Long Pine Key Lake at Sunset, Everglades National Park, Florida, USA. Everglades National Park is a U.S. National Park in Florida that protects the southern 20 percent of the original Everglades | Jay Yuan

From glacier-covered mountains in Alaska to coral reefs off Florida, ancient desert canyons in Utah, Appalachian forests in Virginia, and volcanic landscapes in Hawaiʻi, America’s national parks protect an extraordinary collection of landscapes, wildlife habitats, historic places, and cultural stories.

There are currently 63 sites carrying the official “National Park” designation, but that number tells only part of the story. The National Park Service manages more than 400 individual units across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories. National monuments, historical parks, battlefields, seashores, lakeshores, preserves, recreation areas, scenic rivers, and historic sites all belong to the broader National Park System.

That distinction matters when exploring the country state by state.

Some states are packed with designated national parks. California has nine, Alaska has eight, and Utah has five. Other states have no site officially titled “National Park” but still contain nationally significant NPS destinations such as Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts, or Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin.

This guide travels alphabetically through all 50 states, identifying their designated national parks and highlighting other National Park Service destinations worth knowing along the way.

⚡ America’s National Parks at a Glance

As of 2026, the National Park System contains 433 individual units, encompassing more than 85 million acres.

Within that larger system are 63 congressionally designated national parks.

Of those 63 parks, 61 are located at least partly within the 50 states. The remaining two are National Park of American Samoa and Virgin Islands National Park.

Several national parks cross state borders. Yellowstone reaches into Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Death Valley extends across California and Nevada. Great Smoky Mountains spans Tennessee and North Carolina, while Gateway Arch National Park includes land in both Missouri and Illinois.

Altogether, 31 states contain at least part of a designated national park.

The other 19 states are hardly empty. Every state contains National Park Service-managed places or is connected to nationally administered trails, rivers, historic areas, or other protected resources.

🏞️ What Counts as a National Park?

People often use the phrase “national park” to describe anything managed by the National Park Service, but officially the system contains many different designations.

Yellowstone is a National Park.

Gettysburg is a National Military Park.

Cape Cod is a National Seashore.

Apostle Islands is a National Lakeshore.

Devils Tower is a National Monument.

Chickasaw is a National Recreation Area.

All are part of the National Park System, but only sites carrying the specific National Park designation count toward the famous total of 63.

This guide keeps that distinction clear while still highlighting significant NPS destinations in states without a congressionally designated national park.

Alabama

Alabama does not currently contain a site with the official National Park designation, but the state has an impressive collection of places preserving American history and southern landscapes.

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument preserves places central to the struggle for civil rights, while Freedom Riders National Monument tells the story of activists who challenged segregation in interstate transportation.

The National Park Service also manages Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site and Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, both of which preserve stories of education, military service, civil rights, and African American history.

Outdoor travelers can explore Little River Canyon National Preserve, where waterfalls, forest, cliffs, and the Little River create one of Alabama’s most beautiful natural landscapes.

Alaska

Alaska contains eight national parks, second only to California.

They are:

Denali National Park
Gates of the Arctic National Park
Glacier Bay National Park
Katmai National Park
Kenai Fjords National Park
Kobuk Valley National Park
Lake Clark National Park
Wrangell–St. Elias National Park

These parks operate on a scale unlike almost anywhere else in the country.

Denali National Park protects vast tundra, boreal forest, braided rivers, wildlife habitat, and North America’s highest mountain.

Wrangell–St. Elias is the largest national park in the United States, encompassing mountains, glaciers, volcanic peaks, and extensive wilderness.

Katmai is world-famous for brown bears feeding on salmon at Brooks Falls, while Kenai Fjords combines tidewater glaciers, coastal mountains, marine wildlife, and Harding Icefield.

Gates of the Arctic contains no roads or established trails. Kobuk Valley protects massive sand dunes north of the Arctic Circle. Lake Clark combines volcanoes, lakes, mountains, bears, and wilderness, while Glacier Bay is best experienced from the water.

For travelers interested in genuine wilderness, Alaska represents the extreme end of the National Park System.

Arizona

Arizona contains three national parks:

Grand Canyon National Park
Petrified Forest National Park
Saguaro National Park

Grand Canyon is among the most recognizable landscapes on Earth. The Colorado River has cut through layers of rock representing an immense span of geologic time, creating a canyon that can be experienced from developed rim overlooks or through demanding backcountry hikes.

