Just Outside: Discover the National Forests Beyond America’s Most Visited National Parks Expand your bucket-list trip with a National Forest for scenic camping, outdoor recreation and hidden gems.
National Forests Just Outside National Parks are the secret to unlocking one-of-a-kind adventures.
America’s most visited National Parks are iconic for a reason, and for many travelers, they remain the centerpiece of an unforgettable outdoor trip. That also means that summer travel in top National Parks like Yosemite or the Grand Canyon can be crowded and expensive.
In 2025, the National Park Service reported more than 323 million recreation visits across the system; the top 10 national parks alone drew over 48 million visitors.
Just beyond many of these iconic, high-traffic destinations are landscapes just as stunning, far less crowded, and full of adventure: National Forests.
Rather than skipping the National Park icons, Just Outside shows travelers how to make those trips their own by extending the journey into nearby National Forests. In partnership with the National Forest Foundation, the official nonprofit partner to the U.S. Forest Service, the campaign highlights National Forests Just Outside the 10 Most-Loved National Parks. Wild places that offer scenic campgrounds, quieter recreation, and a deeper connection to the landscapes that make these places unforgettable.
What is the difference between a National Park and a National Forest?
National Forests and Grasslands span 193 million acres across 155 forests and 20 grasslands in 44 states, welcoming 170 million visitors each year and offering endless space to explore.
National Parks and National Forests often share a boundary but offer different experiences. National Parks focus on preservation and iconic sights, while National Forests are built for adventure, balancing conservation with camping, ATVing, horseback riding, fishing, hunting, foraging, and more.
National Parks are where you view the beauty; National Forests are where you make the adventure your own.
What does this mean for visitors?
Most National Parks charge entrance fees and require permits; most National Forest areas are free and rarely require permits
In National Parks, RVing is limited, and reservations can be challenging to secure; in National Forests, RVing is more flexible with dispersed camping and easier access
National Park campgrounds book up fast, often come with higher fees, and typically require competitive permits for backcountry use; National Forest camping is more affordable, less crowded, and often offers first-come sites plus free dispersed or backcountry options.
National Forests are Fido-friendly, with space for your pup to roam and explore, while National Parks have strict leash laws and limited trail access
Why go Just Outside?
For travelers who already love being outdoors, Just Outside is a chance to take the trip one step further. National Forests extend your time and access to more camping, more recreation, and more ways to experience a region. A space to explore on your own terms, whether that means fishing a quiet stream, finding a new trail, or camping down a dirt road under the stars. Adding a National Forest to your trip can make a bucket list National Park adventure feel more expansive and personal, with opportunities to go beyond the main roads and into landscapes that feel less traveled. Because these places are often more self-guided, they are especially rewarding for travelers looking for a deeper, more flexible kind of adventure.
Explore National Forests just beyond iconic National Parks
The featured National Forests below offer a unique way to expand a visit to one of America’s most popular National Parks. The Adventure Score reflects how well each forest complements the neighboring park in camping and RV friendliness, recreation variety, family-friendly appeal, distinctiveness, and seasonal flexibility.
1. Nantahala National Forest
Just Outside of Great Smoky Mountains National Park
America’s most visited National Park is known for misty mountain views, biodiverse forests, and classic scenic drives. Just outside the park is North Carolina’s largest National Forest, the Nantahala. This National Forest offers a natural way to keep the Southern Appalachian adventure going with more campgrounds, more river access, and more room to explore. This pairing works especially well for travelers who want to turn a bucket-list Smokies trip into a deeper mountain road trip.
Adventure Score: 83/100
Just Outside Highlight: Nantahala National Forest is home to countless waterfalls, including Dry Falls, a stunning 75-foot waterfall you can walk under without getting wet.
