One of our followers on our Life From the Road Facebook page asked us a great question — How many National Parks have we visited so far and how many do we have to go? Thanks for the great question, Gerda!

Ironically enough, I was actually just reading about this the other day because we’ve been to a ton of different places in the National Park system but I saw something that said there were only 63 parks total. I knew we’d been to at least that many but we had many more to go so I was confused.

I had never known this before but what I discovered through my research is that there are 63 official National Parks and then there are lots of things that are just part of the NP system — like National Wildlife Refuges, National Seashores, National Monuments, etc. I’m not even sure how many of those there are but I can tell you there are a LOT! haha!

So if you were unaware like I was, I’ve included a list here of the 63 official National Parks.

I’ve got all the ones we’ve been to so far in bold print. Two of these we’d visited before we began traveling full time in August 2020 but the rest we’ve been to since then. And if all goes according to plan, we’ll be checking off quite a few more of these this summer!

Top row — Rocky Mountain, Glacier, Bryce Canyon Bottom row — Arches, Grand Canyon, Death Valley All photos ©Donetta Dalman

National Parks Official List

  1. Acadia National Park (Maine)
  2. Arches National Park (Utah)
  3. Badlands National Park (South Dakota)
  4. Big Bend National Park (Texas)
  5. Biscayne National Park (Florida)
  6. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (Colorado)
  7. Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)
  8. Canyonlands National Park (Utah)
  9. Capitol Reef National Park (Utah)
  10. Carlsbad Caverns National Park (New Mexico)
  11. Channel Islands National Park (California)
  12. Congaree National Park (South Carolina)
  13. Crater Lake National Park (Oregon)
  14. Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio)
  15. Death Valley National Park (California)
  16. Denali National Park (Alaska)
  17. Dry Tortugas National Park (Florida)
  18. Everglades National Park (Florida)
  19. Gates of the Arctic National Park (Alaska)
  20. Gateway Arch National Park (Missouri)
  21. Glacier Bay National Park (Alaska)
  22. Glacier National Park (Montana)
  23. Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona)
  24. Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)
  25. Great Basin National Park (Nevada)
  26. Great Sand Dunes National Park (Colorado)
  27. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina & Tennessee)
  28. Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Texas)
  29. Haleakala National Park (Hawaii)
  30. Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park (Hawaii)
  31. Hot Springs National Park (Arkansas)
  32. Indiana Dunes National Park (Indiana)
  33. Isle Royale National Park (Michigan)
  34. Joshua Tree National Park (California)
  35. Katmai National Park (Alaska)
  36. Kenai Fjords National Park (Alaska)
  37. Kings Canyon National Park (California)
  38. Kobuk Valley National Park (Alaska)
  39. Lake Clark National Park (Alaska)
  40. Lassen Volcanic National Park (California)
  41. Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky)
  42. Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado)
  43. Mount Rainier National Park (Washington)
  44. National Park of American Samoa (American Samoa)
  45. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve (West Virginia)
  46. North Cascades National Park (Washington)
  47. Olympic National Park (Washington)
  48. Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona)
  49. Pinnacles National Park (California)
  50. Redwood National Park (California)
  51. Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado)
  52. Saguaro National Park (Arizona)
  53. Sequoia National Park (California)
  54. Shenandoah National Park (Virginia)
  55. Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota)
  56. Virgin Islands National Park (Virgin Islands)
  57. Voyageurs National Park (Minnesota)
  58. White Sands National Park (New Mexico)
  59. Wind Cave National Park (South Dakota)
  60. Wrangell — St. Elias National Park (Alaska)
  61. Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming & Idaho)
  62. Yosemite National Park (California)
  63. Zion National Park (Utah)
National Parks map

We’ve been to a total of 25 of the 63 National Parks so far and have loved each one for different reasons. Of course, we loved some more so than others for sure! Some of the parks have SO much to offer and you can spend days exploring and not see it all. Some of them are smaller and are pretty simple so it doesn’t take long to check them out.

We have a lot of people ask us where our favorite place is that we’ve traveled to and we pretty much always come up with places that are near some of our favorite National Parks.

Estes Park, Colorado, is one of our favorite places and that’s because of Rocky Mountain National Park. There are so many beautiful spots there! Glacier National Park in Montana was another favorite and one we hope to get back to one day. One of the craziest, scariest roads we ever drove was in that park! haha! But it’s absolutely gorgeous there.

We just recently visited Death Valley National Park and were very surprised at how much we loved it. I had no idea how amazing that area is and was shocked at how beautiful it was. Zion is another one that left us in awe with the beauty of it. We just couldn’t get over how gorgeous it was at every turn on the scenic drive we did.

How about you? What National Parks have you visited and what’s been your favorite?

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