National Parks Traveler's eBook Library
Traveler's growing eBook library helps both youth and adults get the most out of their national park visits.
The Young Explorer's Guide to Yellowstone National Park, ($2.99), can help youngsters gain insights to, and appreciation for, the world's very first national park.
Written by the editors of National Parks Traveler, this full-color, 58-page eBook covers park history, geology, thermal features, wildlife, landscape, and vegetation.
For more details and to purchase, visit this page.
The Young Explorer's Guide to Wildfires ($2.99) explains how wildfires start, how they're fought, and what impacts they have on landscapes.
Written by Patrick Cone, this eBook this 45-page, full color book teaches readers from seven to ten years old concepts such as the "Fire Triangle," help them understand that there are good, and bad, wildfires, and discusses where they occur. A glossary provides definitions of the many terms presented, including oxidation, convection, combustion, and conduction.
For more details and to purchase, visit this page.
Book store clerks could have a difficult time displaying this book. Does it go under "photography" or under "travel"? You'll understand the quandary once you start turning the pages, for you'll learn as much about Acadia National Park in general as you'll learn about how to get the best photos there.
Colleen J. Miniuk-Sperry came to her book with a passion not only for photography, but for Acadia. It shows through the 200-odd pages of Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide To When, Where, And How.
From a vast, fascinating underworld in western South Dakota to the mighty Mississippi in Minnesota on down to Florida where "supercolonies" descended on Everglades National park, there is much to see in the National Park System. And Traveler's Essential Park Guide for fall 2018 will point you in the right directions.
Whether you're interested in going underground at Wind Cave National Park or Jewel Cave National Monument, looking for a nice road trip that ties parks together, wondering about the best birding to be had in Everglades National Park, or interested in the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, this guide can help you out.
Add a digital edition of this 54-page magazine to your national park library for just $1.99 from this site.
Winter can be a cold, blustery, and snowy season. But it also can be magical in the National Park System, with endless miles to cross-country ski or snowshoe, snowmobile trails, and wildlife on the move.
In Traveler's Essential Park Guide Winter 2017-18, we examine some great winter destinations, places such as Yosemite National Park with its tall trees, Apostle Islands National Seashore with its ice caves, Olympic National Park with its upper elevation snowfields, and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument with its great mix of snowsports. You'll even find a four-page chart to help you settle on a winter park destination.
We even tempt you to consider a long-distance hike, and provide the information to get you planning for your long walk. Download a digital copy of this guide for your personal parks library for just $1.99 from this page.
Spring can be one of those iffy seasons in the National Park System. You might run into warm, sunny days with an easy breeze at your back. Or, you could find yourself being pelted by sleet, battered by a stiff wind, with grey clouds scooting by overhead.
One thing you can count on, though, are wildflowers; glorious wildflowers and trees in colorful bloom. All these floral species work in concert to color these landscapes. In honor of this kaleidoscopic outburst, this 56-page guide features some of the best places in the parks to find wildflowers.
You'll also enjoy a spring getaway at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in our Essential Park Guide Spring 2017, learn about some great Canadian national parks, and explore some great paddling destinations, such as Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. Priced at just $1.99, this is a great guide for your personal parks library. Order one at this page.
Road trips, hikes, and exploring the parks are on your to-do list for summer. To help you out with that, turn to Traveler's Essential Park Guide Summer 2016.
In this, our largest (at 58 pages) Essential Guide yet, we suggest how to spend three glorious days in Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, experience an overnight in a lockkeeper's house at Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, and trace the efforts of the Ranger of the Lost Art to preserve and protect iconic national park posters made by the Works Progress Administration.
You can add this edition to your digital national park library for just $1.99. Buy it here.
Fall arguably is the most colorful season of the year in the bulk of the National Park System, whether you head east or west. From Acadia National Park in Maine south through Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina and even down into Alabama at Little River Canyon National Preserve, the varying hues of gold, umber, and rouge blend with the dwindling greens of maples, beech, oaks, and other hardwood species.
in Traveler's 50-page Essential Park Guide, Fall 2015, you'll learn where to find the best fall color displays, discover where to look for wildlife, and read about a Smoky Mountain fall escape. Parks featured in this edition include:
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
- Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
- Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
- Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
- North Cascades National Park
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Natchez Trace Parkway
To add this digital guide to your national park library for just $1.99, visit this page.
