Over the course of the past three years, I’ve done my best to plan vacations revolving around (or at least tangentially related to) visiting national parks. While I am still far from completing all of the current 63 parks, I have visited 11, and that seems like a high enough number to warrant a ranking post.
Each of the national parks is distinctly different—that’s part of what makes them worthy of being a national park—and at times this makes them hard to rank. All of these are my personal opinions, but I’ve done my best to provide justification for each.
11. Biscayne
Date Visited: January 2021
Location: Florida
It was easy to place Biscayne at the bottom of this list. Most of it is underwater, and because I had just been to Dry Tortugas I made the decision not to boat or snorkel here. Instead, I did a short one mile walk that took us out into the water and allowed us to see all of the on-land options for the park. It just wasn’t spectacular, especially compared to everything else on this list.
10. Congaree
Date Visited: April 2021
Location: South Carolina
This park wasn’t exceptional in any way. I felt like it was the South Carolina version of one million mini hikes I went on in my New England childhood. Not to mention, it’s in the middle of nowhere, meaning you have to drive for hours just to end up on a flat boardwalk you could have gone to anywhere. When I wrote this list originally, I had it #8, but just writing this description caused me to drop it lower!
9. Indiana Dunes
Date Visited: Summer 2021
Location: Indiana
I honestly cannot believe this was a national park! The Sand Dunes were fun to hike, but nothing blew me away. The photo I included in this article is one of the side hikes that has some trees in it. During the main 3 dune challenge, you are solely walking on sand. It was fun to complete, and my calves were sore the next day!
8. Wind Caves
Date Visited: Summer 2017
Location: South Dakota
I admittedly struggle with claustrophobia. That caused me to enjoy the Wind Caves less than I perhaps would have were my brain a bit more neurotypical. However! It was very neat to go on a tour of the caves and experience how deep and dark the natural formations are.
7. Badlands
Date Visited: Summer 2017
Location: South Dakota
This is yet another park that I went to many years before my true national park journey began, but I still enjoyed it! It was weird to be surrounded by so much deadness that was actually alive. The way the Badlands spread for miles in every direction was difficult to comprehend for Young Jocelyn, and I hope to go back one day to give it an even more accurate review.
6. Everglades
Date Visited: January 2021
Location: Florida
The best part of the Everglades was how close you could get to the alligators! As you can see from this photo of my friend and I, we could have quite literally touched the animal had we wanted to. This path involved a bike ride down a route filled with alligators that ended in a giant tower where we got to see a bird’s eye view. That was most certainly the best part of the trip. The second day, we primarily drove around and did a few small walks around areas that looked similar to where we’d already been. Overall, the Everglades were more or less exactly what you’d picture when you envision the Everglades.
5. Redwood
Date Visited: March 2023
Location: California
I cannot believe how big the trees are in Redwood! While I knew the Redwood trees were large, I was truly unprepared for just how many large trees we would be surrounded by. I did the Boy Scout Tree Trail hike, and was surrounded by ferns and verdant green the entire time. We were most definitely on the outskirts of the park while we hiked, but it was still pretty!
4. Olympic
Date Visited: Summer 2021
Location: Washington
Olympic National Park is beautiful, but after experiencing it for a day I felt like I’d seen it all. There were beautiful views that I was in love with, but none of them compared to Mount Rainier, which I went to later that week. The park is also huge, so it will likely take you two days to get through the entire thing, even if you’re just driving. It’s definitely worth it for some easier hikes with beautiful views at the top. Warning! Wear bug spray!
3. Pinnacles
Date Visited: March 2023
Location: California
Pinnacles is the most recent national park I visited at the time of this writing, and I was shocked by how much I loved it. While it will require a two hour detour off of Highway 1 right near Big Sur, it’s most definitely worth it. You can crawl through open air caves higher up into the mountain, sit by the absolutely gorgeous Reflection Pond, and just generally see beautiful sights.
Driving up to the park, I didn’t expect it to be anything much. The entire drive off of the coast we were surrounded by farms that were the least beautiful part of my entire time in California. Then—we arrived. And it was worth it!
2. Mount Rainier
Date Visited: Summer 2021
Location: Washington
The day I went to Mount Rainier, it was incredibly foggy. That most definitely took away from the experience some, but nonetheless, it was still one of the most magnificent places I’ve ever been. Once the fog cleared, the colors of the grass and the flowers were enough to make up for all of the grey experienced along the way. It felt like I’d entered a heavenly mountainside.
1. Dry Tortugas
Date Visited: January 2021
Location: Florida
Visiting Dry Tortugas was truly one of the most magical days I’ve ever experienced. To get to the island, you need to take a ferry ride. I’d recommend the one I took. There was free food and they provided you with snorkeling gear upon reaching the island. You could also take a helicopter or camp, but I think the day trip via ferry was plenty to fully explore the island.
I walked around the old fort and swam with a barracuda! Truly, this wins for the most unique and life changing national park experience.
Parks Left to Visit (Alphabetical)
- Acadia
- American Samoa
- Arches
- Big Bend
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison
- Bryce Canyon
- Canyonlands
- Capitol Reef
- Carlsbad Caverns
- Channel Islands
- Crater Lake
- Cuyahoga Valley
- Death Valley
- Denali
- Gates of the Arctic
- Gateway Arch
- Glacier
- Glacier Bay
- Grand Canyon
- Grand Teton
- Great Basin
- Great Sand Dunes
- Great Smokey Mountains
- Guadalupe Mountains
- Haleakala
- Hawai’i Volcanoes
- Hot Springs
- Isle Royale
- Joshua Tree
- Katamai
- Kenaj Fjords
- Kings Canyon
- Kobuk Valley
- Lake Clark
- Lassen Volcanic
- Mammoth Cave
- Mesa Verde
- New River Gorge
- North Cascades
- Petrified Forest
- Rocky Mountains
- Saguaro
- Sequoia
- Shenandoah
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Virgin Islands
- Voyaguers
- White Sands
- Wrangell St. Elias
- Yellowstone
- Yosemite
- Zion
What are your favorite national parks? Let me know in the comments!
Write Through the Night 