National Geographic Guide to National Parks of the United States, 8th Edition (National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States)

Maps are nice. The excursions (near by places) and park information (camping, lodging, etc) are listed as filler and so vague it shouldn't even be listed in the book. For example in Shenandoah NP, they list a VA state park 320 miles away near Cumberland Gap NHP. In Great Smoky Mountains NP the Laurel Falls trail isn't even listed, while this is an extremely popular trail, it is still a must see. Reading through the book, I get the impression the writers are trying to move people away from the must sees and popular areas to round about trails and less popular sites in the parks. This is fine, but by not including everything, the readers are at a disservice. The layout of the previous version was much better and contained more worth while information to get a better picture of each park.

My wife and I just returned from a month long, 7500 mile road trip which include visits to nine major national parks. We have never been to a national park before and were eager to get our hands on a comprehensive source of information for the parks we planned to visit. This book fit the bill perfectly! Here's how we utilized it: As I drove to the next park along our route, my wife would read aloud that parks entry from the book. Each entry includes interesting details about the park's history, the most popular features/sites, and the best way to visit the park. The entry also includes a fairly detailed map of the park. As my wife read, she would make marks on the map, highlighting the places we would visit. Once we arrived at the park we had all of our stops planned out and ready to go! Why not just use the internet? In many of the parks and surrounding areas there was little to no cell coverage. Parts of Montana, Wyoming, and various other states just aren't covered. This book serves as a great fill-in. Obviously, it isn't as comprehensive as the web, but it provided us with all the information we needed to have enjoyable visits and all 9 parks we toured.

If you're looking for info specifically on camping in the National Parks, this isn't the book for you. It's more of an overview or someone's first book on the NP's. I highly recommend "Your Guide to the National Parks" by Michael Joseph Oswald if you're looking for in depth information on camping, other lodging, activities, and trip ideas to see more than one NP in a trip.

I like this book so much, I have bought it again as a gift. The chapters are well-organized for trip planning with suggestions for what to prioritize if you have only one day, two days, etc. Nearby interesting sites are described as well. There are great area maps as well as site maps and photos in color on nice quality paper. It is essential for my initial travel planning for estimating where my time will be best spent.

Enjoy researching the parks as we are on a lifelong journey to visit all national parks. Good information but sometimes it is a bit light on type of information we wanted. As we typically don’t stay in the parks but travel with our tow vehicle we really didn’t need camping information...who knows that may change. Good pictures and nice to have compact reference manual as we drive to the park.

We’ve visited more than a few National Parks in the U.S. since we started RVing. Such as Glacier, Yellowstone, Acadia, the Smokys and the Shenandoah’s to name some. We found it time consuming to research what we wanted to see in the park when we went into the visitor center. This book gives us the highlights of each park.It gives a brief history of each park, gives hiking trail information, where to go for great photographic places and other tips for making your visit efficient.

We are planning a trip to the Southwest and have about 8 National Parks on our agenda. This book has very helpful hints and ideas about how to organize your visit to see the most in however much time you have, whether it's just a couple of hours, a half day, or all day. It also has good photo hints - best times to be at certain locations. Be aware this book covers the 59 National Parks only - not other landmarks or historical sites such as Antietam or Gettysburg Battlefields, even though they are managed by the National Park Service.

Had the opportunity to look through this and the Lonely Planets Guide before selecting this book. I found the NG's version had more listing for "things to see" and more detail on the park and especially camping information. I felt this had more of the information I wanted. No pull out map like Lonely Planet but does include a map for each park in the content.

I have had several versions of this book over the past 20 years and have gifted it many times. It is absolutely the best book on the National Parks I have seen! We have especially benefited from the advice on what to do if you have only 1 day or 2, and the listing of other nearby attractions is helpful too. I highly recommend if you are planning to visit parks!

This is just an awesome book! Everyone I show it to wants one. We took it with us on our recent trek to 3 Southwest National Parks (Great Basin, Bryce and Zion) and it was spot on in terms of locations, best things to do and general information to make the most out of our short visits to the parks. This is really just a great book and it is now one of the most important books I have since I want to start visiting more National Parks.

