The national parks: An opinionated guide

I've been visiting the national parks for almost 50 years, first as a child in the back of my parents' 1960s Buick station wagons, more lately with my own children rediscovering favorites from decades ago.

Here are my favorite (and least favorite) spots among the 58 national parks.

FAVORITE NATIONAL PARK

Yosemite

"Breathtaking" is a hackneyed term, but bursting into daylight after passing through the last tunnel on Highway 41 and seeing Yosemite Valley below draws gasps from first-time visitors. The compact, gray rock walled valley, gushing waterfalls and the distant knob of Half Dome are a foolproof photo for even the most amateur shooter. The crowds in Yosemite can be crushing - 95 percent of the people who visit the park never get beyond the most accessible 5 percent of the park. But the shear vertical nature of Yosemite makes the crowds bearable in a way they aren't at Yellowstone or even Grand Canyon. The eye is always drawn up, and away, from fellow travelers. Visits in early spring, autumn and even winter are preferable to the population explosion of summer.

LEAST FAVORITE NATIONAL PARK

Great Smoky Mountains

Getting out on the trails is probably the only way to really enjoy a visit to what is by far the most-visited park. With 9.5 million annual visitors, it draws more than twice the visitors of No. 2, Grand Canyon. Gateway towns such as Cherokee, N.C., and Gatlinburg, Tenn., are filled with tourist traps and casinos. Air quality has suffered.

NATIONAL PARK I'D MOST LIKE TO VISIT

Wrangell-St. Elias

There are 55 million acres of parkland in Alaska, and I've been to more than most people - including the rarely visited Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley. But I've never gone southeast of Anchorage to the place the park service calls "The Mountain Kingdom of North America." It has more glaciers and mountains over 16,000 feet than anywhere in the country.

FAVORITE WILDLIFE

Everglades

I've seen buffalo in Yellowstone and grizzlies in Kobuk Valley. But my most memorable meeting with nature was the half-dozen alligators sunning themselves on a mud flat along the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades. A yawn from these snoozing saw-toothed monsters will give you the chills, especially as they slip silently into the brown water, just their tiny eyes above the surface.

SHOULDN'T BE A NATIONAL PARK

Hot Springs

I loved the Arkansas spa town and had an old-time rubdown routine on Bathhouse Row. A National Historic Site, sure. But a national park? No way. Federal land since 1832 - 40 years before Yellowstone - it was grandfathered in when the National Park Service was created in 1916. Once in the club, it's next to impossible to get out.

FAVORITE NATIONAL PARK LODGE

Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone

The Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone is the rustic template for all lodges. The rooms are better at the El Tovar at Grand Canyon or the luxurious Ahwahnee in Yosemite, but the epic scale and warm golden feel of the wood-timbered lobby are every national park visitor's fantasy. Enjoy the early mornings and late evenings, before the place fills up with daytrippers - it's as popular as the nearby Old Faithful geyser.

LEAST FAVORITE NATIONAL PARK LODGE

Volcano House, Hawaii Volcanoes

The utilitarian 1941 lodge is the anticlimax of the drive up from Hilo or the Kona Coast. Better to stay in the nearby town of Volcano, where the Kilauea Lodge, a former YMCA camp building, has a national park lodge feel and better food.

IF YOU GO . . .

FEES Most national parks charge entrance fees whether you arrive by vehicle or on foot. At Yellowstone, for example, visitors pay $25 a car or $12 a person to enter by foot or bicycle. An $80 America the Beautiful annual pass covers entrance to federal recreation sites for a year (buy online at store .usgs.gov/pass). Seniors ages 62 or older can get a lifetime entrance pass for $10, available only in person at a park.

CAMPING If you plan to camp overnight at a national park, you'll almost always need a reservation - especially for stays between May and September. Camping slots at Yosemite, in particular, are quite popular. Reservations for most national parks can be made several months in advance through the National Recreation Reservation Service (recreation.gov).

MORE INFO 202-208-6843, nps.gov.

Most-visited national parks in 2009

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (9,491,437 visitors)

2. Grand Canyon National Park (4,348,068)

3. Yosemite National Park (3,737,472)

4. Yellowstone National Park (3,295,187)

5. Olympic National Park (3,276,459)

Source: U.S. Department of the Interior