Comprising a collection of stunningly diverse landscapes, from active volcanoes spewing lava to crystalline glaciers creeping down snow-covered peaks to eerie deserts that look like someone pulled the bathtub stopper on an ancient ocean, US national parks have captured the imagination of millions of park-goers.
Full of history—both geologic, Indigenous, and more recent—and featuring trails that range from ADA-accessible boardwalks to challenging treks that test the hardiest of outdoor athletes, America’s national parks are at once culturally significant, approachable, and wild.
Here’s a quick look at the best of the best with links where you can learn more about these incredible diverse landscapes.

Arches National Park
Giant sweeping arcs of sandstone frame snowy peaks and desert landscapes; explore the park’s namesake formations in a red-rock wonderland.
State: Utah
Entrance Fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30
Great for: Family travel, photo ops, hiking, scenic drives, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 1,806,865
Related article: The Ultimate Guide to Arches National Park
Read more: Power of Nature: Arches National Park Offers Endless Beauty

Badlands National Park
It’s easy to understand why the Lakota named this place mako sica (badland) when you look over the rainbow-hued canyons and buttes that sit like an ocean boiled dry.
State: South Dakota
Entrance Fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30
Great for: Scenic drives, wildlife, cycling, hiking, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021:1,224,226
Related article: The Ultimate Guide to Badlands National Park
Read more: Badlands National Park: Place of Otherworldly Beauty

Big Bend National Park
From the moment you enter the national park, there’s spectacular scenery everywhere you look. Head to the Chisos Basin for the most dramatic landscape but any visit should also include time in the Chihuahuan Desert, home to curious creatures and adaptable plants, and down along the Rio Grande, the watery dividing line between the US and Mexico.
State: Texas
Entrance Fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30
Great for: Wildlife, hiking, scenic drives, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 581,220
Related article: The Ultimate Big Bend National Park Road Trip
Read more: 10 of the Best National and State Parks in Texas

Bryce Canyon National Park
Famous for its otherworldly sunset-colored spires punctuated by tracts of evergreen forest, Bryce Canyon National Park is one of the planet’s most exquisite geological wonders. Repeated freezes and thaws have eroded the small park’s soft sandstone and limestone into sandcastle-like pinnacles known as hoodoos, jutted fins, and huge amphitheaters filled with thousands of pastel daggers.
State: Utah
Entrance Fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $35
Great for: Hiking, photo ops, scenic drives, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 2,104,600
Related article: The Ultimate Guide to Bryce Canyon National Park
Read more: Make Bryce Canyon National Park Your Next RV Trip

Canyonlands National Park
A forbidding and beautiful maze of red-rock fins, bridges, needles, spires, craters, mesas, and buttes, Canyonlands is a crumbling, eroding beauty—a vision of ancient earth.
State: Utah
Entrance Fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30
Great for: Cycling, scenic drives, hiking, photo ops, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 911,594
Related article: A Lifetime of Exploration Awaits at Canyonlands (National Park)
Read more: Ultimate Guide to National Park Tripping in Utah: Arches and Canyonlands

Capitol Reef National Park
Giant slabs of chocolate-red rock and sweeping yellow sandstone domes dominate the landscape of Capitol Reef which Indigenous Freemont people called the “Land of the Sleeping Rainbow.”
State: Utah
Entrance Fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $20
Great for: Hiking, photo ops, scenic drives, geology, Ancestral Pueblo culture, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 1,405,353
Related article: Getting Closer to Nature at Capitol Reef
Read more: Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef: A Great American Road Trip

Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Scores of wondrous caves hide under the hills at this unique national park. The cavern formations are an ethereal wonderland of stalactites and fantastical geological features.
State: New Mexico
Entrance Fee: 3-day pass per person $15
Great for: Family travel, photo ops, scenic drives, caving, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 349,244
Related article: Get Immersed in Caves: Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Read more: Wake Up In New Mexico

