Which of the many National Parks Tours is best for you? The classic tour takes you to national parks, monuments and historic sites in the United States from Maine to Hawaii, east and west. You can join a small group tour with hands-on sight-doing, interacting with places you visit, not just seeing them and be as active as you wish with hiking, snowshoeing, bicycling and river rafting. The American West tours mainly operate from April through early October, while you can visit Hawaii all year long. The Eastern US tours have a shorter visiting period, varying by what states you might want to visit. Philadelphia and Washington are best to visit in April, May or June and then again in September and October. The summer months are exceptionally hot. Michigan and Mackinac Island are lovely in June, July and August, while New England is best to visit in June, July, September and October. The Canadian National Parks are best to visit from May through early October.

Your first sight of the Grand Canyon is like no other place on earth. Clouds, shadows and the shifting sun keep transforming the landscape. As the sun flames in the west, the canyon walls turn red. The Grand Canyon sprawls wide open, revealing two billion years of Earth's history. Here is where air meets land and the sunbeams dance. Oranges and pinks dance and dazzle as sunlight plays over Bryce Canyon, where wind and rain have sculpted the quirky hoodoos. The warm colors glow at sunrise and sunset. Zion National Park gives us the windswept red cliffs and hidden canyons as a river carves its way through Navajo sandstone at Glen Canyon. Explore Lake Powell in the evening with a colorful drama of the Utah sunset.

In the Great American West everything is big. Wyoming comprises part of Big Sky Country, where the heavens appear to stretch on forever. The Teton Mountains, crowned by Grand Teton seemingly bursts up out of the floor of the glacial valley to loom majestically over everything below. This is Jackson Hole. Yellowstone, with its gushing geysers, and hot springs are the largest concentration of geothermal features on Earth. Taste the cowboy life at a working ranch and rodeo. From monumental Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse in South Dakota's Black Hills to the spirit of Buffalo Bill, the Great American West is yours to conquer.

In Yellowstone National Park you can join a wildlife safari with grizzly bears and grey wolves. Head out on a whitewater rafting adventure along the Snake River. Yellowstone in winter is alluring while you watch bison, elks, wolves and bighorn sheep wander across snow-covered valleys. See steaming pools contrast with frozen wastes that surround them and waterfalls partially freeze into ice bridges. Ride a horse-drawn sleigh through the snowy expanse of the Natural Elk refuge. For warmth in this frozen world, geysers like Old Faithful erupt into the frigid air, billowing steam and spume that paint white masks on the faces of bison. A dip in Chico Hot Springs will get you toasty warm for a while. Yosemite and Sequoia are places of giants, from rocks and trees to men and memories that grow larger with retelling. They are living, breathing, lasting reminders of the man who fought to save them in 1890 so that you could savor them in the future. Granite formations tower thousands of feet over an emerald valley. The night skies of Sequoia National Park shine with thousands of stars that are visible to the naked eye.

The national parks of Hawaii protect the sacred bond between the land and its people. Giant lava tubes take visitors through molten tunnels to surreal landscapes. Rain forests ring craters with trails lush with wildlife. Maui forms the sacred centerpiece of the Island's National Park at Mount Haleakala. Hawaii is one of the most wondrous places on Earth. Kilauea is considered the world's only drive-in volcano navigating the 10 mile crater rim road.

Banff is to Canadians what Yellowstone is to Americans, their countries first and foremost national park. This is home to hot springs, bighorn sheep, elk and bears.  Jasper National Park, painted with ice fields and glaciers is a vast remote wilderness, where you'll find rushing whitewater's of the Athabasca River, waterfalls, canyons, crystal lakes and endless panoramas of mountains jutting into the sky. Take a sightseeing excursion in Alberta over a trio of sister peaks nicknamed Faith, Hope and charity giving you the gift of endless views.