Maps are nice. The excursions (near by places) and park information (camping, lodging, etc) are listed as filler and so vague it shouldn't even be listed in the book. For example in Shenandoah NP, they list a VA state park 320 miles away near Cumberland Gap NHP. In Great Smoky Mountains NP the Laurel Falls trail isn't even listed, while this is an extremely popular trail, it is still a must see. Reading through the book, I get the impression the writers are trying to move people away from the must sees and popular areas to round about trails and less popular sites in the parks. This is fine, but by not including everything, the readers are at a disservice. The layout of the previous version was much better and contained more worth while information to get a better picture of each park.

My wife and I just returned from a month long, 7500 mile road trip which include visits to nine major national parks. We have never been to a national park before and were eager to get our hands on a comprehensive source of information for the parks we planned to visit. This book fit the bill perfectly! Here's how we utilized it: As I drove to the next park along our route, my wife would read aloud that parks entry from the book. Each entry includes interesting details about the park's history, the most popular features/sites, and the best way to visit the park. The entry also includes a fairly detailed map of the park. As my wife read, she would make marks on the map, highlighting the places we would visit. Once we arrived at the park we had all of our stops planned out and ready to go! Why not just use the internet? In many of the parks and surrounding areas there was little to no cell coverage. Parts of Montana, Wyoming, and various other states just aren't covered. This book serves as a great fill-in. Obviously, it isn't as comprehensive as the web, but it provided us with all the information we needed to have enjoyable visits and all 9 parks we toured.

If you're looking for info specifically on camping in the National Parks, this isn't the book for you. It's more of an overview or someone's first book on the NP's. I highly recommend "Your Guide to the National Parks" by Michael Joseph Oswald if you're looking for in depth information on camping, other lodging, activities, and trip ideas to see more than one NP in a trip.

I like this book so much, I have bought it again as a gift. The chapters are well-organized for trip planning with suggestions for what to prioritize if you have only one day, two days, etc. Nearby interesting sites are described as well. There are great area maps as well as site maps and photos in color on nice quality paper. It is essential for my initial travel planning for estimating where my time will be best spent.

Enjoy researching the parks as we are on a lifelong journey to visit all national parks. Good information but sometimes it is a bit light on type of information we wanted. As we typically don’t stay in the parks but travel with our tow vehicle we really didn’t need camping information...who knows that may change. Good pictures and nice to have compact reference manual as we drive to the park.

We’ve visited more than a few National Parks in the U.S. since we started RVing. Such as Glacier, Yellowstone, Acadia, the Smokys and the Shenandoah’s to name some. We found it time consuming to research what we wanted to see in the park when we went into the visitor center. This book gives us the highlights of each park.It gives a brief history of each park, gives hiking trail information, where to go for great photographic places and other tips for making your visit efficient.

We are planning a trip to the Southwest and have about 8 National Parks on our agenda. This book has very helpful hints and ideas about how to organize your visit to see the most in however much time you have, whether it's just a couple of hours, a half day, or all day. It also has good photo hints - best times to be at certain locations. Be aware this book covers the 59 National Parks only - not other landmarks or historical sites such as Antietam or Gettysburg Battlefields, even though they are managed by the National Park Service.

Had the opportunity to look through this and the Lonely Planets Guide before selecting this book. I found the NG's version had more listing for "things to see" and more detail on the park and especially camping information. I felt this had more of the information I wanted. No pull out map like Lonely Planet but does include a map for each park in the content.

I have had several versions of this book over the past 20 years and have gifted it many times. It is absolutely the best book on the National Parks I have seen! We have especially benefited from the advice on what to do if you have only 1 day or 2, and the listing of other nearby attractions is helpful too. I highly recommend if you are planning to visit parks!

This is just an awesome book! Everyone I show it to wants one. We took it with us on our recent trek to 3 Southwest National Parks (Great Basin, Bryce and Zion) and it was spot on in terms of locations, best things to do and general information to make the most out of our short visits to the parks. This is really just a great book and it is now one of the most important books I have since I want to start visiting more National Parks.

I'm tackling the NPs one by one and I wanted a small, packable but useful reference. This is it. It gives you good information on each NP, what to do, what to see and directions, without overwhelming. Great pictures and additional external excursion ideas in and out of the park. This book will get a lot of use.

This book is an excellent guide to the national parks. A great companion book to use with this book would be Your Guide to the National Parks by Michael Joseph Oswald. If you can only get one I would get Your Guide to National Parks by Michael Joseph Oswald.