Petrified Forest National Park protects colorful badlands, archaeological sites, historic Route 66 resources, fossils, and enormous concentrations of petrified wood.

Saguaro National Park surrounds Tucson in two separate districts and protects forests of giant saguaro cactus, a defining symbol of the Sonoran Desert.

Arizona also contains major NPS sites outside the National Park designation, including Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Montezuma Castle National Monument, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Walnut Canyon National Monument, and sections of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Arkansas

Arkansas has one designated national park: Hot Springs National Park.

Hot Springs is unusual because its story revolves as much around people as wilderness. The park protects thermal springs that attracted Indigenous peoples, settlers, physicians, entrepreneurs, and visitors seeking the supposed health benefits of mineral water.

Historic Bathhouse Row remains the architectural centerpiece.

Arkansas also contains significant NPS areas including Buffalo National River, one of America’s earliest nationally protected free-flowing rivers, and Pea Ridge National Military Park, preserving a major Civil War battlefield.

Mount Nebo, Petit Jean, Devil’s Den, and other popular Arkansas destinations are state parks rather than National Park Service properties, another reminder that not every outstanding protected landscape belongs to the federal national park system.

California

California contains nine national parks, the most of any state:

Channel Islands National Park
Death Valley National Park
Joshua Tree National Park
Kings Canyon National Park
Lassen Volcanic National Park
Pinnacles National Park
Redwood National Park
Sequoia National Park
Yosemite National Park

Few states offer more ecological variety.

Yosemite National Park combines massive granite walls, waterfalls, giant sequoias, alpine meadows, rivers, and High Sierra wilderness.

Sequoia protects some of the largest trees on Earth, including General Sherman, while neighboring Kings Canyon contains deep glacial valleys and extensive Sierra Nevada wilderness.

Death Valley, shared with Nevada, protects salt flats, dunes, canyons, mountains, and the lowest land elevation in North America.

Joshua Tree brings together portions of the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Redwood protects the world’s tallest trees and associated coastal ecosystems. Lassen Volcanic showcases active hydrothermal features and volcanic landscapes.

Channel Islands protects island ecosystems off the Southern California coast, while Pinnacles features volcanic rock formations, talus caves, and habitat for California condors.

California alone could fill several months of national park travel.

Colorado

Colorado contains four national parks:

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Mesa Verde National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain is the state’s best-known national park, protecting alpine tundra, glacial valleys, mountain lakes, wildlife, and some of the highest paved-road scenery in the National Park System.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison protects an extraordinarily deep and narrow canyon carved into ancient rock by the Gunnison River.

Great Sand Dunes contains the tallest dunes in North America, where enormous sand formations rise against snow-covered mountains.

Mesa Verde differs from Colorado’s other parks because its greatest treasures are cultural. The park preserves hundreds of Ancestral Pueblo archaeological sites, including spectacular cliff dwellings.

Colorado’s NPS portfolio also includes Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado National Monument, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Curecanti National Recreation Area, and numerous historic sites.

Connecticut

Connecticut has no congressionally designated national park, but it is part of the National Park System.

The state’s best-known NPS unit is Weir Farm National Historical Park, preserving the home and landscape associated with American Impressionist painter J. Alden Weir and generations of artists who worked there.

Connecticut is also crossed by the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and the New England National Scenic Trail.

These sites illustrate a broader truth about the National Park System: a state does not need Yellowstone-sized wilderness to preserve places of national significance.

Delaware

Delaware does not have a designated national park, but First State National Historical Park protects sites connected to the state’s colonial history and its role as the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

The park is unusual because it consists of several separate locations rather than one continuous landscape.

Woodlands, historic buildings, colonial communities, and cultural sites collectively tell the story of early Delaware and the development of the United States.

Florida

Florida contains three national parks:

Biscayne National Park
Dry Tortugas National Park
Everglades National Park

Each is fundamentally shaped by water.

Everglades protects an enormous subtropical wetland ecosystem of sawgrass marshes, mangrove forests, hardwood hammocks, freshwater sloughs, and coastal estuaries.

Biscayne is primarily marine, protecting coral reefs, islands, mangrove shoreline, and Biscayne Bay south of Miami.

Dry Tortugas lies roughly 70 miles west of Key West and is accessible primarily by boat or seaplane. The park combines coral reefs, birdlife, marine habitat, and massive nineteenth-century Fort Jefferson.

