visiting national parks in late july
 

an old college friend and i like to visit beautiful national parks together. we went to Yellowstone a few years ago. we are trying to find another interesting place to go that won't be too overwhelmed with tourists in late july. any thoughts?

How about the Mt. Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Olympic National Parks. The weather is usually good in late July at these places and these parks are big enough that tourists usually don't overwhelm them in the way they often do at Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion, Bryce, etc.

HTTY

Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii, Hawaii

Haleakala National Park on Maui, Hawaii

Glacier/Waterton Glaciers National Park- Montana and Canada

Will you be hiking or is this more of a sightseeing trip (where you don't venture that far from your car)? If you're hiking, I agree the Washington parks are great. Olympic is the 5th most visited park in the country, and Rainier is 14th, but I hike there in July and don't feel crowded because I hike on trails that aren't near the visitor center areas. If you were mainly sticking to visitor center areas/top attractions, however, you will have plenty of company. North Cascades National Park NEVER feels crowded because it's all hiking--there is only one gravel road into the park, and otherwise you have to hoof it.

Redwood National Park also comes to mind--it's so remote it doesn't get a ton of visitors. Lassen Volcanic National Park is great, too.

Then there are areas that have national park caliber scenery, but are managed by other agencies, and so get far fewer crowds. The Sawtooths in Central Idaho come to mind--gorgeous, gorgeous scenery, lots of hiking/biking/rafting/riding/etc, good lodging (in Ketchum/Sun Valley and Stanley) but no crowds.

Another vote for Stanley, ID.

Bandelier in New Mexico for a couple of days, ane/or Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and the Grand Staircase Escalante area of Utah. I would expect it to be cooler in Bandelier than in Utah, but good hiking and interesting geology and history in all.

Late July means the desert national parks should be avoided UNLESS you can handle the heat. Arches and Canyonlands are absolutely wonderful places to visit, but should be avoided unless heat is not an issue for you.

As for avoiding crowds in late July, there are three ways to do so:
1) go to places of wonderful scenic and natural beauty that are not national parks. As Christy notes, some places in the national forest system have beauty no less than that of a NP, it's only politics that keep them so designated.
2) go to national parks without a lot of visitation. They're out there, but which one would best meet your needs is impossible for us to know.
3) walk away from the parking lots for twenty minutes. Do that even at Yellowstone, Yosemite, or Grand Canyon; and you'll feel as if you've left this planet (or, at least, that's how I felt when I did so at those places in summer).

I can give you some good ideas for (2) if you can tell us
a) where you are starting from.
b) what you hope to experience on this visit. Some places are better for scenery, some are better for wildlife, some are better for isolation.

I like just about any of them at just about anytime or the year(although I like to go at prime times-waterfall flow, fall colors, weather,etc). You might consider Sequoia/Kings Canyon for July. Much less crowded than Yellowstone. Might consider Lassen Volcano and Redwoods.