Memorial weekend is coming and that means a few things: barbeques, parties, and vacations.  Spring weather and national holidays often means outdoor excursions.  Those excursions can be at home or abroad.  Many people, like you and me, choose to go on vacation for memorial weekend and visit a national park site.  This choice often ends up being problematic.  Because of this, we’re discussing whether or not you should visit a national park over Memorial weekend.

The Plan

Have you ever visited a national park over Memorial weekend?  It sure sounds pleasant on the surface.  It’s a warm spring day (hopefully) and you’ve got a day off of work.  You haven’t enjoyed being cooped up all winter and you want to get outside.  What’s more outside and beautiful than a national park?

I’ve been to a national park over Memorial weekend and I’m telling you that it wasn’t as pleasant and it sounds on the surface.  I visited Yellowstone National Park on the Saturday of Memorial weekend.  Wow!  There sure was a lot of traffic there that day.  Please keep in mind that I was just day-tripping the visit.  If I was planning an overnight stay, it would have been worse all around.

There are a lot of reasons why you might consider opting out of a national park visit during Memorial weekend.  Here’s a few to consider.

1. Weather

Memorial weekend is the official/unofficial last spring weekend before summer break starts.  You probably expect that you will have a warm to hot spring-bordering-on-summer day.  You can easily be mistaken.  If you are planning on visiting a national park located at a higher elevation or latitude, then you must prepare for poor weather.  Springtime often brings late snow storms in these places, even as late as Memorial Day.  I’ve seen it snow in June in Idaho before.  It happens.  Rain also happens too.  These weather conditions and more can really put a damper on your national park Memorial Day vacation.  You need to prepare for such conditions just in case.  Local stores might have rain gear for sale.  They will have removed the snow gear from the sales floor long before May starts.

What to Do: Start by checking the weather forecast frequently before and during your trip.  If bad weather is moving in, then make some space in your luggage for rain or winter weather gear respectively.  If it means that you must pack an extra suitcase, then pack and extra suitcase.  You do not want to be caught in a snowstorm with shorts and flip-flops.  Pad your budget just in case you need to make such an emergency purchase.  Have alternate plans in case of bad weather.

2. Accommodations are Booked Up and Expensive

If you are planning a trip to a national park over Memorial weekend, then you will be thinking about where to stay.  I can tell you that accommodations will be booked out for weeks and even months ahead of time.  The price will also be higher than usual because of Memorial weekend.  If you are making late plans, then you will be lucky to find something open at a decent price.  The more popular the destination, the more difficulty you will face in booking accommodations for your trip.

What to Do: If you are planning to visit an national park over Memorial weekend, then I make the following suggestions.  Book your accommodations weeks or months ahead of time.  The sooner and further out you book your stay, the better chance you will have at finding a room at a decent price.  The rooms will still be expensive because of Memorial weekend.  That’s something you will have to budget for.  However, the rooms will not be as expensive as they will be when you walk in on Friday night looking for an open room.

3. Crowding

Because of how popular national park visits are over Memorial weekend, you need to expect crowding.  Whichever park you choose, expect the place to be crowded.  Specific attractions are often more crowded than the general park itself.  Bryce Canyon has a huge amphitheater with a miles of space to view the canyon from.  You will still find the viewpoints crowded.  Old Faithful has a lot of seating available (feels like a half a mile’s worth of seating) to watch the geyser erupt.  You will still be crowded looking for a place to sit or stand which grants you a view of the geyser.  I’ll also talk about a few more specific points regarding crowding in greater detail.

What to Do: The best thing for you to do in these situations is to expect that your experience in the park will be limited.  You will not get to go see or do everything which you want to or normally could.  You will need to plan out getting to open events (like Old Faithful) way ahead of time.  You’ll need to plan out what you want to do on this trip and what can wait for tomorrow or your next trip.  Plan to visit popular locations at off hours such as early mornings and late nights.  This will reduce the number of people you are competing with for space.  Good time management will be your ally here.

4. Long Lines

This point is an obvious subset of crowding.  If you do choose to visit a national park over Memorial weekend, then you will face long lines.  It doesn’t matter where you go.  There will be lines.  You’ll find lines at the hotels, the restaurants, the stores/gift shops, the gates into the park, the rest rooms (especially the rest rooms), and more.  You’ll find waiting lists for many of the tours and other popular activities.  Just expect that there will be a line no matter what you need or want to do.

What to Do: Sadly, there’s only so much you can do with long lines.  You can wait through them or not.  There are a few things you can do to be polite to the people behind you.  If you’re about to pay for something, then have your payment method out and ready.  The national park staff love it when you have a national park pass at the ready.  It speeds things up at the gate.  Make your bathroom visits as brief as possible.  Use as little toilet paper/paper towels as you must and don’t make a mess.  Don’t grump about how long the line is and how long you have to wait.  Nobody likes THAT guy and complaining makes the wait worse for everyone else.

5. Parking Issues

Here’s another subset of the crowding issue from above.  If you’re visiting a national park over Memorial weekend, then you will have to worry about parking.  There’s only so many parking spaces available in a lot.  Many people even try and make extra spaces where they shouldn’t.  You will probably find yourself circling around a parking lot for several minutes before you find someone vacating a spot.  It can be frustrating and also reduce the time you have to sightsee.  However, it’s unavoidable thanks to the high volume of people visiting the park.

What to Do: This is one point which is difficult to work around.  There’s only so much parking to go around.  However, you can patiently wait your turn and not steal a space from someone already waiting for it.  You can refrain from damaging the surrounding area by parking where there isn’t and shouldn’t be a parking space.  You can even trade off drivers (if that’s an option for you) so that impatient children and other passengers can go see the sights then relieve you to see the sights.  It’s not optimal but it means that everyone can see the park if it’s feasible in the park you’re visiting.  It won’t be feasible in parks like Zion’s National Park where there’s a shuttle to take you to many of the sights worth seeing.

Conclusion

Given some of these issues and restrictions, you might be better served visiting a national park at a time when there won’t be such a crowd present.  I would recommend against visiting a national park during Memorial weekend for these reasons.  Your visit will be much more enjoyable for you if you aren’t always in line waiting on a big crowd.  I do realize that this suggestion might not be feasible for you and your situation.  In either case, I do recommend checking out more of my travel guides to better plan out your national park vacation.  If I haven’t yet covered the park you plan on visiting, then please be patient.  I’ll get to it as soon as I can.

What I recommend you consider instead of a national park is visiting a local state park or some other such area.  Those places receive much less traffic in general and can be well worth the visit even if they aren’t quite as grandiose as national parks are.  Whatever you choose to do, enjoy your Memorial weekend.