The 10 Best National Parks for Retirees

Timing is everything when traveling to the marquee national parks, and summer is high season, meaning you're competing with thousands of people for views, the animals are as far away from the crowds as possible, and hiking trails may feel more like a freeway than a serene escape into nature. The fix? Travel to Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks during the “shoulder seasons” of early spring (before Memorial Day) and late fall (after Labor Day) to escape the crowds and enjoy these pristine landmarks as they were meant to be experienced.

Though Denali is the more famous park in Alaska, Kenai Fjords in south-central Alaska, near the town of Seward, can be just as impressive. The site of one of the four major ice caps in the U.S., the land of glacier lakes and valleys is home to tens of thousands of breeding birds, in addition to sea lions, sea otters, and seals.

The grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, with peaks towering over 14,000 feet, is accessible by Trail Ridge Road, which crosses the Continental Divide. Go in fall, when the elk are out in big numbers for the annual mating season.

Though this urban park is a photo-ready landmark year-round, go in the spring to see the cherry blossoms in pale-pink bloom around the Tidal Basin. (The trees typically bloom for most of April, but make sure your trip doesn’t coincide with the National Cherry Blossom Festival weekend, when the area is overrun with tourists). Visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the World War II National Memorial, as well as classics like the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials and the Washington Monument.

Take in the rugged coastal area of Mount Desert Island, the picturesque Schoodic Peninsula on the mainland, and the spectacular cliffs of Isle au Haut. Go in autumn for easy access to camping spots and some of the most vibrant fall foliage in the country.

The canyon-and-mesa landscape here makes for photos that your grandkids will actually want to see. The variations in elevation provide habitats for extremely diverse plant communities; if you go in the spring, you can spot colorful wildflowers, like bright-yellow desert marigolds or crimson slickrock paintbrush, standing out against the sandstone.

A park that will please history buffs as much as nature lovers, Gettysburg is famous for the major Civil War battle that took place on its grounds in 1863. History struck again when it became the site of Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg address later that year.

Another must-see stop for amateur historians is this southern park, the oldest masonry fort in the continental U.S. It dates back to 1672, when it was built by the Spanish to protect their first permanent settlement in the New World.