Your location stays in your browser. It is used to work out the distances on this page and is not sent to us or stored on our server. The map and the place search come from MapTiler, which sees the area you look at and what you type in the search box.
Some of these are across the border. Carry your passport and allow for a wait at the crossing, which these times leave out.
Start with where you are
Share your location or type a town, and we will list every park and national monument you can reach in a day, nearest first. The map shows all 301 destinations in the library. Click or tap any dot on it to see that destination here.
How we work out a day’s drive
What counts as a day’s drive
About 8 hours behind the wheel, which is roughly 500 miles (800 km) by road. We split that into three: under 2 hours, close enough to go and come back the same day; 2 to 4 hours, far enough to stay the night; and 4 to 8 hours, a full day of driving.
How the times are worked out
They are estimates, not routes. We start from the straight-line distance to the middle of each park or monument, bend it around the water and canyons a road cannot cross (the Great Lakes, Puget Sound, the Bay of Fundy, the Grand Canyon), and add the sailing where a ferry is the way in. A park’s main gate can be a long way from its middle, so a large park may be closer or farther than we say. The times leave out traffic, stops and border waits. Check your own route before you set off.
What is in season
Press “In Season?” and the page keeps only the destinations that are in season this month; the rest drop off the list and turn grey on the map. Planning ahead? Pick the month under “Different Month?”. Press the button again to see everything. That comes from each park’s own best seasons, not from the thermometer. Winter is the best time for the desert parks and the Everglades, and many northern and mountain parks have a second season on skis and snowshoes. Each card names the season, so you can tell which kind of winter it is.
The highs and lows are long-term averages for that month from the nearest climate station. In a mountain park the station can sit well below the high country, where it is colder.
Places with no road
Some parks and monuments can only be reached by boat or plane. They are listed separately, with the straight-line distance, so you can see they are close without mistaking them for a drive.