Customer Reviews

National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States, 6th Edition

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is an excellent guide to the fifty-eight national parks. It doesn't matter whether you are interested in week-long back-country hikes, overnight camping, a long hike in the woods, sight-seeing, or just driving through: this book is an in-depth guide to the parks, their history, their features, and what you need to see, bring, and know. The one-star review entitled "Not A Resource" is completely off-base. This book correctly notes that it is a guide to the national PARKS--not national historic sites or national lakeshores. My son and I visited Harper's Ferry this summer while we were biking the C&O Canal. I enjoyed Harper's Ferry, but it is a national historic site and NOT a national PARK. Isaiah and I also stopped at Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home in southern Indiana on our way from Saint Louis; I would recommend this site, too, but it is NOT a national PARK. Frankly, the author of that review should remove her post AND apologize to the National Geographic staff. This book is now in its sixth edition because it is that good. Buy it and pack it with you.

This is the best guide to the US national parks. It is decriptive and accurate and thorough. I wish they had a spiral version so one could take out the park pages that you need for travel without having to take the whole book. I actually have 2 copies, one I keep intact and the second one I rip out the park pages that I am traveling to, and take along. These pages are a great guide while touring the parks.

This National Geographic product functions well as a short, concise overview of the National Parks in the United States. (That is not to say that the book is short, just that the individual reviews on each park are short.) Each park gets a map, some beautiful color pictures, and a several pages of description. You find out good times to visit, places to stay, and sights to see. Also included are nearby attractions that you can also visit when you are in the area. The book is well put together, has great photos, and just feels like a high quality product.

Now so you won't be disappointed, let me note what it isn't. It isn't a book covering the entire park system. It doesn't cover monuments, forests, or other national park attractions other than the NATIONAL PARKS themselves. It isn't all inclusive on each park. If you want to know all of the trails, a complete list of attractions for each park, or other specifics to each park, you should buy park specific books. They are on Amazon and you can easily find one for whatever you need.

But this book does get you started if you are trying to decide what parks to visit or if you just want a very nice book to summarize all of the great National Parks.

Preserves of nearly unspoiled nature rest all across the country. Now in a fully updated and expanded sixth edition, "National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States" is a guide to exploring the best of America's national parks. With stories from famed travel writers who offer much advice in experiencing these parks, full color photographs to give readers a sample of what they can see, and countless maps, "National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States" is a must for any traveling nature enthusiast.

For years I relied on the Rand McNally National Park Guides by Dr. Michael Frome, PhD. This was a guy that actually went to the Parks and gave firsthand guidance on what to see, when to see it, how to approach the parks and where to stay. When he retired and stopped developing National Park Guides (the last were for Frommer), I felt a great disconnection because there was no one replacing him as the park system expanded and changed.

Then I found the National Geographic Guide to the National Parks at a NPS visitor center. In the spirit of Michael Frome, it tells you how to get there, how to visit, what to see, how to see it, when to see it, how much time to dedicate to a park based on your interests and what excursions from the park are worthwhile. These guides improve on the Frome guides by providing better pictures and maps but fall short by not providing information for National Monuments.

Although the National Parks are spectacular, National Monuments, in my estimation, are equally worth your time because they are generally more accessible. You can absorb a National Monument more completely than a National Park because they are smaller, less daunting, and less crowded. In fact, Rangers are more available to you at National Monuments since there is less of a crush of visitors. In any case, perhaps I'm recommending to National Geographic that they develop a National Monuments companion guide to go along with their lovely Guide to the National Parks.

Seems to have good summary of the parks. But it is so light in content, ~4 pages per park?, most web searches would come up with similar information. It's good for browsing all the national parks to see which one interests you, but not good enough if you want to visit one in particular.

While on vacation this summer at Glacier National Park, I came across this book in the bookstore. I started thumbing through the pages and saw all the information contained about each park. We had already spent the morning just stopping at the usual tourist turnoffs in the park, but after purchasing the book, we followed the step by step recommendations on what to see and what to do in the park. The book lists the specific amount of time each activity should take as well as additional background information about the activitiy (how the geological formations were created, what the wildlife behaviors are, etc). Not only did it guide us to the best locations, it gave us a lot more information about the locations that the typical park visitor wouldn't have. After Glacier NP, we were headed to 3 more national parks before the end of vacation, and I kept this book by my side the entire time. I never received incorrect information or wished I had not taken the advice the book gave. It was perfect, and I can't wait to use it on our next vacation to a National Park. On a side note, I did pay full sticker price for it at Glacier (since I didn't have the luxury of ordering it off Amazon right then), but it was definitely worth it...even at that price!

I purchased this after watching the National Parks documentary, and I was not disappointed.

This is not related at all to the documentary other than the subject matter.

The pictures are impressive and the detail by the writers is extensive. It contains a ton of good information about each of the National Parks and information on other places.

It is a very detailed guide as they walk you through what you should do and how long the trip will take.

I plan on using this is a guide whenever I go to any of the National Parks in the U.S. (first up is the Grand Canyon).

Bought this as an accompaniment to the State parks book also from National Geographic. It's quite similar, with massive amounts of detail (best times to visit, things to do, outside resources) and some stunning photos as well. I can heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in seeing the more natural side of the States.

I prefer this book over Foder's. It elaborates on the parks a little bit better.