If these are truly the "secrets" of our national parks, then I'm sure I'm visiting the national parks wrong. This reads more like insider recommendations for which trails to take than anything else. I guess I was hoping for more "behind the scenes" facts instead. And why do the big parks get all of the focus whereas many others (such as Hot Springs or Isle Royale) barely get a paragraph? One would think that the smaller parks or lesser traveled would have the most "secrets" of all!

To top it all off, the copy of this book that I read had a publishing error: the first 3o pages or so had some duplicate pages from the back of the book put in instead of some missing pages at the beginning. (So it went cover page, page 128-129, page 4-5, page 131-132, page 8-9, etc.) My rating for this book is not reliant on this unfortunate error. ( )

Once you have your trip planned, pull out the 2nd edition of National Geographic Secrets of the National Parks: The Experts' Guide to the Best Experiences Beyond the Tourist Trail and look for the secrets and less traveled areas along you planned trip. The guide is organized into the same regions as National Geographic Guide to National Parks of the United States: East, Midwest, South Central, Southwest, Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska. After the Table of Contents, there is a map of the USA with the parks marked in the How to Use this Guide opening section. For each of the parks in the guide, there are lesser known experiences, places to visit that are less crowded, hard-to-find sights, and other secrets known by the local park rangers, outfitters, and guides who know the parks the best. Every national park is not included, but there are enough to make this a valuable companion to the National Geographic Guide to National Parks of the United States.

Naturally the photographs are spectacular because this is a National Geographic guide. Furthermore, there is so much great information provided in the guide that is essential to planning any trip to a national park.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of these guides from National Geographic for TLC Book Tours.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3877755530 ( )