There are 63 National Parks in the United States and my goal is to visit them all. As of October 2023, I’ve visited 18 (29%) of them. I have a long ways to go! Each park offers unique adventures and scenery so it’s difficult to pick favorites. Instead of just writing out a list and putting my most favored parks towards the top, I decided to over-engineer the process and create a ranking system. This method allows me to weight certain aspects of the parks and easily update my list as I’m able to travel and explore.
My Ranking System
I decided to rank the parks based on Scenery, Uniqueness, Accessibility and Repeatability.
Scenery (50%) – How pretty is it? This is obviously subjective!
Uniqueness (20%) – Does it have a “WOW” factor?
Repeatability (20%) – Can you visit the park multiple times?
Accessibility (10%) – Is the park remote or difficult to access?
The List!
19. Gateway Arch
Scenery: 1 | Uniqueness: 2 | Repeatability: 1 | Accessibility: 4
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, is a 630-foot-tall monument symbolizing the westward expansion of the United States and is the tallest arch in the world. That said, it’s my personal opinion that it should be National Monument and not a National Park, as it is not preserving a scenic landscape.
If you’re looking for a National Park to plan a trip around, I would look elsewhere unless you’re like myself and trying to visit them all! We visited the Arch in 2024 alongside another event taking place in St. Louis.
18. New River Gorge
Scenery: 2 | Uniqueness: 1 | Repeatability: 1 | Accessibility: 4
New River Gorge is the newest National Park as it only earned the designation in 2020. We stopped in for a quick visit when traveling back to Kentucky from a short trip to North Carolina.
The park is centered around the New River which is one of the oldest rivers in the U.S. Most visitors will cross the New River Gorge Bridge when entering the park. The steel arch bridge is the 5th longest in the world (the top 4 are in China) at 3,030 feet.
The Canyon Rim Visitor Center offers a great view of the landscape and is near the starting point for the scenic Fayette Station Road that takes visitors down to the river below.
17. Shenandoah National Park
Scenery: 2 | Uniqueness: 2 | Repeatability: 2 | Accessibility: 3
Shenandoah National Park is located in Virginia and encompasses a section of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The park is mostly wooded and features scenic drives, hiking trails and several waterfalls.
For more on our trip to Shenandoah National Park, check out our Road Trip to Shenandoah National Park.
16. Mesa Verde National Park
Scenery: 2 | Uniqueness: 5 | Repeatability: 1 | Accessibility: 2
Mesa Verde National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in southwest Colorado. It is well known for the Puebloan cliff dwellings that date back as far as 650 AD. The most prominent structure in the park is Cliff Palace which is the largest cliff dwelling in North America.
For more on our trip to Mesa Verde, check out our Colorado and Utah National Parks trip!
15. Great Sand Dunes National Park
Scenery: 2 | Uniqueness: 5 | Repeatability: 1 | Accessibility: 2
The Great Sand Dunes are located in southwest Colorado and are the largest dunes in North America. Star Dune is the tallest and measures 741 feet from base to summit. Hiking the dunes is a unique experience since there are no trails or signs, it’s just a hard slog to the top!
For more on our day exploring Great Sand Dunes National Park, check out our Colorado and Utah National Parks post!
14. Canyonlands National Park
Scenery: 3 | Uniqueness: 2 | Repeatability: 2 | Accessibility: 3
Canyonlands National Park is situated in southeast Utah and features a vast landscape of canyons and buttes (a butte is a tall, flat-topped, rock tower). In addition to hiking trails that are found in most parks, Canyonlands also features off-roading opportunities such as the White Rim Road which a 100-mile loop that typically takes two to three days with a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Check out our post Colorado and Utah National Parks for more on Canyonlands.
13. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Scenery: 3 | Uniqueness: 4 | Repeatability: 1 | Accessibility: 2
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a the “Grand Canyon of Colorado.” It contains some of the steepest cliffs in North America and owes it’s name to the fact some parts of the canyon only receive 33 minutes of sun light a day.
If you’re interested to read more about our trip to Black Canyon of the Gunnsion, check out our Colorado and Utah National Parks post for more info.
