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The crown determines much of how a hat sits on your head, while the brim determines how much it covers. A soft dad cap and a tall trucker can carry the same park patch and still feel quite different. Once a shape looks right, the main hat guide has specific recommendations.
- Structured snapback
- Unstructured dad cap
- Trucker
- 5-panel camp cap
- Rope cap
- Bucket hat
- Wide-brim sun hat
- Sun hat with neck cape
- Beanie
Ball caps
A ball cap’s front brim leaves your ears and neck uncovered. The CDC recommends a brim of at least 3 inches all the way around for sun protection.
Structured or soft
A structured cap has a stiff lining called buckram behind the front panels, so the crown stands up on its own and a picture stays flat. A dad hat leaves the stiffener out, so the front folds, the crown sits low, and the whole cap packs flat in a daypack.
The stiffener changes the crown’s shape, not the brim’s coverage.
A snapback is the plastic strap with pegs at the back, and it’s also a style, a structured cap with a flat brim and a tall crown. Plenty of structured caps have curved brims, though, so if you want the stiff front, look for the word structured in the listing.
Rainier Hat Co.’s Mt. Rainier National Park Hat is a structured 5-panel with panoramic embroidery across the front and onto the sides. Rainier Hat Co. calls it mid-profile, but the front is tall and buyers on its site call it trucker-style. Some say Rainier Hat Co.’s caps run large.
The Rocky Mountain Conservancy’s Night Sky Bear hat is the soft version, a washed cotton dad hat for $24.99 with a bear drawn in stars on the front.
Trucker
A trucker is a stiff front with mesh behind it, which lets heat out and makes a trucker the cooler cap on a hot day. You can see daylight through trucker mesh, so sun gets through too.
Glacier National Park Conservancy’s Grinnell Point Sunburst Hat is the usual park-store trucker, a wide patch on a poly-cotton front with a snapback. Rainier Hat Co.’s Mt. Rainier hat also comes as a trucker, the same embroidered front with gray mesh behind it. There are more in the trucker guide.
5-panel and camp cap
Look at the front. A 6-panel has a seam down the middle where two panels meet. A 5-panel has one wide panel and no seam, which is why full-front embroidery usually goes on a 5-panel.
A camp cap also gets called a 5-panel, though it’s a low, soft cap with one flat front panel and a short, flat brim. It packs flat and weighs almost nothing, but the short brim shades less than a full cap brim. When a listing only says 5-panel, check the photos for the crown height and the brim.
Glacier’s Trees and Mountains 5-Panel Hat is a cotton camp cap whose listing says spot clean only.
Rope hat
The rope is decorative, a detail associated with golf hats from the 1950s. It doesn’t tell you how stiff the crown is or what the cap is made of.
The Florida National Parks Association’s Everglades Tarpon Performance Rope Cap is a structured polyester 5-panel with a snapback. The listing says UV guard with no UPF number, and whatever the fabric does, it only shades your face.
| Hat | Style | Price |
|---|---|---|
 Around townNight Sky Bear Hat, at Rocky Mountain ConservancyRocky Mountain Conservancy | Dad cap | $24.99 |
 Hot, humid daysEverglades Tarpon Performance Rope Cap, at Florida National Parks AssociationFlorida National Parks Association | Rope cap | $30.50 |
 Hot days at the parkGrinnell Point Sunburst Hat, at Glacier National Park ConservancyGlacier National Park Conservancy | Trucker | $32 |
 Packing lightTrees and Mountains 5-Panel Hat, at Glacier National Park ConservancyGlacier National Park Conservancy | 5-panel | $32 |
 Panoramic embroideryMt. Rainier National Park Hat, at Rainier Hat Co.Rainier Hat Co. | Snapback | $44.99 |
Hats that shade your ears and neck
A bucket shades a little, a wide brim shades more, and a brim with a neck cape shades the most. Measure the brim at the sides, where your ears are, and check whether the UPF rating covers the mesh.