Florida’s other National Park Service areas include Canaveral National Seashore, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Big Cypress National Preserve, and several historic sites and memorials.

Georgia

Georgia does not currently have a site carrying the National Park designation.

It nevertheless has several major National Park Service destinations.

Cumberland Island National Seashore protects undeveloped Atlantic beaches, maritime forest, salt marshes, historic ruins, and wildlife.

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta preserves places connected with King’s life and the American civil rights movement.

Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park protects thousands of years of Indigenous history, while Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area preserves river corridors and recreation opportunities near metropolitan Atlanta.

Hawaii

Hawaiʻi contains two national parks:

Haleakalā National Park
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

Haleakalā protects the enormous summit landscape of the Haleakalā volcano on Maui along with subtropical coastal ecosystems in the Kīpahulu District.

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi protects some of the world’s most active volcanic landscapes, including Kīlauea and Mauna Loa.

Both parks also preserve Native Hawaiian cultural landscapes and traditions that cannot be separated from the volcanic environments themselves.

Hawaiʻi contains several other NPS sites, including Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park, and Pearl Harbor National Memorial.

Idaho

Idaho contains a small portion of Yellowstone National Park along its eastern border.

Most visitors associate Yellowstone with Wyoming, which contains the overwhelming majority of the park, but the official park boundary also extends into Idaho and Montana.

Elsewhere in Idaho, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve protects an extraordinary volcanic landscape of lava flows, cinder cones, caves, and sagebrush.

The state also contains Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument and Minidoka National Historic Site.

Illinois

Illinois contains part of Gateway Arch National Park, which spans the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois.

The park’s best-known feature—the Gateway Arch itself—is located in St. Louis, Missouri, but park resources also extend across the river into Illinois.

Illinois has numerous other nationally significant sites, including Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Pullman National Historical Park, and New Philadelphia National Historic Site.

Its National Park Service story is therefore dominated more by American history than large wilderness landscapes.

Indiana

Indiana has one national park: Indiana Dunes National Park.

Located along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, Indiana Dunes protects far more than sand.

The park contains beaches, dunes, wetlands, prairies, savannas, forests, and remarkable plant diversity within reach of the Chicago metropolitan area.

Visitors can swim, birdwatch, hike dune trails, explore historic properties, and experience Lake Michigan shorelines.

Indiana also contains George Rogers Clark National Historical Park and Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial.

Iowa

Iowa does not have a designated national park.

Its principal National Park Service units include Effigy Mounds National Monument, which preserves hundreds of Indigenous mounds along the Mississippi River, and Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, preserving the birthplace and early environment of the 31st president.

Several national historic and scenic trails also cross the state.

Kansas

Kansas has no congressionally designated national park, but the National Park Service preserves several nationally significant places.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve protects one of the few substantial remnants of an ecosystem that once covered enormous portions of central North America.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park preserves sites connected with the landmark Supreme Court case challenging school segregation.

Other sites include Fort Larned National Historic Site and Nicodemus National Historic Site.

Kentucky

Kentucky contains Mammoth Cave National Park, home to the longest known cave system in the world.

The cave system contains hundreds of miles of surveyed passages, but Mammoth Cave is more than an underground attraction. Forests, rivers, karst landscapes, wildlife habitat, hiking trails, and campgrounds spread across the surface.

Kentucky also shares Cumberland Gap National Historical Park with Tennessee and Virginia.

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park and several Civil War sites further broaden the state’s NPS offerings.

Louisiana

Louisiana has no site officially designated simply as a National Park.

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve brings together natural and cultural landscapes around southern Louisiana, including wetlands, Acadian communities, and the site of the Battle of New Orleans.

Cane River Creole National Historical Park preserves plantation landscapes and complex histories of agriculture, slavery, and Creole communities.

New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park explores one of America’s most influential musical traditions.

Maine

Maine contains Acadia National Park, the premier national park of the northeastern United States.

Acadia combines granite mountains, rocky Atlantic shoreline, forests, ponds, historic carriage roads, and island landscapes.

Cadillac Mountain is among its most famous destinations, but hiking, cycling, paddling, tide-pool exploration, and scenic driving provide many ways to explore.

Maine also contains the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail at Mount Katahdin, although Katahdin itself is protected within Baxter State Park rather than the National Park System.

Maryland

Maryland does not contain a congressionally designated national park.

