Facts About US National Parks

Here are some interesting facts about the National Parks in the United States:

•There are 58 National Parks in the United States, and almost 400 National Park sites (including historic buildings, monuments, and battlefields).

•Every year, the National Park Service designates free days, when no admission is charged to enter the National Parks. The National Park free days include Martin Luther King holiday weekend, Veteran’s Day weekend, Public Lands Day, and Get Outdoors Day.

•Great Smoky Mountains National Park (in North Carolina and Tennessee) is the most popular National Park, with more than 9 million visits per year.

•The largest National Park in the United States is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, in Alaska, measuring more than 13,000 square miles. Death Valley National Park (in California and Nevada) is the largest National Park in the continental U.S., at 5,300 square miles.

•Yellowstone National Park (in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana) is the oldest U.S. National Park, founded in 1872.

•Denali National Park, in Alaska, has the highest elevation of any US National Park – Mount McKinley, at 20,320 feet.

•Colorado has two of the highest elevations in National Parks – Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park and Tijeras Peak in Great Sand Dunes National Park.

•Canada has 42 National Parks, including Banff National Park, which was the third national park to be established in the world.