Congaree National Park
Encompassing nearly 27,000 acres, Congaree National Park is the largest expanse of old-growth, bottomland hardwood forest in the southeastern US. The lush trees growing here are some of the tallest in the southeast forming one of the highest temperate deciduous forest canopies left in the world.
State: South Carolina
Entrance Fee: Free
Great for: Wildlife, family travel, walking, canoeing and kayaking

Recreational visitors in 2021: 215,181
Related article: Finding Solace in the Old Growth Forest of Congaree
Read more: Home of Champions: Congaree National Park

Grand Canyon National Park
The Grand Canyon embodies the scale and splendor of the American West captured in dramatic vistas, dusty trails, and stories of exploration and preservation. Ancestral Puebloans lived in and near the Grand Canyon for centuries and their stories echo in the reds, rusts, and oranges of the canyon walls and the park’s spires and buttes.
State: Arizona
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $35
Great for: Scenery, family travel, hiking, photo ops, geology, scenic drives, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 4,532,677
Related article: The Ultimate Guide to Grand Canyon National Park
Read more: Grand Canyon National Park Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary Today

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The sun-dappled forests of the Great Smoky Mountains are a four-season wonderland from spring’s wildflowers to summer’s flame azaleas to autumn’s quilted hues of orange, burgundy, and saffron blanketing the mountain slopes and winter’s ice-fringed cascades. This mesmerizing backdrop is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site harboring more biodiversity than any other national park in America.
States: North Carolina and Tennessee
Entrance fee: Free
Great for: History, wildlife, family travel, hiking, scenic drives, fall colors, botany

Recreational visitors in 2021: 14,161,548
Related article: The Ultimate Guide to Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Read more: Great Smoky Mountains: Most Visited National Park…and We Can See Why

Joshua Tree National Park
This 794,000-acre park is at the transition zone of two deserts: the low and dry Colorado and the higher, moister, and slightly cooler Mojave. Rock climbers know the park as the best place to climb in California; hikers seek out hidden, shady, desert-fan-palm oases fed by natural springs and small streams; and mountain bikers are hypnotized by the desert vistas.
State: California
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30
Great for: Cycling, scenic drives, hiking, rock climbing, photo ops, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 3,064,400
Related article: Joshua Tree National Park: An Iconic Landscape That Rocks
Read more: Joshua Tree: Admire Two Deserts At Once

Lassen Volcanic National Park
Anchoring the southernmost link in the Cascades’ chain of volcanoes, this alien landscape bubbles over with roiling mud pots, noxious sulfur vents, steamy fumaroles, colorful cinder cones, and crater lakes.
State: California
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30 ($10 in winter)
Great for: Photo ops, scenic drives, hiking, stargazing
Recreational visitors in 2021: 359,635

Related article: The Ultimate Guide to Lassen Volcanic National Park
Read more: Geothermal Weirdness, Volcanic Landscapes, and Stunning Beauty

Mesa Verde National Park
More than 700 years after its inhabitants disappeared, Mesa Verde retains an air of mystery. No one knows for sure why the Ancestral Puebloans left their elaborate cliff dwellings in the 1300s. What remains is a wonderland for adventurers of all sizes who can clamber up ladders to carved-out dwellings, see rock art, and delve into the mysteries of ancient America.
State: Colorado
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30 ($20 in winter)
Great for: Ancestral Pueblo culture, scenic drives, tours, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 548,47
Related article: Mesa Verde National Park: Look Back In Time 1,000 Years
Read more: Mesa Verde National Park: 14 Centuries of History

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve
The New River is the United States’ newest national park but is one of the oldest waterways in the world and the primeval forest gorge it runs through is one of the most breathtaking in the Appalachians. The region is an adventure mecca with world-class white-water runs and challenging single-track trails. Rim and gorge hiking trails offer beautiful views.
State: West Virginia
Entrance fee: Free
Great for: Hiking, biking, fishing, white water rafting, rock climbing, extreme sports