Its National Park Service sites are nevertheless extraordinarily diverse.

Assateague Island National Seashore protects barrier-island beaches, dunes, wetlands, and famous free-roaming horses.

Antietam National Battlefield preserves the landscape of the deadliest single day in American military history.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park follows the Potomac River, while Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park interprets landscapes connected with Tubman’s life and resistance to slavery.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts has no designated National Park, but contains numerous NPS units.

Cape Cod National Seashore protects beaches, dunes, marshes, ponds, historic structures, and Atlantic coastal habitat.

Boston National Historical Park connects landmarks associated with the American Revolution.

Minute Man National Historical Park preserves landscapes associated with the battles of Lexington and Concord, while Adams National Historical Park interprets generations of the Adams family.

The state’s NPS destinations demonstrate how strongly the National Park System protects cultural history alongside natural landscapes.

Michigan

Michigan has one national park: Isle Royale National Park.

Located in northwestern Lake Superior, Isle Royale is one of the most remote national parks in the contiguous United States.

Visitors arrive by ferry, seaplane, or private boat rather than highway.

Backpacking, paddling, wilderness camping, scuba diving, and wildlife observation dominate the experience.

Michigan also contains Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, both of which would be marquee national-park-level destinations in many states.

Minnesota

Minnesota contains Voyageurs National Park, a landscape dominated by interconnected lakes, islands, forests, wetlands, and waterways near the Canadian border.

Much of the park is best experienced by boat.

Summer brings paddling, boating, fishing, and camping on remote islands, while winter transforms frozen lakes into routes for snowmobiles, skis, and snowshoes.

Minnesota also shares the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway and hosts Grand Portage National Monument.

Mississippi

Mississippi does not have a congressionally designated national park.

The Natchez Trace Parkway is one of the state’s most important National Park Service destinations, following a historic corridor through Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Mississippi also shares Gulf Islands National Seashore with Florida.

Vicksburg National Military Park preserves a major Civil War campaign landscape along the Mississippi River, while Natchez National Historical Park interprets regional history.

Missouri

Missouri contains Gateway Arch National Park, centered on the 630-foot Gateway Arch along the Mississippi River in St. Louis.

The park interprets westward expansion, the city of St. Louis, and the nineteenth-century movement of people across the continent.

Although very different from Yellowstone or Yosemite, Gateway Arch demonstrates the breadth of places Congress has chosen to designate as national parks.

Missouri also contains Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, and George Washington Carver National Monument.

Montana

Montana contains Glacier National Park and a small portion of Yellowstone National Park.

Glacier protects glacially carved mountains, alpine meadows, forests, waterfalls, hundreds of lakes, and more than 700 miles of hiking trails.

Going-to-the-Sun Road crosses the Continental Divide and provides one of America’s greatest mountain drives.

Yellowstone reaches into a small portion of southwestern Montana, though most of the park lies in Wyoming.

Other NPS destinations include Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, and portions of Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

Nebraska

Nebraska has no designated national park.

Scotts Bluff National Monument preserves a major landmark along historic western migration routes, while Agate Fossil Beds National Monument protects important paleontological resources and Plains cultural history.

Homestead National Historical Park explores the effects of the Homestead Act and western settlement.

The Missouri National Recreational River also preserves sections of one of North America’s great rivers along Nebraska’s northeastern border.

Nevada

Nevada contains Great Basin National Park and part of Death Valley National Park.

Great Basin protects high desert, ancient bristlecone pines, alpine lakes, limestone caverns, and 13,063-foot Wheeler Peak.

The park is particularly notable for its exceptionally dark night skies.

Death Valley crosses the California–Nevada state line, although most of its famous visitor destinations lie in California.

Nevada also shares Lake Mead National Recreation Area with Arizona.

New Hampshire

New Hampshire does not contain a congressionally designated national park.

Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park preserves the home, studios, artwork, and landscape associated with sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail also crosses the state, including some of its most demanding terrain in the White Mountains.

Many of New Hampshire’s best-known mountain destinations are managed by the U.S. Forest Service within White Mountain National Forest rather than the National Park Service.

New Jersey

New Jersey has no designated national park.

The state’s NPS holdings include Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, shared with Pennsylvania and protecting forest, waterfalls, rivers, historic landscapes, and a long section of the Appalachian Trail.

New Jersey also shares Gateway National Recreation Area with New York.

Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, Morristown National Historical Park, and Thomas Edison National Historical Park preserve important industrial, Revolutionary, and technological history.

New Mexico

New Mexico contains two national parks:

Carlsbad Caverns National Park
White Sands National Park

Carlsbad Caverns protects an enormous underground landscape including the immense Big Room and hundreds of known caves within the surrounding Guadalupe Mountains.

White Sands preserves a vast field of brilliant gypsum dunes unlike almost any other landscape in North America.

New Mexico is also unusually rich in other National Park Service sites, including Bandelier National Monument, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, El Malpais National Monument, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, Pecos National Historical Park, and Valles Caldera National Preserve.

New York

New York does not contain a congressionally designated national park despite having one of the largest collections of National Park Service historic sites in the country.

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are protected as part of Statue of Liberty National Monument, while Gateway National Recreation Area preserves beaches, marshes, military history, and recreation lands around New York Harbor.

Fire Island National Seashore protects barrier-island ecosystems east of New York City.

Numerous national historical parks and historic sites preserve stories ranging from women’s rights and presidential history to immigration and the American Revolution.

North Carolina

North Carolina shares Great Smoky Mountains National Park with Tennessee.

The Smokies protect one of the largest areas of relatively wild mountain landscape in the eastern United States and are renowned for biological diversity, mist-covered ridges, waterfalls, historic buildings, wildflowers, and hundreds of miles of trails.

The Blue Ridge Parkway also crosses western North Carolina, connecting the Smokies with mountain landscapes extending north through Virginia.

Along the coast, Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National Seashores protect barrier islands and maritime environments.

North Dakota

North Dakota contains Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The park protects rugged badlands along the Little Missouri River, where bison, wild horses, elk, prairie dogs, and other wildlife inhabit a landscape deeply associated with Theodore Roosevelt’s experiences in the Dakota Territory.

The park is divided into North and South units, with a smaller Elkhorn Ranch area between them.

Visitors can enjoy scenic drives, hiking, wildlife viewing, camping, and remarkably dark skies.

Ohio

Ohio contains Cuyahoga Valley National Park between Cleveland and Akron.

The park protects forests, wetlands, waterfalls, historic communities, agricultural landscapes, and the corridor of the Cuyahoga River.

The Towpath Trail follows portions of the historic Ohio & Erie Canal, while Brandywine Falls is one of the most popular natural attractions.

Ohio also has several important historical sites, including Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, and Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma does not have a designated national park.

Its primary National Park Service recreation destination is Chickasaw National Recreation Area, a landscape of springs, streams, lakes, forests, and rolling hills around Sulphur.

Washita Battlefield National Historic Site preserves the landscape associated with the 1868 attack on Black Kettle’s Cheyenne village.

Fort Smith National Historic Site also extends into Oklahoma from Arkansas.

Oregon

Oregon contains Crater Lake National Park.

The park’s centerpiece is the deepest lake in the United States, occupying the caldera created when ancient Mount Mazama collapsed following an enormous volcanic eruption.

Crater Lake’s deep blue water, cliffs, snow, forests, and volcanic islands create one of the country’s most distinctive national park landscapes.

The park receives extraordinary winter snowfall, making summer the easiest season for completing Rim Drive and accessing most hiking trails.

Oregon also shares Lewis and Clark National Historical Park with Washington.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania does not have a site officially designated National Park, but it contains some of the National Park Service’s most historically significant places.

Gettysburg National Military Park preserves the landscape of the pivotal 1863 Civil War battle.

Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia includes Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

Valley Forge National Historical Park preserves the Continental Army’s 1777–1778 winter encampment.

The Appalachian Trail and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area add major outdoor recreation to Pennsylvania’s NPS portfolio.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island has no designated National Park.

Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park, shared with Massachusetts, explores the development of the American Industrial Revolution through historic mill communities and transportation landscapes.

Roger Williams National Memorial preserves a site associated with the founder of Rhode Island and the development of religious freedom.

The state’s small size does not prevent it from contributing important stories to the larger National Park System.

South Carolina

South Carolina contains Congaree National Park.

Congaree protects one of the largest remaining expanses of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the southeastern United States.

Visitors can explore by boardwalk, hiking trail, canoe, or kayak.

Seasonal flooding is a natural and essential feature of the ecosystem rather than simply an inconvenience.

South Carolina also contains Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, Cowpens National Battlefield, and Kings Mountain National Military Park.

