ROADS LESS TRAVELED

Last year some 266 million people visited the U.S. network of national parks, monuments, historic sites and other designated scenic places. Unfortunately, it sometimes seemed that all the nature lovers were in the same place at the same time. Everyone wants to go to Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and a few other crown jewels. But mile-long waits at the gate and fistfights in parking lots can leave visitors longing for the comparative calm of midtown Manhattan.

It doesn't have to be that way. Apart from its superstar attractions, the nation has scores of other national parks as well as more than 5,000 state parks that are nowhere near as heavily trafficked. The coolly serene Glacier National Park in Montana, at right, is one of them. Backcountry hikers might see grizzly bears in mountain meadows (one hopes at a distance) and icebergs in high lakes, all amid a heart-stopping landscape of lofty peaks and glacial valleys. It would be hard to find a better place to escape the heat or the crowds.