Winter is the best season to look for Anhingas, and other wildlife, in Everglades National Park. But it’s also a great season to head to Point Reyes National Seashore in California to watch for the arrival of thousands of elephant seals for their breeding season, or to the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River in New York and Pennsylvania to scan the skies for bald eagles. The fact is, the winter months are a great time to find yourself in the National Park System, whether you’re in search of wildlife, a great hike, or to seek out some solitude.
In our winter guide to the parks, we offer articles that can help you choose your destination. There are road trips that will not only keep you free of snow and ice but also take you back in history, a rundown on some charming winter lodgings (both warm and cold destinations), and a seasonal directory to parks to enjoy during the winter months.
Parks covered in this guide include:
- Death Valley National Park
- Everglades National Park
- The Natchez Trace Parkway
- Valley Forge National Historical Park
- Yosemite National Park
To add a digital copy of this guide to your national park literary library for just $1.99, visit this page.
From the great work that national park friends groups are doing and some of the best campgrounds in the National Park System, to enjoying Acadia National Park, and some help in deciding where to vacation in the parks, our Essential Park Guide for Summer 2018 is a great resource and addition to your personal parks library. Buy a digital copy for just $1.99 at this site.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is back on the circuit for national park lovers, and Traveler's Essential Park Guide for Fall 2017 includes a feature on this Sonoran treasure. And you'll also find a story laying out a three-day plan of attack for visiting Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.
Being fall, we've also including an article on photography tips for capturing wildlife across the National Park System, and a list of parks where you got spot a wide range of species, from elk and bison to elephant seals.
Download a copy now for your personal national park library for just $1.99 from this page.
Wondering how to enjoy the national parks through the winter? Download a 36-page digital version of the Essential Park Guide, Winter 2016-17, for a nice variety of ideas. You could consider visiting Big Bend National Park in Texas, exploring the newest national monument, Katahdin Woods and Waters, or go ice climbing at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
You'll also find articles on:
- Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site
- Mount Rainier National Park
- Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Priced at just $1.99, this is a great guide for your personal parks library. Buy it here.
While it’s great to see more and more people turning to the parks for enjoyment, relaxation, and recreation, not everyone enjoys milling crowds in the parks. With those folks in mind, we’ve put together some strategies, beginning on page 9 of our Essential Park Guide, Spring 2016, you can turn to for avoiding, to a certain extent, crowding on your national park vacation.
Parks featured in this guide include:
You'll also find national park road trips and seasonal looks at Rocky Mountain National Park and Yosemite National Park.
To purchase this 36-page digital guide for $1.99, visit this page.
Where to head in the National Park System during the summer months? The choices, as you know, are many. In this Essential Park Guide, Summer 2015 we take you into the Rockies, down into the Atlantic Ocean, and even onto the John Muir Trail in the High Sierra. There's even an article on classic hikes in the National Park System.
Among the parks written about in this guide are:
- Biscayne National Park
- Grand Teton National Park
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Mount Rainier National Park
To add this guide to your digital national park library, visit this page.
In our 3rd Annual Essential Guide to Paddling the Parks you’ll find articles on the best rapids in the National Park System, great reads to take with you on the river or lake, and a rundown on our Wild and Scenic River System.
There's a piece by Colleen Miniuk-Sperry on SUPing Lake Powell, in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Special Projects Editor Patrick Cone’s writes about camping in Channel Islands National Park, off the coast of California, and Traveler Editor Kurt Repanshek touches on dinosaurs, of all things, in his story about Traveler's six-day float trip through Canyonland National Park's Cataract Canyon.