I was expecting there will be many photograph in the book since it's published by NG. Yet I got barely no photos and the description is very short. I bought Lonely plane at the same time and the LP is better

As a seasonal National Park Service Ranger, there is another Nat Geo book about all the National Parks that is far, far better than thjis book. This book dos not describe ALL of the national park units, nor does it mention campground or lodging info, etc

This book will be my primary "tool" in planning my epic 3 month, 10,000 mile camping trip the summer of '19! Camping, kayaking and bicycling at my Top 10 favorite national parks out West.

My husband and I are planning a trip to some national parks and this book is really helping us decide which ones we may visit. It is nicely illustrated and has much good information. I am sure we will carry it with us while we are traveling. So it is beneficial for both the planning and the traveling itself.

So much information in such a nice book. National Geographic has done it again. You can find all the trails , with information in how hard and how long the trails will take to be completed in all of our national parks. Information in activities, best places to stay, what to do, phone numbers, prices, history...... Too much information for such a low price. It is well worth it.

Not comprehensive, but definitely points out cool things. It works really well for parks we've never been to and ones we're not too familiar with. If your looking for super detailed things about parks, you'd better get something more comprehensive.

I bought this in preparation for a trip to Yellowstone, and also visited Lincoln's home in Springfield, Devil's Tower, Battlefield of Little Bighorn, and Badlands. Helpful guide overall. It's challenging to capture everything about a park in a section. Be aware that this book does not cover all National Parks.

Bought this for a friend who's hoping to hike the National parks. He says it's very informative with interesting pics

I got this as a gift for my dad. He has enjoyed reading its content and remembering his travels. He is making plans for more park adventures.

This small book will travel with us as well as helping us plan for our outings. We're RV'ers. We love to hitch up the camper and throw the dogs in the truck not looking back until we have to get home for a wedding or something. This book will guide us for stops along the way!

I've had a copy of this for years and it's my first resource when planning a trip to the parks. It goes with me in the car as well. I bought this updated copy for my daughter who is planning a long trip to see all the parks. Great details on all the national parks, hikes, places to stay and other attractions in the area.

Pretty disappointing. The entire National Geographic seem to be more about the quantity of entries rather than quality information. Lite on details, lite on pictures, lite on maps. I guess it hard to compete with the vastness of information on the internet but this is not what I was hoping for.

I'm not sure how I would use this book. Its too superficial to do any planning, routing or accommodations. More like a coffee table book for company to glance through. Returned.

I bought this to get some information to help me plan a trip to the Grand Canyon. It was filled with a lot of very helpful information not only on the GC but also the surrounding area. I would buy others in this series based on other places to visit.

There’s bothing like Nat Geo books but this one is insuperable. It explains the major attractions of every park, routes, camping and hiking options. Awesome!

Tons of info on all the parks. Best book for trip planing as well as a guide for when you're there.

Great book!! My husband and I like to visit national parks and while we use our phones extensively, sometimes it’s nice to have a printed reference. I’m very happy with this book and would purchase again.

I falled in love with this guide after spending a few moments thumbing through its pages at a visitor center of the Everglades National Park. Three weeks later, I've found a lot of very interesting locations to add to my Google Maps for future hikings.

Bought it for my husband. Great buy and has everything he was looking for. Great detail.

We have the soft cover and Kindle veesions. Great book that we use all the time.

Good informative book to have for traveling. Great photos. Nice size to take along, not too big or bulky. Book arrived within the allotted time frame and was well packaged. Good pricing on Amazon.

I was hoping to get more pictures so I can compare the parks highlights. Some parks have one picture shown

I had the 2nd edition and it was time to get the updated 8th edition which includes the two newest national parks not in the 2nd edition. I have been to a lot of the national parks and I have kept this book handy on all of these trips. I still have several parks I have not yet seen so this book will be going with me on these trips too. It has a lot of very helpful information in it.

the guide is great and very in depth exactly what we wanted

Great book to inspire some road trips! I'll consult it before we travel anywhere. Plenty of pictures and logically laid out geographically (East, Midwest, South Central, Southwest, Rocky Mountains, Pacific Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska). We've already visited a dozen national parks and hope to visit many more with our daughter.

great pictures and i love the map to keep track. Maybe not the complete hikers guide but a great idea for people trying to find their next national park destination and to plan the basics.

Helpful in navigating 59 of the 60 National Parks.

We gave it too our son-in-law for Christmas. He loved it!