Bucket hat
A bucket’s short brim slopes down all the way around, so it shades your ears and the back of your neck a little. The holes near the top are vents.
A bucket brim can be under 3 inches, and park-store listings rarely give a width. The Rocky Mountain Conservancy’s park bucket has a compass on the front and UPF 50+, but it only comes in adult L/XL. Grand Canyon Conservancy’s nylon Hike Smart bucket is UPF 50+ too, with a chin cord, in M or XL.
Wide brim
A boonie is the park-store hat most likely to reach the CDC’s 3 inches. Big Bend Natural History Association’s $33.99 Roadrunner Sunhat has a leather Big Bend patch and a chin strap, and it goes in the washer. Smokies Life’s $29.99 Cool Fit Boonie has a chin cord and comes in two sizes, but neither boonie lists a brim width.
Wide brims catch wind, so use the chin cord.
Neck cape
A wide brim with a neck flap covers more than any other hat. Joshua Tree’s park store sells a $41 Hike Smart hat with a flap that tucks away when you don’t need it, plus a chin cord and UPF 30+. Smokies Life’s $24.99 bucket hat has a mesh flap that comes off, though mesh lets some sun through.
| Hat | Sun rating | Price |
|---|---|---|
 A flap that comes offGreat Smoky Mountains National Park Bucket Hat, at Smokies LifeSmokies Life | None claimed | $24.99 |
 UPF 50+ for big headsRocky Mountain National Park Bucket Hat, at Rocky Mountain ConservancyRocky Mountain Conservancy | UPF 50+ | $32.99 |
 A boonie you can washRoadrunner Sunhat, at Big Bend Natural History AssociationBig Bend Natural History Association | None claimed | $33.99 |
 UPF 50+ and a chin cordHike Smart Bucket Hat, at Grand Canyon ConservancyT.R. McTaggart | UPF 50+ | $35 |
 The most neck coverHike Smart Bucket Hat, at Joshua Tree National Park AssociationJoshua Tree National Park Association | UPF 30+ | $41 |
Beanies
Pack a rainproof layer and warm wool hat for every hike.
For a hiking beanie, the fabric deserves a look before the park design. Olympic’s wilderness page recommends wool, polypropylene and fleece for wet conditions. Most park-branded beanies are acrylic, or the listing doesn’t name the fiber.
Pendleton’s National Park Stripe Beanie is acrylic with park stripes on the cuff, and each color is named for a park. Yosemite Conservancy sells Rustek’s merino beanie at the same $35, with Half Dome on a cork patch. A cuff puts two layers over your ears.
The beanie guide has more for cold trips.
| Hat | Made of | Price |
|---|---|---|
 Camp and the carNational Park Stripe Beanie, at PendletonPendleton | Acrylic | $35 |
 Wet, cold hikesWool Thick Knit Beanie, at Yosemite ConservancyRustek | 100% merino wool, 3.6 oz | $35 |
Fit
Most caps come in one size. A snapback adjusts in steps, but a fabric strap adjusts anywhere along its length, and hook-and-loop tabs grip wherever they overlap.
Fitted hats come in eighth-inch sizes, and a 7¼ is about 22¾ inches around. Stretch-fit caps come in two or three sizes that overlap. Flexfit’s S/M and L/XL overlap by an eighth, so a 7¼ head fits either one.
Measure your head where the hat sits, then check the maker’s chart. One-size caps have ranges too, and most park stores don’t publish them, Rainier Hat Co. included. Parks Project does, 19½ to 24 inches for its Zion cap.
Wind
The Hike Smart hats and the boonies have chin cords, and plain caps never do. The Rocky Mountain Conservancy bucket’s listing doesn’t mention one.
Yellowstone’s geologists have fished more than 280 hats out of the thermal areas this year, more than any year before. The USGS says tighten your hat or take it off in the wind, so on a snapback, take the strap in a hole before you step onto the boardwalk.
Compare actual sizes, fabric and published sun ratings in national park bucket hats. For caps with thread designs, see embroidered national park hats.