Though summer is one of the best seasons to visit a national park, it also can be the most crowded time to go. Fortunately, you don't have to wade through crowds if you're willing to look beyond Yellowstone and Acadia or carefully choose which section of a park to visit.

The national park system offers a gorgeous lake shore with a chain of islands to explore, a secluded corner of North Carolina steeped in Appalachian lore, an overlooked gem on Nevada's border with Utah, a geologic wonder where you can escape southern Utah's convection-oven conditions and even some oceanfront real estate to pitch your tent on.

• Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisc.: This 12-mile slice of Lake Superior shoreline and its 21 islands is one of the national park system's best-kept secrets. Sea kayakers come to this corner of Wisconsin to explore ''sea caves'' that burrow into Sand and Devils Islands as well as a portion of the mainland, and to camp on 18 of the wooded isles. To rent a kayak, call the park office at 715-779-3397 for a list of outfitters.

Scuba divers, sailors, and anglers also take to Superior's waters, with divers descending on shipwrecks dating to 1886, when the 195-foot schooner, Lucerne, went down with a bellyful of iron ore. History buffs who prefer dry land admire the park's six lighthouses, all of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Raspberry Island Lighthouse reopened to the public last summer after a $1.3 million restoration. Inside, half of the station appears much as it did in the early 1920s when Lee Benton was its keeper, while half provides housing for park personnel. In summer, rangers lead tours of the lighthouse.

Visits to some of the other islands can be arranged through Apostle Islands Cruise Service (www.apostleisland.com; 800-323-7619). Camping is permitted on 18 of the islands and at the lakeshore's mainland campground. Nearby Bayfield, Wis. (www.bayfield.org; 715-779- 3335 or 800-447-4094) has bed and breakfasts, inns and hotels.

• Cataloochee Valley, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, N.C.: This little-known cousin to Great Smoky's famous Cades Cove actually was one of the region's most thriving communities a century ago, counting 1,200 residents in 1910. Today, though, it draws no crowds to its historic buildings, rolling orchards, meadows or forests, which do, however, attract elk, wild turkeys and black bear.

To get to the valley, nestled near the park's eastern boundary, you must negotiate a winding, 11-mile gravel road near Dellwood, N.C., to reach Cataloochee. Make the journey, though, and this road will carry you back into a 19th and early-20th century landscape rimmed by 6,000-foot mountains and enclosing some of the park's best examples of historic frame buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Palmer House, a vintage ''dog trot'' construction, features two separate log cabins (that later were planked over) tied together by a covered porch popular with dogs on long, hot summer days. Today, the house doubles as a museum of the valley and offers a video that provides an interesting oral history recorded by descendants of the valley's settlers. Elsewhere in the valley you can find the Palmer Chapel, the Caldwell House that is sandwiched by two covered porches, and the Beech Grove Schoolhouse, a two-room structure built in 1901.

There are 27 sites at the Cataloochee Campground, where you can find respectable trout fishing in Cataloochee Creek. For a roof overhead at night, check out the Abbey Inn (www.abbeyinn.com, 800-545-5853) in nearby Maggie Valley, N.C., or head over to Cherokee, N.C. (www.cherokeesmokies.com, 877-433-6700).

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