This is great book if you're looking to get a bunch of information about the National Parks

This book is my go-to when visiting a National Park. Especially if you are short on time, this book will give you the down and dirty on what to see and do. Bought it after looking through someone else's copy and realizing it is the perfect reference guide.

Detailed information provided. Best times of year to visit, how long the visit will take. Excellent planning tool.

It"s a great companion and reference when/if you're a National Parker. We use it a lot to read up on parks in our radar

Love the photos.... great guide!

I think the best park overview for all visitors of US national parks. Each park is described in enough details if you plan to do short time visit. Illustrated map are not very detailed but I have to say I carried the book during our trip through eight national parks and it provided perfect guidance.

By far the best National Parks information guide.

Everything you need to know about our National Parks.

Thank you

Thanks see

looking ahead to when travel is safe.

Exactly what I ordered and expected. Great book.

Great book, but if you buy it don't buy it with other stuff they cram it in a box and it gets bent and torn.

Bought as a gift, I haven’t heard anything negative or positive after than gratitude for the gift. It looks perfect for my little hippie world traveler.

A nice guide.

Received as described in great shape.

It's a well written and photographic book that provides enough information to why and what you need to explore when you arrive at each of these National Parks. It's a lifetime guide.

This is a great guide full of facts and interesting tidbits for each of the featured parks. It enhanced our recent vacation, and served as a good companion to the children's version which we also purchased.

This version does not have much info other than what is available at the National Parks website. I own an earlier version that has more useful information. I would not buy this edition again.

Exactly what I expected from National Geographic. Good info, nice pictures. Heavy magazine-print pages, just like the magazine. Can't wait to take it to a park and start using it!

new book

Well worth the investment if you plan to visit the national parks. Very helpful. A lot of information to help you get the most our of your visit to the parks.

It's a nice travel book but I do t find it particularly easy to use as I am trying to plan a trip. What's good about it is the overview of all the major national park. For more detail info you need the Internet or another travel book more specific to the area.

Great information and can't wait to visit more of the parks. National geo is always good for getting the information to you. Precise and easy to use. Lots of great clues of where to go and what to look for.

A wonderful overview of each of the NPS properties included. You will probably want to go to each Park's local website for the latest and more complete detail.

Good transaction.

Good resource for National Parks

The entire family loves this book! We are using it to plan out vacation next year! If you have plans to visit any of the national parks, this is a must have tool to get the most out of your trip.

Good info in a concise format. It provides suggested routes and different activities depending on your interests. I will be packing these as we plan to explore more of our National Parks.

Lots of good info about our National Parks. We found it helpful when we visited Acadia NP in August. Makes us want to travel to more parks next summer and we will.

cool book, I like having this kind of information at my finger tips. I think I will get a couple of the others offered by NP.

Bought it for Yellowstone while we were there. Wish I had it before going; however, it was still usefull and put is on to seeing things we might have over looked. Looks like it will benefit us as we visit other parks. Great book

good

great book so much info will be a great guide for visiting the parks

My son loves this

makes a good gift

Great

This book helps us plan all of our trips to national parks. Contains very relevant and useful information on each park.

Wonderful compendium of the National parks, filled with useful information.

This is typical NG literature. It is a good product with detailed and clear information. It is worth the money as it works as an information addendum to other National Park books.

Cannot go wrong with a Nat Geo publication. Well pleased with item

Good book

My husband and I plan on touring as many national parks as we can and this book will be a very useful guide! Wonderful pictures!

Great book for visiting all the National Parks. Looking forward to checking each one off!

We used this book quite a bit on our month long tour of the national parks. It still helps to get local info and hiking info, but this is a good start.

Excellent book

Good information helps me plan future trips

Exactly what it said on the tin- quick delivery and in good condition. Thanks.

Great book on the parks. Wish I had had it last May when we went to Utah. It showed a lot of things we missed.

Book has been very helpful as we plan our trip to yellowstone and other parks this summer

Lots of information..perfect for trip planning!

This book provides an excellent resource for the National Parks. The book gives you information on the directions to see the parks and the time you might want to allot in your journey.

It really help me to plan my trip in visiting National Parks.

Great guide on all the parks. My daughter visited all of them in the lower 48 states, and this was her go-to guide throughout the trip.

Nice pictures, nice back ground info, not much help planning a trip.