South Dakota

South Dakota contains two national parks:

Badlands National Park
Wind Cave National Park

Badlands protects sharply eroded formations, mixed-grass prairie, fossils, and wildlife including bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and pronghorn.

Wind Cave protects one of the world’s longest known cave systems along with substantial surface prairie and ponderosa pine habitat.

Nearby Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Minuteman Missile National Historic Site are also National Park Service units, making southwestern South Dakota one of the country’s strongest national-park road-trip regions.

Tennessee

Tennessee shares Great Smoky Mountains National Park with North Carolina.

The Tennessee side includes famous destinations such as Cades Cove, Newfound Gap Road approaches, historic structures, waterfalls, and extensive hiking.

Great Smoky Mountains is frequently among the most visited national parks in the country, thanks in part to its location within driving distance of large eastern population centers and the absence of a traditional entrance fee.

Tennessee also contains portions of the Natchez Trace Parkway, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Obed Wild and Scenic River, and several Civil War sites.

Texas

Texas contains two national parks:

Big Bend National Park
Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Big Bend protects more than 800,000 acres along the Rio Grande, where desert, river canyons, and the Chisos Mountains converge.

Guadalupe Mountains preserves part of an ancient fossil reef uplifted into some of the highest mountains in Texas, including Guadalupe Peak.

Both parks are remote, and that remoteness is part of their appeal.

Texas also contains Padre Island National Seashore, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, Amistad National Recreation Area, and several national monuments and historic sites.

Utah

Utah contains five national parks, collectively promoted as the Mighty 5:

Arches National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Canyonlands National Park
Capitol Reef National Park
Zion National Park

Few states offer a more concentrated national park road trip.

Arches contains thousands of natural stone arches and fins. Bryce Canyon is famous for its dense amphitheaters of hoodoos. Canyonlands preserves an immense landscape carved by the Colorado and Green rivers. Capitol Reef follows the Waterpocket Fold, while Zion National Park combines towering sandstone cliffs with narrow canyons and the Virgin River.

Our Utah National Parks Guide explains how to combine all five on one trip.

Utah also contains numerous national monuments and recreation areas, making the entire southern half of the state a remarkable public-land destination.

Vermont

Vermont does not contain a congressionally designated national park.

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park protects an important landscape associated with the history of conservation and sustainable forestry in the United States.

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail and North Country National Scenic Trail also cross the state.

Vermont’s famous Green Mountain landscapes are largely protected through state lands and other federal systems rather than a large National Park Service natural park.

Virginia

Virginia contains Shenandoah National Park.

Shenandoah National Park follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is centered around 105-mile Skyline Drive.

More than 500 miles of trails lead to summits, waterfalls, forests, and wilderness, while approximately 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail cross the park.

Virginia also contains an unusually large collection of historical NPS sites, including Colonial National Historical Park, Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Manassas National Battlefield Park, and several Civil War battlefields.

Assateague Island National Seashore also extends into Virginia from Maryland.

Washington

Washington contains three national parks:

Mount Rainier National Park
North Cascades National Park
Olympic National Park

Mount Rainier National Park surrounds the glacier-covered volcano that dominates much of western Washington’s skyline.

North Cascades protects jagged mountains, hundreds of glaciers, alpine lakes, and extensive wilderness.

Olympic combines the Olympic Mountains, old-growth forest, temperate rain forest, glacial lakes, and wild Pacific coastline within a single park.

Together they create one of America’s most diverse national park road trips.

Our Washington National Parks Guide compares all three and explains how to combine them.

West Virginia

West Virginia contains New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.

The park follows the New River through a dramatic Appalachian gorge and protects cliffs, forests, waterfalls, historic communities, hiking trails, climbing areas, and world-class whitewater.

The New River Gorge Bridge has become the park’s visual symbol.

West Virginia also contains Bluestone National Scenic River, Gauley River National Recreation Area, portions of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, and segments of the Appalachian Trail.

Our West Virginia National Parks & NPS Sites Guide explores the state’s broader National Park Service network.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin has no congressionally designated national park.

Its most famous NPS landscape is Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, where sandstone cliffs, sea caves, historic lighthouses, forests, islands, and the cold waters of Lake Superior create a remarkably wild environment.

The Ice Age National Scenic Trail crosses much of Wisconsin and follows landscapes shaped by continental glaciers.

The state also shares Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway with Minnesota.

Wyoming

Wyoming contains Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park.

Yellowstone, established in 1872, is widely regarded as the world’s first national park. It protects geysers, hot springs, wildlife-rich valleys, mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, and the enormous Yellowstone volcanic system.

Our Yellowstone National Park guide provides a starting point for exploring the park, while the Yellowstone Camping Guide can help visitors choose where to stay.

Immediately south, Grand Teton National Park protects the spectacular Teton Range, Jackson Lake, Snake River, glacial lakes, wildlife habitat, and historic ranching landscapes.

The two parks sit close enough together that combining them is one of the easiest and most rewarding multi-park trips in the country.

Wyoming also contains Devils Tower National Monument, Fossil Butte National Monument, and portions of Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

🏝️ What About the U.S. Territories?

Two of America’s 63 designated national parks lie outside the 50 states.

National Park of American Samoa

National Park of American Samoa protects tropical rain forest, coral reefs, volcanic mountains, beaches, and Samoan cultural landscapes across portions of several islands in the South Pacific.

It is the only U.S. national park south of the equator.

Visiting requires considerably more planning than an ordinary mainland park trip, but the combination of Polynesian culture and tropical ecology makes it unique within the system.

Virgin Islands National Park

Virgin Islands National Park protects much of the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Beaches, coral reefs, tropical forests, historic plantation landscapes, hiking trails, and marine habitats make this one of the National Park System’s great Caribbean destinations.

Unlike the rocky mountain landscapes many people associate with national parks, much of the experience here takes place in or beside warm tropical water.

🏛️ Washington, D.C., and the National Park System

Washington, D.C., is not a state and does not contain one of the 63 designated national parks, but the National Park Service manages many of the capital’s most recognizable landmarks.

The National Mall, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, World War II Memorial, and numerous other sites form one of the densest concentrations of NPS-managed places anywhere in the country.

Rock Creek Park also provides substantial natural space within the city.

The District demonstrates why counting only the 63 National Parks gives an incomplete picture of the National Park Service.

🌄 Which State Has the Most National Parks?

California has nine designated national parks, more than any other state.

Alaska follows with eight.

Utah has five.

Colorado has four.

Arizona, Florida, and Washington each have three.

Several states contain two, while many contain only one.

Those numbers do not necessarily indicate which state has the most National Park Service sites overall. States with few or no designated National Parks may contain dozens of national monuments, historic parks, battlefields, seashores, recreation areas, and other NPS units.

🏔️ Which State Has the Most Wilderness-Style National Parks?

Alaska stands apart.

Its eight national parks contain some of the largest protected wilderness landscapes in the National Park System, and several require bush planes, boats, or extensive backcountry travel.

Gates of the Arctic has no roads or established trails.

Kobuk Valley has no roads leading into the park.

Lake Clark is not connected to the highway network.

Wrangell–St. Elias alone is larger than several U.S. states.

Travelers seeking remote wilderness will find experiences in Alaska that have no direct equivalent in the Lower 48.

🚗 Which State Is Best for a National Park Road Trip?

Utah is arguably the easiest state for a concentrated multi-park road trip.

The five Mighty 5 parks can be connected in a logical route through southern Utah, and numerous national monuments, state parks, and public lands fill the gaps between them.

California offers more national parks but covers a much larger geographic area.

Washington provides a particularly balanced three-park circuit through volcanoes, rain forests, ocean coast, and alpine wilderness.

Arizona combines three extremely different parks with relatively straightforward road connections.

Wyoming offers one of the simplest two-park combinations because Grand Teton and Yellowstone practically touch.

🌲 What States Don’t Have a National Park?

Nineteen states do not currently contain any part of one of the 63 congressionally designated National Parks.

They are:

Alabama
Connecticut
Delaware
Georgia
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Maryland
Massachusetts
Mississippi
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Wisconsin

That does not mean these states lack National Park Service destinations.

Several contain some of the system’s most famous sites.

Gettysburg is in Pennsylvania. Cape Cod National Seashore is in Massachusetts. Cumberland Island National Seashore is in Georgia. Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is in Wisconsin. Statue of Liberty National Monument is in New York.

The official designation tells you what Congress has chosen to call a site, not necessarily how scenic, historic, large, or important it is.

🥾 National Parks vs. Other NPS Sites

Travelers sometimes skip anything that does not have “National Park” in its name.

That can be a mistake.

A national seashore can protect hundreds of miles of coastal habitat.

