National Parks
Welcome to the National Parks page. The search module at left is your gateway to an extensive directory of National Parks, National Forests and OHV Trails so you can find an outdoor adventure in your own neck of the woods.
The United States national park areas boast some of the most spectacular landscapes on the planet. Among them is the world’s first park—Hot Springs National Park (formerly Reservation), which opened in 1832. You might be surprised to learn that national park areas extend beyond the 50 states—they are also located in American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The national park system includes a lot more than just parks. Visitors will find monuments, battlefields, heritage areas, seashores, rivers, historic sites and even cemeteries. Activities include everything from backpacking, biking and boating to snowshoeing, stargazing and swimming. There truly is a place and activity for everyone. Off-roading opportunities may not be as plentiful in the parks as other outdoor pursuits, but if you’re like us, getting into the great outdoors is only half the fun.
To keep the adventure quotient at its highest, this directory includes only those parks that offer significant outdoor pursuits. If the activities at a given park are minimal, we’ve left it off the list. Almost all 50 states are included here, so find your destination, call ahead for reservations or other information, then tell the boss it’s time for a vacation—yours! In the meantime, whet your appetite with our parks photo gallery.
- National Park Trivia
- It is widely believed that Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the world when it was established in 1872 when Congress passed the Act of March 1, 1872. However, Congress established Hot Springs Reservation (Arkansas) in 1832, making it 40 years older than Yellowstone. Today it is known as Hot Springs National Park.
- • There are 379 U.S. national parks.
- • U.S. national parks cover more than 84 million acres.
- • It takes an act of Congress to establish a new national park.
- • Some parks have been “lost” by being absorbed into another park, given back to the state in which it is located or renamed.
- • About 89,000 people volunteer each year in the U.S. national parks.
- • The largest area in the national park system is Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, which covers 13,200,000 acres and composes 16.3 percent of the entire park system.
- • The smallest area is Pennsylvania’s Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, covering just 0.02 acres.
- • The only state without an area in the national park system is Delaware.
- • 277,299,880 people visited an area in the national park system in 2002.
- • The most visited site in 2002 was the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina.