re: We are trying to decide between Yellowstone and North Cascades the 2nd week of July

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Does this apply to the whole park or will there be areas that will be less crowded to just get out and do some light exploring/sightseeing?

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In my experience, the problem is how crowded the roads get. It's basically a loop and it can take hours to get from one major area to another, even if particular sights might not be actually crowded.

My favorite spot in the entire world - Artist Point - is likely to be crowded, but you can always get lucky.

The road between Artist Point and the lake - I've seen that one be backed up bumper to bumper for hours at a time. Admittedly, that might be because there are bison blocking the road, so there is actually something to see, but still.

I think the very northeastern quadrant - the road to Cody where the wolves supposedly spend most of their time - is likely to be less crowded. But there's also less to do there.

In a perfect, uncrowded world, you just drive the loop at your own pace and see every single stop. It's worth it. In the less perfect world, that could take 3 days, often sitting in traffic, to do in a fulsome fashion.