Mount Rainier or Yellowstone?

Neither park is a place to swim, and they are roughly equal here. At Rainier the snowmelt lakes are only for wading, and summer swimming means the shore of a lowland reservoir such as Alder Lake near Elbe, where local families go.

Yellowstone's lake is too cold for safe swimming, and its thermal pools are scalding and off limits. What it has instead is a quick river plunge in the Firehole canyon and, outside the park, hot-spring pools with warm water.

Food is practical in both parks, so plan on picnics and early dinners. Yellowstone has a slightly stronger regional character, with bison burgers, elk sausage, trout and huckleberry pie in the gateway towns. Jackson and Bozeman offer more serious cooking, though both are a long drive away.

Rainier offers roadside diners, brewpubs and lodge dining rooms. There are few local specialities beyond salmon and late-summer berries, and a proper restaurant meal means driving back towards Tacoma or Seattle, which is at least nearer than Yellowstone's alternatives.

Yellowstone has more history to see. As the first national park, it has the Old Faithful Inn, the Roosevelt Arch and the old army post at Fort Yellowstone, and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody is a serious museum of Plains Indian culture and Western art.

Rainier's heritage is on a smaller scale: the original headquarters and small museum at Longmire, the beamed lobby of Paradise Inn and a few fire lookouts. They make a pleasant hour, but they are not a reason to go.

There is effectively no nightlife in either park. At Rainier an evening means a porch, a campfire or a beer at a tavern in Ashford, while Yellowstone adds a lodge lounge and a few gateway-town saloons. In both places most people go to bed early, for the high trails at Rainier and for dawn wildlife at Yellowstone.

Both are outstanding, Yellowstone a little more so, and they offer different things. Rainier is one glaciated volcano that you walk around and look up at: wildflower meadows at Paradise, the Emmons Glacier from Sunrise, giant cedars at Ohanapecosh and the two-week Wonderland Trail, with guided summit climbs for experienced parties.

Yellowstone is a whole volcanic plateau, with most of the world's active geysers, the yellow canyon and Lower Falls, and herds of bison and elk with wolves and grizzlies. At Rainier you come to hike, while at Yellowstone you spend more of the day watching geysers and animals.

Rainier has better options for a day away. Tacoma's waterfront museums, including the glass museum with its working hot shop, and the capitol in Olympia are both an easy drive, and Seattle is within reach.

From Yellowstone, every outing is a long day for one place: the Western square and wildlife art museum in Jackson, Buffalo Bill's Cody, or the Beartooth Highway over to Red Lodge. They are worthwhile, but most visitors spend their days inside the park.

Yellowstone keeps children more excited. Predictable eruptions, belching mud pots and bison by the road make each stop feel like an event, and the boardwalks are flat. The cost is long hours in the car and constant watchfulness near hot ground and large animals.

Rainier works best for a few active days. There is the homestead trail at Longmire, the footbridge over Box Canyon, snow at Paradise into early summer, and outside the park the tram through Northwest Trek and the steam railway from Elbe.

You need a car in both parks, but Rainier is easier to manage. Its sights are each about an hour from a gateway town, and staying in Ashford or in Packwood or Enumclaw cuts down the driving. In winter only the road up to Paradise stays open, and chains are required.

Yellowstone's distances are much greater. The Grand Loop Road runs about 230km at low speeds, with bison jams and full car parks at Old Faithful, and most of it closes to cars from November to April.

Western wear and wildlife art give Yellowstone a slight edge, though shopping is a minor part of a trip to either park. Around Rainier it is limited to park gift shops and a few small craft galleries in the gateway towns, so buy your gear in Seattle or Tacoma before you arrive. Yellowstone's gateway towns add fly-fishing and outdoor shops, and Cody and Jackson sell cowboy boots and hats, with galleries of wildlife painting and bronze.

Rainier is the cheaper of the two. Entry is cheap, the trails cost nothing, and while summer rooms in the gateway towns are not cheap, they avoid the steep premiums of Yellowstone's lodges, captive-market fuel and nearby Jackson.

In both parks, camping and picnic lunches make the biggest difference, and staying away from July and August brings room prices down.

Yellowstone has a few things worth an evening out: the nightly summer rodeo in Cody, family musicals in West Yellowstone and the Grand Teton Music Festival's classical season near Jackson. Rainier has nothing comparable beyond a campground ranger talk, and anyone wanting a concert has to go back to Tacoma or Seattle.

Neither park has spas, but they relax you in different ways. Rainier's offer is quiet: a cabin under the firs near Ashford or Packwood, with no phone signal and the sound of the river at night, while the Ohanapecosh springs are only something to look at.

Yellowstone gives you somewhere to soak, in open-air hot-spring pools near Gardiner and in Paradise Valley. Real stillness there depends on going out early or visiting in September and October.