There's a total of 63 national parks in the United States. One might assume the parks would cover most of the country—but that's not the case! While there are dozens of parks, they only exist in a little more than half of the country's states. There are still 20 states that don't have a national park.
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.
Delaware is the only state in the country that does not have anational park, national monument, national historic site or anyother unit of the National Park Service.
Biggest of Them AllThe uncontested heavyweight champion of the National Park System is Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve. At 13.2 million acres, it's larger than Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Switzerland combined.
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.
Australia leads the list of countries with the most national parks by an incredible distance, home to over 600 national parks. This compares to second position Thailand where there are 147 national parks.
National Park of American Samoa: The least-visited US national park in 2022 saw just 1,887 visits. Most visitors will need a passport to travel to American Samoa. 2. Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska: This vast park contains no roads or trails.
Remember the criteria to become a National Park. Of all the land in the Adirondack Park, only 2.6 million acres are owned by New York State. With more than half of the land privately owned (105 towns and villages exist in the Park), it could likely never live up to rule #3 under the National Park Service.
American Samoa National Park – South PacificWhile not located in the United States, the US territories of American Samoa National Park are arguably the most remote.
The largest national park is Wrangell–St. Elias in Alaska: at over 8 million acres (32,375 km2), it is larger than each of the nine smallest states. The next three largest parks are also in Alaska.
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).