Hot Take: Afternoon Is the Best Time to Visit National Parks

A few summers back, I arrived in Wall, South Dakota, after another long day in a series of long days on the road. I was in the midst of a five-month road trip that would take me to nearly 20 national parks across nine states throughout the American West. It was one of the year’s final 90-degree days before the first chill of autumn would break summer’s grip on the plains.

When I arrived around dinnertime, I surveyed my options: I could check into my hotel and collapse into bed or extend my day with a quick trip to Badlands National Park just eight miles away. Figuring the sun would set soon enough, I decided to savor whatever daylight remained and made a beeline for the Badlands. That decision would forever change how I visited national parks.

Soon after passing through the Pinnacles entrance station, I stopped at a few deserted overlooks to admire the park’s namesake rock formations, watched a dozen grazing bison in the distance, and giggled at the sight of hyperactive prairie dogs poking their heads out from underground.

After about an hour, I made my way to the Burns Basin Overlook to watch the sunset on the angular, khaki-colored rock formations and eroded pinnacles that make the park such a storied attraction. Within minutes, pinks and purples filled the sky above. The rapidly softening light brought out layers of red, green, blue and gray in the previously dull rocks below. The dirt beneath my feet took on a fiery red hue. What had seemed desolate moments earlier all of a sudden felt so alive, and I had it all to myself.

Even before I returned to my car, I knew I’d stumbled onto a new way of experiencing our national parks. From then on, I made a late-afternoon visit part of every national park trip on my itinerary. Over the coming weeks, without fail, I’d savor electric sunsets, marquee attractions and magical wildlife encounters on these visits. And they’d always happen in the company of Mother Nature and almost no one else.

If you have enough flexibility in your schedule, keep reading for three reasons why an afternoon visit might lead to your next favorite national park adventure.

National Park Afternoons Draw Smaller Crowds

The most obvious benefit of a late-afternoon visit is that you’ll leave the crowds behind for greater solitude. Early risers typically try to beat the hordes at sunrise–and just about everyone else follows in the heart of the day–but rarely do the crowds think to stick around for that stretch between lunch and dinner. There’s a reason, after all, that the growing number of parks requiring timed-entry reservations typically end their restrictions by 3 or 4 p.m.

I’m not against crowds, but it’s a pleasant surprise to experience world-famous sites in almost total silence. On my road trip that summer and fall, I had the sunset to myself at Grand Canyon National Park’s Hopi Point, looked for mountain goats at the base of Clements Mountain in Glacier National Park and rode a mostly empty shuttle in the shadow of red-rock formations at Zion National Park following my afternoon rule.

Those experiences paid dividends with multiple days in a given park. Arriving in the afternoon allowed me to get the lay of the land and see the top sites without jostling for parking spots or waiting my turn at viewpoints, which in turn freed up my full days in the parks for seeing less-heralded sites and trails. All this while my fellow visitors congregated at the most popular spots.

That said, the diminishing crowds might occasionally be onto something: late-day heat can easily top 100ºF at the likes of the Badlands on a sweltering summer day, and afternoon thunderstorms at mountainous parks of Rocky Mountain aren’t uncommon. Before visiting, always check the weather forecast and bring plenty of water; if you’re curious about changing conditions, check with a park ranger. And if your phone is buzzing with weather alerts, play it safe until conditions improve.

Unique Sightseeing Opportunities Arise Each Afternoon

The benefits of a late-afternoon visit extend far beyond the additional elbow room and offer truly unique sightseeing opportunities that aren’t possible at any other time of day.

For instance, I spent a few nights at Old Faithful Snow Lodge in the heart of Yellowstone National Park in September 2021. On one of those afternoons, I took a stroll on the paved paths and boardwalk trails throughout Upper Geyser Basin at my doorstep. Along the way, I stared into the teal depths of Morning Glory Pool and watched the steaming mass of Grotto Geyser alongside only a few cyclists and a handful of hikers. I eventually returned to Old Faithful around 7 p.m.

It wasn’t late by any conventional definition of the word, but I can only imagine that my fellow visitors had seen what they came to see earlier in the day, leaving me almost alone with the most famous hole on Earth. Within a few minutes, right around sunset, I shared an Old Faithful eruption with about 30 or 40 visitors, a far cry from when the surrounding boardwalk’s benches had been as crowded as a Taylor Swift concert hours earlier. The eruption would have been splendid in any circumstance, but the golden-hour setting and peaceful silence, when it was quiet enough to hear the scalding water splash against the base of the geyser, made it an experience I’ll never forget.

The late-setting summer sun provides another argument for late-afternoon visits, especially at national parks in the northern United States. On the summer solstice, for instance, you can theoretically enter Glacier National Park at 3 p.m., when timed-entry reservations for Going-to-the-Sun Road are no longer required, and have nearly seven hours of daylight for hiking and sightseeing before the sun sets at about 9:45 p.m.

National Park Afternoons Allow More Chances to Spy Wildlife

It’s a common refrain at parks across the West: your best bet for viewing wildlife comes when animals are most active around sunrise and sunset. That means you’ll have a better chance to spy wildlife in their natural element when you plan a late-afternoon visit, rather than a midday excursion.

Time and again, I’ve been lucky enough to experience this firsthand. I once had to stop my car just south of Yellowstone’s Hayden Valley while a stray bison sauntered by just a few feet away. Another time, I watched a few surprisingly docile pronghorn grazing lazily in a meadow at Custer State Park. In July 2023, on our way back to town by way of Going-to-the-Sun Road, a friend and I spied a grizzly galloping through a meadow near Logan Pass in Glacier.

In fact, that soul-stirring sunset at Badlands National Park led to one of my most cherished wildlife encounters to date. Before visiting, I’d hoped to see one of the park’s resident bighorn sheep and their unique spiral horns, but I’d struck out in the late afternoon sunshine. Shortly after sunset, however, I drove past a handful feasting in the grasslands on the side of the road. They couldn’t have cared less about the few cars inching along just a few feet away. In fact, I think the sheep might have even outnumbered tourists at that point.

About Matt Wastradowski

Matt Wastradowski is an Oregon-based travel writer. He loves writing about outdoor adventures, craft beer, and history—and has authored three guidebooks about the Beaver State for Moon Travel Guides. Keep up with Matt’s affection for Oregon by following his weekly newsletter—a series of love letters to the state he calls home.

When he’s not writing, hiking, or celebrating the day’s outing at a local brewery, chances are good Matt has just returned from another road trip—or is planning another epic adventure on his quest to visit all 63 national parks across the United States.

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