12. Mammoth Cave National Park
Scenery: 2 | Uniqueness: 5 | Repeatability: 2 | Accessibility: 4
Mammoth Cave is the only National Park located in our home state of Kentucky and is the longest cave system in the world. There are over 400 miles of caverns documented with over 600 miles estimated to still be explored.
11. Arches National Park
Scenery: 3 | Uniqueness: 4 | Repeatability: 1 | Accessibility: 3
Arches National Park is located just outside of Moab, Utah and contains over 2,000 natural stone arches.
If you want to read more about our visit to Arches National Park, check out our trip to the Colorado and Utah National Parks.
10. Haleakalā National Park
Scenery: 3 | Uniqueness: 4 | Repeatability: 2 | Accessibility: 1
Haleakalā National Park is located on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The park is named after a dormant volcano that last erupted sometime between 180 and 1600 AD.
The summit of the volcano is 10,023′ and it is a common activity for visitors to make the drive up for sunrise or sunset. If you go, just remember at that year-round temperatures can dip below freezing at the top! Read more about Haleakalā National Park in our trip to Hawaii.
9. Grand Canyon National Park
Scenery: 3 | Uniqueness: 3 | Repeatability: 3 | Accessibility: 3
Grand Canyon National Park is the second most visited National Park in the United States (see below for the most visited) and it’s easy to see why. The Grand Canyon is one of the few places that have truly left me in awe. The park consists of over 1.2 million acres and is over 18 miles across at the widest point.
I saw the Grand Canyon from the South Rim when I visited in 2013, but hope to return someday and hike the Rim-To-Rim trail.
8. Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Scenery: 3 | Uniqueness: 2 | Repeatability: 4 | Accessibility: 5
The Great Smoky Mountains are the most visited National Park in the United States.
7. Zion National Park
Scenery: 4 | Uniqueness: 3 | Repeatability: 3 | Accessibility: 3
Zion National Park is located in southern Utah and is around a two and a half hour drive from Las Vegas.
For more on our adventure to Zion, check out our Zion & Bryce Canyon National Park post!
6. Mount Rainer National Park
Scenery: 4 | Uniqueness: 3 | Repeatability: 3 | Accessibility: 4
Mount Rainer is located in west-central Washington and is named after one of the tallest peaks in the continental United States.
See more about our quick stop at Mount Rainer from our Pacific Northwest travel.
5. Denali National Park
Scenery: 4 | Uniqueness: 4 | Repeatability: 3 | Accessibility: 2
Denali National Park and Preserve is Alaska’s most popular land attraction. It takes roughly five hours to reach the park from Anchorage, and is accessible via car or train.
Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet. Clouds frequently cover the mountain due to the proximity of the nearby ocean, so only around 30% of park visitors are able to actually see the peak.
We were fortunate to be a part of the 30% on our visit!
4. Bryce Canyon National Park
Scenery: 4 | Uniqueness: 4 | Repeatability: 4 | Accessibility: 3
Bryce Canyon National Park
Ashley and I both enjoyed exploring Bryce Canyon and hope to return someday to hike different areas within the park.
3. Acadia National Park
Scenery: 4 | Uniqueness: 4 | Repeatability: 5 | Accessibility: 3
Acadia National Park in central Maine was the northernmost stop on our Fall Road Trip Through New England in 2018.
Acadia is situated on the bay.
2. Rocky Mountain National Park
Scenery: 5 | Uniqueness: 3 | Repeatability: 5 | Accessibility: 5
Rocky Mountain National Park is located in Colorado roughly 60 miles outside of Denver. The park features rugged mountain, alpine lakes, and a large variety of wildlife.
We’ve visited RMNP in 2020 and were able to see a wide variety of wildlife and mountain ranges in fall color. For more check out our post: Fall Break in Colorado.
1. Yosemite National Park
Scenery: 5 | Uniqueness: 4 | Repeatability: 4 | Accessibility: 4
We spent A Day In Yosemite National Park before heading to Hawaii in 2021. Yosemite is a popular park, and for good reason. It lived up to all of the hype and popularity.
We only had a day in the park during our first visit and I can’t wait to return!
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