5 NATIONAL PARKS FOR SUMMER

Summer brings warm weather, long days and family vacations—elements that add up to make it the busiest time of year in the national parks. That makes some folks shy away, but savvy photographers know plenty of opportunities still abound for making beautiful images in the most amazing of America’s wild places.

To that end, we asked award-winning nature photographer and national parks expert QT Luong to recommend the best parks to visit this summer. He’s made more than 300 trips to the parks, and as the author of Treasured Lands—a 480-page compendium of photographs of the national parks that’s filled with useful information for his fellow photographers—Luong is uniquely qualified to highlight the best parks and special places within them to photograph wilderness unencumbered by crowds.

Here, in Luong’s own words, are his top five parks to visit this summer.

1. Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

A convenient and uncrowded mini-Yellowstone with more diverse volcanic terrain.

Lassen is one of my favorites to visit because even in the middle of summer you won’t be among the crowds. It’s only about five or six hours from the San Francisco Bay area, but it’s the least visited of all the national parks in California. It is the 40th most visited national park, so only 21 parks are