A national recreation area can contain vast lakes, rivers, mountains, and wilderness.

A national monument can rival neighboring national parks in scenery and ecological importance.

A historical park may preserve places central to understanding American history.

Rather than treating the 63 parks as the only destinations worth visiting, use them as an introduction to the broader National Park System.

There are hundreds more places to discover.

🎟️ Planning a Multi-State National Park Trip

If you are visiting several fee-charging federal recreation areas during the same year, consider whether an annual federal recreation pass makes sense.

Our America the Beautiful Pass Guide explains current prices, coverage, eligibility, and when the pass can save money.

Also remember that paying an entrance fee and reserving access are separate issues.

Some parks require timed-entry reservations, hiking permits, campground reservations, shuttle tickets, or activity permits even if you already have an annual pass.

Rules change frequently.

Check the official park website shortly before every trip.

🎒 Pack for the Landscape, Not the Word “Park”

America’s national parks include deserts, mountains, tropical islands, caves, glaciers, wetlands, beaches, forests, rivers, and Arctic tundra.

No single packing strategy works everywhere.

A July trip to Death Valley demands completely different preparation from July in Glacier.

Dry Tortugas requires planning for boat or seaplane access.

Gates of the Arctic requires wilderness expertise.

Mount Rainier may have snow while lower elevations experience summer temperatures.

Use our National Park Packing List as a starting point, then research the specific park, elevation, season, and activities.

🐕 Traveling With a Dog

Pet rules also vary dramatically.

Some national parks permit dogs on substantial sections of their trail systems.

Others restrict ordinary pets mostly to roads, campgrounds, parking areas, and developed spaces.

A park being dog-friendly in one area does not mean pets can go everywhere.

Our Paws and Trails: Exploring National Parks With Your Furry Friend explains how to plan a pet-friendly national park trip.

📅 How Long Would It Take to Visit All 63 National Parks?

That depends on what you mean by “visit.”

A traveler determined simply to cross each park off a list could move quickly.

Someone who wants to hike, camp, explore different districts, understand the ecology, visit cultural sites, and account for difficult access could spend years.

Alaska alone complicates any 63-park challenge because several parks require expensive flights, boats, or specialized wilderness travel.

National Park of American Samoa and Virgin Islands National Park require significant flights from the continental United States.

Weather creates another constraint. High Sierra roads, mountain passes, and northern parks may be inaccessible in winter, while desert parks can become dangerously hot during summer.

The most rewarding approach is not necessarily to visit all 63 as quickly as possible.

Give each park enough time to become more than a photograph beside an entrance sign.

The lovely Duck Harbor Isle au Haut in Acadia National Park, Maine | Cheri Alguire

🌎 America’s National Parks Tell More Than One Story

It is tempting to think of national parks simply as places with spectacular scenery.

Many certainly are.

Yet the system tells a much broader story.

Mesa Verde preserves ancestral communities.

Gateway Arch interprets westward expansion.

Hot Springs explores changing ideas about health, leisure, and public land.

National park sites preserve civil rights history, battlefields, immigration stories, Indigenous cultures, industrial history, presidential homes, archaeological landscapes, coastal communities, and the evolution of conservation itself.

Even landscapes that appear entirely natural contain human stories extending thousands of years into the past.

The strongest national park trips make room for both.

🌅 From Sea to Shining Sea

America’s national parks cannot be reduced to a single type of landscape.

They stretch from Arctic Alaska to subtropical Florida and the Caribbean. They rise from Death Valley below sea level to the summit of Denali. They protect coral reefs, glaciers, volcanoes, caves, deserts, old-growth forests, dunes, wetlands, islands, rivers, and mountains.

And those are only the 63 officially designated National Parks.

Look beyond that list and the National Park System becomes even richer.

A state without a designated National Park may contain a remarkable national seashore. A small historical park may preserve a story that changed the country. A quiet national monument may provide some of the best hiking of an entire road trip.

Use the state-by-state list as a starting point rather than a checklist.

Pick a region. Follow the parks. Explore the surrounding public lands. Learn why each place was protected.

From Maine’s rocky Atlantic shoreline to California’s giant sequoias, from Alaska’s Arctic wilderness to Florida’s mangrove coast, America’s protected landscapes reveal just how varied one country can be.

And there is always another park down the road.

National Parks by State: Complete Guide to All 50 States & 63 National Parks