Just an Afternoon: Free Four-Hour Plans for Every National Park
Only have a few hours in a National Park? This free guide tells you exactly how to spend them. For all 64 U.S. National Parks, you get a four-hour plan that gets you to the park's headline sight first, then fills the rest of your time with the stops worth making.
I wrote it after taking my kids to Mesa Verde National Park for an afternoon. We left without seeing the cliff dwellings, not because we ran out of time, but because we didn't know they were there. This is the guide I wish I'd had.
- A timed four-hour plan and a map for every park, from Acadia to Zion
- Which tickets and timed-entry reservations to book before you go, with a backup plan if you can't get one
- Off-season notes and practical tips on water, gas, heat, and cell service
Enter your email and the download links are yours right away. You'll get them by email too, as a PDF (for any device and for printing) and an EPUB (for Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and Kindle through Send to Kindle).
Have more than an afternoon? Every park in the guide has its own full guide with one- to three-day itineraries.
This is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service.
Free guide, full guide, or collection?
Just an Afternoon
Free
For a few hours in a park: one timed four-hour plan and a map for each of the 64 parks.
Single-park guide
$6.99
For one to three days in one park: nine plans at easy, moderate, and strenuous effort, with maps, history, wildlife, and trip planning.
Multi-park collection
$12.99
For a trip through several parks: the guides for each park in one download. Each listing shows its parks and effort levels.
The Gateway Arch guide is different: one timed day, plus ten more St. Louis sights.