Great

Best used as a traveler. We did and hope to still get much use in finding answers for our Nat Geo Kids National Park workbooks. $ stars for lack of pics, but full of info

Tell me everything I want to know about the parks I want to visit!

excellent job by Nat Geo, as we have come to expect.

Book all beat up :( Good content though

Got this for a gift. She loves it. It has become a reference guide.

Not that good that you cannot get the same info online. Index is created by region then by the park in alphabetical order, not by state. HooHuum..you have to seach the seach. Very generic information and nothing that is actually revealing.

Awesome and compact, but informative book

Gave this to my brother and wife since they purchased a travel trailer. They love it!

This was a gift for my son who travels the world backpacking. He was very happy with it

Very informative

Plan to visit as many as possible

Studied this book before a trip and brought it with us. Great resource for tips that don't disappoint! As it teaches, ask the locals and the people that work there!

We have national treasures all around us as our heritage as Americans. Don't miss them!

A comprehensive guide to the park.

Just as described, incredible quality and arrived quickly!

just the right amount of information needed.

Wonderful...

this is a very good book for an overall review of all the national parks. Because there are so many parks, the book can only dedicate 3-6 pages for each park. However it is a great resource to have, especially if you are going to be driving to the parks.

great book!!

This publication was created to be user friendly and is organized thoughtfully throughout. It's complimented by scenic images and provides park insider tips, wildlife notes and park planners customized according to the geographic area and allotted travel time. I would highly recommend this guide to park enthusiasts!

Exactly what we needed for our travels

Will be using. To go camping

This book was full of fun information and made our west coast road trip really fun. I love that it is organized by region- makes planning super easy!

Wonderful book!!

The size is just right for easy travel from airplanes to long car rides. I am amazed at the number of national parks and added several new ones to my bucket list. i got this for my husband 45th bday and he loved it. Now let the planning begin! It's just the right amount of pictures and information.

Great detail, must have gives a lot of detail and info on 58 parks.

Perfect tour of all the national parks.

Beautiful book full of up to date information.

Very good. A good addition to the AAA books.

I got this as a Christmas gift for my parents. They love to travel and visit State and National Parks. This book contains maps and info that they will find useful on their travels.

Gave to my son - he loves it.

Good price~~~~

Provided information that I wanted. Pat Paige

Excellent summary of all the National Parks. Used it for planning visits.

this book is filled with wonderful information. However the print is small and I guess I expected a 9x11 book if not bigger. The print in this book is small and goes close to the crease it is a bit hard to are for my aging eyes. Otherwise I love the information provided in the book.

Nice Book. Could be larger in size and print.

Good information for future travels.

BEST GUIDE TO OWN. PERIOD.

Gave asa gift, I hope they liked it and it was useful for them!

All encompassing book on NP

fantastic compilation of americas outdoor treasures

very interesting and great pictures

We went on a tour of Bryce, Zion and Arches. Better to use the guides provided by the parks.

Bought as prep for our road trip this summer. Plenty of useful information within. Would buy again.

I really enjoy this book. I'm working on getting to all the Nat'l parks or at least one from every state

Beautiful guide

great product

Good book,

Love the beautiful colored pictures of the Parks, the size of the book and well written! Worth the money - get this book if you are interested in our Parks.

pretty book

Great resource

Great summary and beautiful photographs, but the content could be easier to read/use for the interested traveler.

very detailed description of every park in the USA

Enjoyed good information

Great!

Great book. Makes you want to visit all of our beautiful parks. Only thing I don't like is that it is in a small format about the size of the magazine.

REPLIED SAME DAY RECEIVED. PKG AND BOOKS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. THANKS.

wonderful trip planner

Great book for information on the parks.

It was okay, but we didn't find it useful the way we thought we would.

Didn't provide enough info about lodging

This is a wonderful guide to our national parks.

Best overall guide to US National Parks

Great Guide! looking forward to using it this summer!

Good not great

Info packed.

If you get over the fact that you can find any of the info in these books online then they're great and well organized.

Illustration s

Must have for the RVer.

Comprehensive and very informative.

I found the book to only give cursory information - not what I expected.

Great! We are enjoying it!

perfect

What I expected

A great resource for the national parks!

Excellent

Loved this very helpful. Accurate information and directions to the parks.

Compact with the most important informations..

Great magazine to use for planning purposes!

Nat Geo. Great Guide! We are using it right now.

I love national parks, and I found this guide to be very helpful.