Photo Essay: National Parks in the United States and Canada

The National Park Project: Mini Guide Introduction

National parks are some of our favorite sights to explore—we love the preserved nature and diverse beauty each one has to offer. We mentioned it briefly in our national park photo essay, but we wanted to share more details with you all on our latest goal and project. We have made a goal to visit all of the 59 National Parks in the United States, and we are going to share our journey here on Wander The Map through mini-guides of each park!

Photo Essay: National Parks in the United States and Canada

Over the past several months, we have visited around 15 National Parks in the US and Canada, and we are going to create a mini-guide for each one as well as all of the other parks once we visit them. We don’t necessarily have an end date or deadline for this project, but we are going to make national parks a priority when we travel in the states. Our country has so many exciting sights, and we feel that national parks are one fantastic way to explore within our own country.

Photo Essay: National Parks in the United States and Canada

Although you could spend a lifetime in some of the parks and still not uncover everything, we wanted to share our experiences and some personal recommendations from each park. Our mini-guides will cover a bit about our experiences and what we did, the history and interesting facts of the park, activities to do in the park, where to stay and types of accommodations and essential info that you need to know. And, if we make a return visit to a park, we will definitely be updating the guide with any new information we come across.

Photo Essay: National Parks in the United States and Canada

With that, here is a list of all the national parks in the United States. We are also including a list of the Canadian parks we visit—visiting all the Canadian parks isn’t currently included in our goal, but we’ve visited quite a few so we wanted to include them below as well. Once we create a guide, it will be linked to each corresponding park below so you can have all the information easily accessible from one spot. Enjoy and be sure to share your favorite national parks with us in the comments below!

United States Parks:

Acadia National Park, Maine
Arches National Park, Utah
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Big Bend National Park, Texas
Biscayne National Park, Florida
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Channel Islands National Park, California
Congaree National Park, South Carolina
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio
Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada
Denali National Park, Alaska
Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida
Everglades National Park, Florida
Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska
Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Glacier National Park, Montana
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee
Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas
Haleakala National Park, Hawaii
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii
Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
Joshua Tree National Park, California
Katmai National Park, Alaska
Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska
Kings Canyon National Park, California
Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska
Lake Clark National Park, Alaska
Lassen Volcanic Park, California
Mammoth Cave Park, Kentucky
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
National Park of American Samoa, American Samoa
North Cascades National Park, Washington
Olympic National Park, Washington
Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Pinnacles National Park, California
Redwood National Park, California
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Saguaro National Park, Arizona
Sequoia National Park, California
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Virgin Islands National Park, US Virgin Islands
Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota
Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Yosemite National Park, California
Zion National Park, Utah

Canadian Parks (that we’ve been to):

Banff National Park, Alberta
Glacier National Park, British Columbia
Thousand Islands National Park, Ontario
Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia