The New River Gorge does not match the scale of many national parks in the western United States, where Death Valley, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone sprawl over more than 1 million acres each.
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Thirty states and two U.S. territories have a total of 63 national parks. California has the most with nine, followed by Alaska with eight, Utah with five, and Colorado with four.
93-year-old grandmother and grandson complete goal of visiting all 63 U.S. national parks. By the time she was 85 years old, Joy Ryan of Duncan Falls, Ohio, had never seen the ocean or mountains. Now, she's 93 years old and has seen every corner of the U.S. – after visiting all 63 U.S. National Parks.
While the National Park System comprises 423 national park sites, only 63 of them have the National Park designation in their names. The other sites fall into different National Park System categories like National Historic Sites, National Monuments, National Seashores, National Recreation Areas, and others.
Fires (including charcoal) are prohibited unless approved by the Superintendent. Hunting and trapping are prohibited at the park in its effort to protect wildlife. The viewing of wildlife with artificial light is also prohibited.
The New River Gorge was given National Park Service protection in 1978 as a national river, and was expanded to New River Gorge National Park & Preserve — this country's newest national park — in the plague year of 2020 courtesy of legislation drafted by Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito.
The smallest park is Gateway Arch National Park, Missouri, at 192.83 acres (0.7804 km2). The total area protected by national parks is approximately 52.4 million acres (212,000 km2), for an average of 833 thousand acres (3,370 km2) but a median of only 220 thousand acres (890 km2).
In 1957, South Dakota's Fossil Cycad National Monument lost its status because so many people — including researchers — had walked off with the plant fossils that inspired the park's designation in the first place.