Thinking of spending time at the beach this summer? Now's the time to make reservations/NPS photo of Cape Cod National Seashore

Today is not too early to make your summer vacation plans in the National Park System.

In some parks, actually, it might be too late to get the exact lodging or campground dates you want. That's because in some parks you can reserve a room up to a year in advance. 

But if your goal is to vacation this summer in a national park setting, you really shouldn't waste much more time. Here are some suggestions to help get your plans on the books.

* National seashores

Places like Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts and Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina have fairly deep rental pools you can dip into. But if this is the first time you've turned your sights on these locations, you need to know you'll be wading into pools with families that have been going back to the same seashore, and sometimes even the same house, year after year after year.

If you have friends who have vacationed in these places, ask them how they found their rental. If you don't, you can go to area chamber of commerce sites to find listings of houses and cottages for rent. You also can go to the seashore's website, look under Plan Your Visit, and then either "lodging" or "Eating and Sleeping" and see what links the park provides. Most often they'll direct you to local chambers of commerce, or the park's lodging concessionaire.

Of course, you also can simply Google, Bing, or Yahoo! the destination and "rentals" and see what pops up. Depending on your comfort level, you can filter your search to companies that have been around long enough to build a reputation -- I've used Homeaway.com in the past with very good results -- or reach out to one that seems appealing -- we've had incredible results with Seaview Homes for a Virgin Islands National Park exploration.

Whichever direction you turn, once you make your reservation, it's a good idea to get travel insurance. This can protect you when the airline sends your luggage to a different destination, when storms wreck your travels, or even when sickness or a family emergency forces you to cancel at the last minute. If you're plunking down a couple thousand for your idyllic vacation, a few hundred to protect your investment isn't unreasonable.

* National parks

The big parks, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Glacier, for example, will book up months, even up to a year, in advance. So if you don't already have a reservation, you're losing time. Get on the Internet now, find the concessionaire that handles lodgings in the park you want to head to, and book it. But it won't be easy. A search for a room in the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone for dates in August showed the inn was booked solid from mid-May through September.

That's frustrating, but don't take it for granted. Call the reservations desk and see if they can find any openings. If they can't, the next option is to look to nearby lodges. Grant Village, for instance, is somewhat slower to fill than Old Faithful. Still no luck? Depending on where in Yellowstone you want to spend yours days, you can can look to the south to Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park -- a great destination in itself -- or Headwaters Lodge and Cabins at Flagg Ranch, to the west and West Yellowstone, a location with lots of lodging, eateries, and local color, the north to Gardiner, Montana, with its motels and cabins, or the east and Cody, Wyoming, with its possibilities.

If you're deadset on certain dates, your best option is to keep checking back on a weekly basis to see if openings pop up, which they do. You also can book a room in a less desirable location...and then try to upgrade after you arrive. Finally, search the lodging's website to find out how many days in advance of arrival you can cancel without penalty, and then try to book a reservation that many days out from your chosen dates. True, it's risky waiting to the last minute, but you just might luck into a cancellation.

The same basic rules apply to campgrounds in the parks. If you find them full, then turn your search to commercial campgrounds on the outskirts of a park. Often these facilities will offer more amenities -- Wi-Fi, swimming pools, saunas, and, believe it or not, even catering, though it might only revolve around pizza.

Lassen Volcanic National Park is a great option if Yosemite is sold out/Kurt Repanshek

* Other options

With more than 400 units in the park system, you have countless options at your disposal. You can look to a "lesser known" national park or seashore, where demand isn't so great.

For instance, Yosemite is grand, but so are nearby Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks. Lassen Volcanic National Park about an hour north from Yosemite is often overlooked despite its wonderful setting and resources.

Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah can fill quickly, while Capitol Reef National Park 2.5 hours away not so quickly. Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina can be jammed at the height of summer, Cape Lookout National Seashore just down the coast not so much.

Big Bend National Park in west Texas is a well-known and popular destination, Guadalupe Mountains National Park about four hours north not so much. And Guadalupe Mountains offers you a short, 35-minute drive to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Great paddling, and scenery, can be found at Big South National River and Recreation Area/NPS

Great Smoky Mountains National Park too crowded for your likening in the summer? Consider heading two hours northwest over to Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area on the Tennessee-Kentucky border, or south three hours to Little River Canyon National Preserve in northern Alabama.

A last, and maybe best, option is to consider shifting your vacation out of the summer months and into the fall, early winter, or spring months. Frankly, Arches and Canyonlands national parks are terribly hot in the summer months, with the temperature rising towards 100 Fahrenheit at midday, while October and even into November are wonderfully pleasant at those two Utah parks. Fall can be a somewhat slow season at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, so more availability and slightly lower rates are possible. Ditto for Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

Fall also is a tremendous season to experience at Acadia National Park in Maine. Dare to be different.