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Gear

Gear Up For The National Parks

Accessories to help you make the most out of any national parks shooting excursion

This Article Features Photo Zoom

The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) manages 392 “units,” including 58 national parks and 74 national monuments. That adds up to 84 million acres of some of the most varied and spectacular scenery in the world, as well as habitat for a wide range of remarkable wildlife—all just waiting for you and your camera. Some 275 million visitors enjoy NPS lands each year. But few ever venture very far from the parking areas. To escape the crowds and get great photos that aren’t the usual “tourist” shots, you’ll have to head off into the wilds. And that means you’ll have to be judicious as to what to take with you—extra weight on the trail is no fun, but neither is finding you don’t have a needed piece of gear when a photo op appears.

Start by doing a little research on your destination (an online search for the name of your destination park is a great first step), and check out the basics, such as the climate at the time of year you’ll be visiting, what sorts of photo subjects are there, history and culture, accessibility, nearby hotels and (if so inclined) camping, and tidal information if a coastal park. If you’re not sure what park you may want to visit, start with the general NPS website: www.nps.gov.

You’ll be taking your camera(s) and the lenses needed to get the shots you want, of course, along with lots of film or memory cards, spare batteries and a map (be sure to check with the park rangers for local tips before venturing into the backcountry). The hard decisions involve what else to bring along. You should consider what you want to photograph, as well as where you’ll be doing it.

For example, Joshua Tree in the California desert gets particularly hot in the summer, so you may want to take less gear and more water into the field. Death Valley (also in California) is world-famous for heat—it holds the all-time North American high-temperature mark at 134° F, just two degrees off the world record—so you may want to avoid it altogether in summer.

Interestingly, Death Valley’s low point is just 76 miles east of the highest point in the Lower 48, 14,505-foot Mount Whitney. If you want to explore that area fully photographically, you’ll need to prepare for dry heat and high-elevation cold and snow.

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