Did you know you own 80 million acres? It’s called the National Park System and it’s yours, generous taxpayer.

The Children and Nature and No Child Left Inside movements, paired with our growing national conscience surrounding All Things Green, and yeah, that icky recession, have given the “nature vacation” a whole new cache. In a few weeks, PBS will debut a Ken Burns film on our National Parks, and the interest will grow even larger. Larger than the public interest in the Family Obama trip to the Grand Canyon? Quite possibly, yes.

Of course hoofing it around a canyon rim is a tad bit different than cruising a luxury liner or beaching it all-inclusive-resort style. But a national park vacation doesn’t have to mean backwoods camping with only a pocket knife and a Cliff bar to keep you warm, either. How can your family get the most out of our national parks without requiring a helicopter rescue, and instead requiring a soft, clean pillow in a comfortable hotel?

• Consider a guide service—park-sponsored or independent—to help you really experience a park. This way, you won’t doom your family to eating moss until you are rescued by the National Guard because you made a wrong turn in the woods. Many national parks partner with guides and outfitters, so check the NPS website to see what the park you’re considering has. Or consider a well-supervised volunteer vacation through NPS-sponsored Volunteers-in-Parks Program, or another eco-tourism-friendly organization like the American Hiking Society or the Sierra Club.

• Have your kids join the Junior Rangers Program and visit parks that participate. The program has been revamped to include more ecology lessons and physical activity for kids, including picking up garbage on on park bike trails, learning Native American dance, and taking soil samples. And you and I both know the kids are more likely to enjoy it if someone other than their parents tells them to do it.

• Stay at a public lodge on national park grounds. (this PBS series does a great job presenting them, as does the companion book). Some of the most beautiful—and comfortable, really!—lodging in the U.S. showcases some of our most beautiful national parks. You really don’t have to shower in a cement shed filled with spiders.

• Visit a park with a focus on people and history. Did you know there’s a national park dedicated to New Orleans jazz? Women’s Rights? The Industrial Revolution? There is. And they are all fascinating. (And if you’re afraid of bugs and raccoons, they are all comfortably located in urban areas.)

Pete Seeger wasn’t joking when he said this land was made for you and me (from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters, even). You’ll be that more proud of this land when you’re family gets out there and really sees it.

—Meredith