Among the parks touched on in this guide are:
- Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
- Channel Islands National Park
- Canyonlands National Park
Bonus content includes our exclusive paddling directory to the National Park System, where you can find all the legal waters for paddling, floating, and SUPing. For more information and to purchase a digital copy of this 44-page guide for just $1.99, visit this page.
Spring is a time of renewal across the National Park System, a time to shuck off cabin fever and head to the parks. But where should you head, what should you do?
Fortunately, you can turn to our Essential Park Guide, Spring 2018, for some ideas. Inside this 46-page magazine you'll find some history from the parks in a story that looks at achievements of the Civilian Conservation Corps, see what impact the 50th anniversaries of the National Trails System and Wild and Scenic River Act have left on the parks, learn about Portugal's only national park, and get a sense for the meals that await you along the Natchez Trace Parkway.
Download a copy now for your personal national park library for just $1.99 from this page.
Summer is one of the best seasons in the National Park System.
And summer 2017 will be particularly memorable for folks who are able to visit a park on August 21, when a total solar eclipse will darken a swath of the country, from John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon, through Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, and eastward into Congaree National Park in South Carolina.
Along with exploring this eclipse, Traveler's 42-page Essential Park Guide Summer 2017 takes a three-day look at Glacier National Park, looks at how the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is being cared for, and delves into the creative side of the National Park Service's Midwest Region. Elsewhere in our summer issue you’ll find articles on places to spend a few hours, or a few days, fishing, and where to go hiking in Yosemite National Park. And there’s even an article on interesting facts on Dry Tortugas National Park that could aid you in a national park trivia contest.
To download a digital copy for just $1.99, visit this page.
Traveler's Essential Park Guide for Fall 2016 took a closeup look at Everglades and Shenandoah national parks, and gazed south to Costa Rica and Manuel Antonio National Park where you'll find sloths and toucans. Within the covers you'll find a three-day itinerary for visiting Everglades, as well as details on some of the charming gateway communities that rim Shenandoah National Park.
You'll also find seasonal stories on Dry Tortugas National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Yosemite National Park.
Download this 46-page digital guide to fall in the national parks for just $1.99 to add to your personal national parks library. You can buy it here.
Traveler's Essential Park Guide for Winter 2015-16 takes you to Badlands National Park in South Dakota, Gorongoza National Park in Mozambique, and even makes a stop at Virgin Islands National Park in the Carribean.
Other parks featured in this 46-page digital guide are:
You'll also find ways to enjoy winter in three dozen other units of the National Park System, from Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
To order your copy, visit this page.
Springtime is a bit of an 'in-between' season. It's somewhere between the longer, warmer days of summer, and the cooler and muddier days of a late winter. Hopefully you'll find your place farther from winter's cold and closer to summer's breezes. But with the National Park System as your playground, seek the climate you desire this spring.
You can head to the high-country in the Western half of the country for some late-season corn skiing. Patrick Cone did just that for a ski trip to Great Basin National Park. Or saddle up with Kim O'Connell and explore Shenandoah National Park by horseback. There's also a guide to great parks to visit during the spring.
Park adventures covered in our Essential Park Guide, Spring 2015, include stops in these parks:
- Acadia National Park
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
- Great Basin National Park
- Shenandoah National Park
- Zion National Park
To add this digital guide to your national park library for just $1.99, visit this page.
Flat water. Whitewater. Tranquil pools and rising tides. All this and more abounds in the National Park System's water world. Though often described as "more than 84 million acres" of landscape, the system also embraces endless miles of streams, lakeshore, and ocean front. It's a watery landscape you can explore for half-a-day, or for the rest of your life.
In National Parks Traveler's 2nd Annual Essential Guide to Paddling the Parks, 2015, you'll find great spots to paddle from Everglades National Park to Voyageurs National Park. As a bonus, there's our exclusive directory to all parks where you can legally paddle, float, or SUP.
Among the park units included in this guide are:
- Channel Islands National Park
- Dinosaur National Monument
- Everglades National Park
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Voyageurs National Park
- North Cascades National Park
- Fiordland National Park
To order this digital guide for just $1.99, visit this page.