2. Dixie National Forest
Just Outside of Zion National Park
Zion is one of the country’s most recognizable National Park trips, but the surrounding National Forests reveal a broader side of southern Utah. In Dixie National Forest, red rock gives way to aspen groves, lava flows, and cool mountain lakes, with elevations topping 11,000 feet. In summer, the higher terrain offers a welcome escape from the heat, with access to quiet trails, scenic byways, fishing spots, and dispersed camping that lets you settle into the landscape at your own pace.
Adventure Score: 88/100
Just Outside Highlight: At an elevation of 10,000 feet, Powell Point delivers a vast, edge-of-the-world panorama across the Grand Staircase and the sweeping expanse of the Colorado Plateau, where cliffs, canyons, and endless horizon unfold in every direction.
3. Shoshone National Forest
Just Outside of Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone draws travelers with geysers, wildlife, and epic geothermal landscapes. Shoshone National Forest hosts grizzlies, big horn sheep, wolves, mountain lions, elk, and more. This National Forest is a strong fit for travelers who want to stay immersed in the Yellowstone region while adding camping, fishing, hiking, and scenic drives to the itinerary.
Adventure Score: 87/100
Just Outside Highlight: Shoshone was the first designated National Forest, established in 1891. Step back in time in Kirwin, a remote 1880s mining town turned ghostly alpine relic, where weathered cabins and rusted remains echo the ambition and fragility of a bygone era.
4. Kaibab National Forest
Just Outside of Grand Canyon National Park
A Grand Canyon trip is all about awe, but the surrounding forests add another dimension. Kaibab National Forest wraps around the North and South Rims, rising into high-elevation plateaus of ponderosa pine and open meadows. Cooler air, dark skies, and quiet trails offer space to roam, with easy dispersed camping and miles of forest roads. It’s a quieter, wilder counterpart that deepens the experience without straying far.
Adventure Score: 86/100
Just Outside Highlight: At North Kaibab Trail, the only path from the North Rim to the Colorado River, you begin in cool fir and aspen before dropping thousands of feet through shifting layers of stone and time, past roaring springs and red rock walls, into a vast, sunlit canyon.
5. Sierra National Forest
Just Outside of Yosemite National Forest
Yosemite is one of the country’s most sought-after National Park trips, especially in summer, and the surrounding National Forests make it easy to keep the Sierra Nevada experience going. The Sierra National Forest opens into a vast stretch of the High Sierra, where quiet alpine lakes, granite peaks, and the wild expanse of the John Muir Wilderness invite you to experience the same breathtaking beauty with more space to wander and stillness to savor it. This pairing is ideal for travelers who want to stretch a Yosemite trip into a fuller high-country road trip.
Adventure Score: 85/100
Just Outside Highlight: At Devils Postpile National Monument, towering hexagonal columns rise from the forest floor like nature’s own cathedral, where ancient lava meets crisp alpine air, and the nearby rush of Rainbow Falls echoes softly through the pines.
6. Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests
Just Outside of Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park is known for alpine lakes and dramatic peaks, but Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests surround it on almost all four sides, offering even more terrain to explore. Spanning northern Colorado, they bring high-elevation trails, scenic byways, and quieter access to the same mountain landscapes, making an easy extension for a broader Colorado road trip.
Adventure Score: 84/100
Just Outside Highlight: In Indian Peaks Wilderness, jagged alpine peaks rise above glassy lakes and sweeping tundra, capturing the wild, high-altitude beauty that defines the heart of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests.
7. Chugach National Forest
Just Outside (kind of): Denali National Park
Technically, Denali National Park has no adjacent National Forest, but in Alaska, distance feels different. In Denali National Park, vast tundra stretches beneath North America’s tallest peak, capturing the raw, untamed scale of the landscape. About five hours away, Chugach National Forest offers a striking counterpoint, where glaciers spill toward the sea and dense coastal rainforest climbs into rugged, snowcapped peaks. It’s an ocean-meets-mountain landscape that is just as wild an adventure, in an entirely different way.
Adventure Score: 77/100
Just Outside Highlight: One of the most unforgettable sights is Columbia Glacier, where a vast river of ice fed by surrounding icefields spills into Prince William Sound, calving into the sea beneath shifting light and towering peaks.
