National Parks Make Budget-Friendly Family Vacations

"A moose!" exclaimed my 10-year-old son Matt, "A real moose!"

We screeched to a halt along the side of the road in Grand Teton National Park. Reggie, eight years old, was equally mesmerized, but three-year-old Melanie couldn't quite grasp that we were in the moose's house—and it wasn't a zoo. I still smile years later when I think about the kids' excitement. Forget the Kodak moments. The chance to share something new together—something you'd never see or do at home—is what makes those indelible family vacation memories that last forever.

And there's no better place to make that happen than at one of our national parks (there are 58 to choose from, not to mention the 333 other historic sites, monuments, seashores, and recreation areas. Yet a new survey from Greyhound reports that most of us skip the nation's most popular landmarks. This despite the fact that a visit to a national park, seashore, or historic monument is certainly one of the most cost-effective vacation options you can find.

Get an annual pass for just $80; seniors can take a carful of visitors along by purchasing the lifetime Senior Pass. Those with disabilities get a free Access Pass. Check out Frommer's National Parks With Kids, a park guide that includes information on kid-friendly eats, lodging, and fun activities; and Easy Access to National Parks: The Sierra Club Guide for People with Disabilities, which is just as helpful to those visiting with young children.

Over the years, we've had lots of adventures in national parks and they weren't always about seeing spectacular sites, though, of course, we've certainly had our share of those. Once we got caught in a hailstorm hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park without enough rain jackets. Another trip, we bided our time at Glacier National Park while one child had a time out for pushing another into a freezing glacial lake. We've dealt with carsick kids on some of those winding roads and a painful run-in with some cactus at Joshua Tree National Park in California. At Mount Rushmore, once my trio realized they couldn't climb around the monument, they were much more interested in seeing who could find the most license plates from different states. I got Alaska!

But every trip, whether the kids were preschoolers, grade-schoolers, in high school, or college, has been memorable—sometimes more so by what went wrong than what went right. I'm grateful for those experiences and look forward to more in the future.

Unfortunately, we can't take the opportunities the parks afford us for granted any longer, says Ron Tipton, the programming senior vice president for the National Parks Conservancy Association, which recently completed its first scientific evaluation of the condition of the National Park System. The results are troubling, with the Park System's natural resources, including wildlife, coming in at 70 points on a scale of 100 and cultural resources at only 61.

"People need to tell their kids that these places belong to all of us and it will take a commitment from all of us to preserve them," Tipton says. "They are very vulnerable." Take an afternoon out of your visit and volunteer, he suggests.

Last year, 167,000 people did just that, putting in 5.4 million volunteer hours. Ask at the park visitor center what you and your kids can do. Check out the new website that encourages national park visitors to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and help to protect America's parks from the effects of global warming. And don't forget about the Junior Ranger Programs and other ranger-led family activities. In an effort to turn 21st-century children into naturalists, the National Park Service has launched WebRangers, a virtual version of the National Park's longstanding Junior Ranger program, which enables school-age children visiting a park to get a kid's-eye view of the great outdoors by winning badges for completing various activities and tasks during their visit.