>>1641819I always start hikes at popular places at first light, I'm usually eating breakfast in the dark.
I did Vernal/Nevada Falls in Yosemite on a holiday weekend this way. Maybe a dozen started around when I did, got to enjoy decently long streches of trail and viewpoints to myself, and the top of both falls with only a handful of other people.
Then there were at least 1200 people, no exaggeration, coming up as I came back down.
Thats how you avoid crowds.
If you want Isolation in a NP, you have to go off-trail, otherwise its impossible and just something to put up with.
