Destinations: National Parks The Best of the Rest (Cont.)
HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK
Volcano village, Hawaii / 209,695 acres
HIKE across hardened mounds of black lava and through forests of tree ferns and koa on the Napau Trailwith views of the Pacific below and Mauna Loa above. Camp at Napau Crater under the glow of Puu Oo, an active, dangerous cinder-and-spatter cone. It's a seven-mile hike, one-way.
808-985-6000, www.nps.gov/havo
HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK
Hot Springs, Arkansas / 5,500 acres
Yellowstone it ain't44 of the park's 47 thermal springs have been channeled into reservoirs that feed turn-of-the-century bathhouses. Take the requisite SOAK, then hightail it ten miles to the top of 1,405-foot Music Mountain via the Sunset Trail. 501-624-2701, www.nps.gov/havo
JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK
Twentynine Palms, California / 1.02 MILLION acres
With dozens of granite buttresses and two hulking domes, the Comic Book area, 600 yards west of the Barker Dam turnoff, offers plenty of CLIMBING routes, from Welcome to Joshua Tree, a two-pitch 5.10c with a view, to Alice in Wonderjam, a splitter 5.9 crack. And there's no waiting in line. 760-367-5500, www.nps.gov/jotr
KATMANI NATIONAL PARK PRESERVE
King Salmon, Alaska / 4.1 million acres
You don't book a cabin at Kulik Lodge, on the shores of 51-square-mile Nonvianuk Lake, to be pampered. You come to ANGLE for 45-pound king salmon (July) and ten-pound rainbows (September). For reservations, call Katmailand Inc. (800-544-0551).
907-246-3305, www.nps.gov/katm