Recreational visitors in 2021: 1,682,720
Related article: New River Gorge: America’s Newest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park
The ‘trees’ of Petrified Forest National Park are fossilized logs scattered over a vast area of semi-desert grassland, buried beneath silica-rich volcanic ash before they could decompose. Up to 6 feet in diameter, they’re strikingly beautiful with extravagantly patterned cross-sections of wood glinting in ethereal pinks, blues, and greens.
State: Arizona
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $25
Great for: Scenic drives, geology, hiking, biking, Route 66, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 590,334
Related article: The Ultimate Guide to Petrified Forest National Park
Read more: Triassic World: Petrified Forest National Park

Pinnacles National Park
Pinnacles is named for the towering rock spires that rise abruptly out of the chaparral-covered hills east of Salinas Valley. Its famous formations are the eroded remnants of a long-extinct volcano that originated in present-day southern California before getting sheared in two and moving nearly 200 miles north along the San Andreas Fault.
State: California
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30
Great for: Wildlife, photo ops, hiking, rock climbing, caving

Recreational visitors in 2021: 348,857
Related article: The Ultimate Guide to Pinnacles National Park
Read more: Pinnacles National Park: Born of Fire

Saguaro National Park
Saguaros (sah-wah-ros) are icons of the American Southwest and an entire cactus army of these majestic, ribbed sentinels is protected in this desert playground. Or more precisely, playgrounds: Saguaro National Park is divided into east and west units separated by 30 miles and the city of Tucson.
State: Arizona
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $25
Great for: Cycling, wildlife, plants, hiking

Recreational visitors in 2021: 1,079,783
Related article: The Ultimate Guide to Saguaro National Park
Read more: Inside the Cartoonish and Majestic Land of Saguaro

Sequoia National Park
With trees as high as 20-story buildings, Sequoia National Park is an extraordinary park with soul-sustaining forests and vibrant wildflower meadows.
State: California
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $35
Great for: Family travel, scenic drives, hiking, photo ops

Recreational visitors in 2021: 1,059,548
Related article: The Big Trees: Sequoia National Park
Read more: Explore Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Shenandoah National Park
Shenandoah is like a new smile from nature: in spring and summer, the wildflowers explode, in fall the leaves turn bright red and orange, and in winter a cold, starkly beautiful hibernation period sets in. With the famous 105-mile Skyline Drive and more than 500 miles of hiking trails, including 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail, there is plenty to do and see.
State: Virginia
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30
Great for: Wildlife, scenic drives, hiking, fall colors

Recreational visitors in 2021: 1,592,312
Related article: Escape to the Blue Ridge: Shenandoah National Park
Read more: Blue Ridge Parkway: America’s Favorite Drive

Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Wildlife abounds in these surreal mounds of striated earth in Theodore Roosevelt National Park; sunset is particularly evocative as shadows dance across the lonely buttes.
State: North Dakota
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $30
Great for: Hiking, wildlife, scenic drives, Presidential history, stargazing

Recreational visitors in 2021: 796,085
Related article: North Dakota: Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Read more: Theodore Roosevelt National Park: A Plains-state Paradise

White Sands National Park
Undulating through the Tularosa Basin like something out of a dream, these ethereal dunes are a highlight of any trip to New Mexico and a must on every landscape photographer’s itinerary. Try to time a visit to White Sands with sunrise or sunset (or both), when the dazzlingly white sea of sand is at its most magical.
State: New Mexico
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $25
Great for: Scenery, hiking, photography

Recreational visitors in 2021: 782,469
Related article: A White Oasis: White Sands National Park
Read more: New Mexico’s White Sands Is Officially a National Park

Zion National Park
From secret oases of trickling water to the hot-pink blooms of a prickly pear cactus, Zion’s treasures turn up in the most unexpected places.
State: Utah
Entrance fee: 7-day pass per vehicle $35
Great for: Scenery, hiking, family travel, photo ops, biking

Recreational visitors in 2021: 5,039,835
Related article: Rock of Ages: Zion National Park
Read more: Roam Free in Greater Zion: Quail Creek State Park
Worth Pondering…
National parks are sacred and cherished places—our greatest personal and national treasures. It’s a gift to spend a year adventuring and capturing incredible images and stories in some of the most beautiful places on Earth.
—Jonathan Irish, photographer