Yellowstone National Park is on pace for another record-breaking year for visitation/Patrick Cone file photo

In a word, you could say the National Park System is "busy" this summer. From Acadia National Park in Maine to North Cascades National Park in Washington State, visitation to the parks is high. But that doesn't mean you'll encounter crowds everywhere you go.

"Acadia National Park was extremely crowded in July, and had I not been willing to do sight seeing very early in the morning, it would have seriously detracted from my experience," one Traveler reader commented on Wednesday. "Cadillac Mountain sunrise had hundreds of visitors at 5 a.m., each trying to one-up each other, and move in front for pictures without other people in view. It was extremely upsetting and soured a moment that should have been magical."

But across Frenchman Bay, at the park's Schoodic Peninsula, the solitude was wonderful, another reader commented.

"We are in Acadia National Park now. Luckily, we have a site in Schoodic Woods Campground, away from the chaos on Mount Desert Island. It is packed there and at every parking lot for hikes or carriage roads or views, the traffic is like bear jams in Yellowstone," they wrote. "Over here on Schoodic, we might see five or six people at any given time, though there may have been 20 at Frazer Point for sunset. I'd love to do some hikes and walks over on MDI, but I fear it would be more akin to being on the National Mall for Fourth of July than a nice walk in the woods."

Whether it's due to the upcoming National Park Service Centennial, which arrives August 25, or low gas prices, or vacationers avoiding Europe because of unrest in some countries, the National Park System is extremely busy in some, but not all, corners. In a story Wednesday The Wall Street Journal reported from Yosemite National Park that, "Those seeking serenity this year at national parks are finding a major obstacle instead: some 300 million others looking for the same thing."

Those who escaped urban centers for America’s wide-open spaces now find themselves in longer-than-usual traffic jams, packed shuttle buses and epic bathroom lines. On the busiest days, the Grand Canyon alone is going through a mile of toilet paper a day, per stall, in some of its restrooms.

Overflow campers at Yosemite are pitching tents anywhere they can, including off a state highway outside the park.

Last week Yellowstone National Park officials as well as personnel from the National Park Service's Denver Service Center met with West Yellowstone, Montana, officials and business representatives to discuss the crowds flocking to the world's first national park.

“We have had a pretty steady growth in the number of visitors to the park over the past decade, but it was the spike of visitation that we saw in 2015, a 17 percent increase, that messed with a lot of our park systems. We didn’t see it coming and it surprised us in many ways,” Yellowstone National Park Social Science Coordinator Ryan Atwell was quoted by the West Yellowstone News. “Our biggest increase in total number have been in the summer but the biggest rates of change have been in the shoulder seasons. That means that we can spread out the numbers we see across more time, but it also presents some operational challenges for us. Early in the season, we are still training staff and in October, we lose a lot of our seasonal workers and some services are shut down.”

On Traveler's Facebook page, Kimberly Busby Carter said the heavy crowds in Yellowstone were disappointing.

"Yellowstone was so crowded! During hours from 10-6, usually you could not park to see a feature," she wrote. "Long lines of cars were waiting just to find a spot. We had to go out early morning and after 7 in order to see much. So disappointing when we traveled so far to see everything."

Other readers had mixed experiences:

"Arches was PACKED in June, but Canyonlands was almost deserted. We were in both parks by 7:30 a.m. each day," wrote Leslie Kell. "Black Canyon of the Gunnison had a light crowd the day we were there."

"Rocky Mountain NP was overcrowded last week, BUT if one went in around 7 a.m., it was a joy until 10 a.m.," reported John Thornton.

"Glacier's ridiculously crowded!  ALL campgrounds are constantly filled by 8-10 am. Often at 6:30 a.m. cars are driving through waiting to pounce like vultures on someone leaving," a reader commented on the Traveler. "Parking is non-existant. Over the past 2 years they added more/extended parking areas for the crowds. Not much help: People still have to park along the sides of the road a mile way, then walk on the road to the trailheads. And forget Logan Pass: Might find a parking place 4 p.m. or later. Take the shuttle, you say?  Some have waited 2-3 hours to get a seat on the shuttles. Maybe it's time to give the parks 'breathing room' and shut them down for a summer."

Solutions to the crowds? Head to lesser-publicized parks, or even leave the country.

"Going to the lesser-visited national parks is still a great option, as the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP in late June the campground never filled and very few people were on the trails," Traveler reader RD Payne reported. "If you want to get away from the crowds head to Canada: Riding Mountain NP (Manitoba), Prince Albert NP (Saskatchewan), and Elk Island NP (Alberta) each average only 250,000 visitors for the entire year (though campgrounds do tend to fill up in July/August, so reservations are recommended), but these are great places to get away from the crowds of the U.S. national parks."