstone National Park
The world's first national park sits on a supervolcano where half of Earth's geysers erupt on schedule and bison herds cross roads freely.
Mount Rainier National Park
An active volcano cloaked in more glaciers than any Lower 48 peak, Mount Rainier spawns five major rivers from ice beginning at 14,410 feet.
Bryce Canyon National Park
Earth's densest hoodoo forest where the Navajo Loop drops you between orange spires so narrow you'll touch both walls at 8,000 feet.