8. Bridger-Teton National Forest
Just Outside of Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton delivers iconic peaks and alpine lakes, but Bridger-Teton National Forest stretches that landscape outward into something even more expansive. Here, scenic byways climb high mountain passes with sweeping views, then drop into vast wilderness where jagged summits, quiet lakes, and open skies take over. It feels like the Tetons, just with more room to roam.
Adventure Score: 94/100
Just Outside Highlight: At Green River Lakes, Squaretop Mountain rises in perfect symmetry above still, reflective water, capturing the wide open, quietly dramatic beauty of Wyoming in one unforgettable view.
9. Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
Just Outside of Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park is defined by its extraordinary range, from rainforest to mountain to coast, and just beyond it, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest carries that Pacific Northwest experience forward with glacier-clad peaks, dense evergreen forests, and miles of scenic roads and trails. Rather than ending at the park boundary, this landscape invites you to keep exploring, revealing more of Washington’s wild beauty with every mile.
Adventure Score: 82/100
Just Outside Highlight: At Mount Baker, a volcanic peak rises dramatically above alpine meadows and deep evergreen forests, capturing the wild, rugged beauty that defines Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
10. Flathead National Forest
Just Outside of Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park is one of the country’s most seasonal and in-demand summer destinations, which makes the surrounding forests especially valuable for extending the experience. Just beyond the park boundary, Flathead National Forest offers classic northern Rockies scenery with clear lakes, quiet trails, and more flexible camping. Flathead turns a Glacier trip into something broader, more accessible, and more immersive.
Adventure Score: 89/100
Just Outside Highlight: Jewel Basin Hiking Area is a stunning high alpine landscape of glacial lakes, wildflower meadows, and sweeping northern Rockies views that capture Glacier’s beauty.
What is the Adventure Score?
The Adventure Score is RVshare’s proprietary 100-point index designed to measure how well a nearby National Forest complements a visit to one of America’s most visited national parks. It is built to show travelers which National Forests most naturally add camping, recreation, flexibility, and discovery to a bucket-list park trip.
Adventure Score Categories
Proximity & itinerary fit — 25 points How naturally the forest fits into the national park trip.
Camping & RV friendliness — 20 points The strength and variety of camping opportunities, especially for road-trip travelers.
Recreation variety — 20 points The range of activities available from hiking and scenic drives to fishing, paddling, and wildlife viewing.
Family-friendly appeal — 15 points How accessible and usable the destination is for a wide range of travelers.
Distinctiveness & hidden-gem value — 10 points How memorable the forest feels in its own right, including trails, lakes, overlooks, and campgrounds.
Seasonal relief & flexibility — 10 points How well the forest helps broaden a peak-season trip with more room, more options, and a more flexible itinerary.
Methodology
RVshare created the Adventure Score in partnership with the National Forest Foundation to evaluate National Forests near America’s most visited national parks and identify natural extensions of bucket-list park trips. Each featured forest was assessed across six weighted categories: proximity and itinerary fit, camping and RV friendliness, recreation variety, family-friendly appeal, distinctiveness, and seasonal flexibility. The goal is not to position National Forests as replacements for National Parks, but as complementary destinations that can add more depth, more recreation, and more discovery to an already iconic itinerary.
Plan your trip just outside the park. Discover nearby National Forests, hidden gems, and road-trip-ready camping that can turn one iconic stop into a fuller outdoor adventure.
About the National Forest Foundation
The National Forest Foundation is the official nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service, working to ensure the 193 million acres of National Forests and Grasslands remain healthy, accessible, and resilient for generations to come. Through public and private partnerships, the Foundation transforms America’s love of the outdoors into action on the ground by restoring landscapes, reducing wildfire risk, improving trails and recreation infrastructure, and supporting the communities that depend on these lands.
Join us in caring for National Forests by visiting www.nationalforests.org.