Arches holds the greatest concentration of natural stone arches on Earth, more than 2,000 of them, from delicate ribbons of rock to the soaring span of Delicate Arch, all set in a surreal red-rock desert above Moab. Compact and easily toured by car, it packs an astonishing density of arches, balanced rocks and slickrock fins…
One of Canada’s newest and least-developed national park reserves, Akami-Uapishkᵁ-KakKasuak-Mealy Mountains protects a vast sweep of the Labrador wilderness, subarctic mountains, boreal forest, wild rivers and a stretch of Atlantic coast. Co-managed with Innu and Inuit partners, it is a place of raw, roadless country where self-reliant travelers find some of the most untouched land…
Gateway Arch is the most unusual unit in the national park system, the smallest national park, and an entirely urban one, built around the soaring 630-foot (190 m) stainless-steel arch that has defined the St. Louis skyline since the 1960s. It commemorates the United States’ westward expansion and the pivotal role St. Louis played as…
Voyageurs is a park you explore by boat, a maze of interconnected lakes, islands and channels along the Minnesota–Canada border, named for the French-Canadian fur traders who once paddled these waters. Water covers roughly a third of the park, and the roads simply stop at its edge, handing the interior over to canoes, kayaks and…
Isle Royale is one of the most remote and least-visited national parks in the lower 48, a wild, roadless archipelago in the cold expanse of Lake Superior, famous as a living laboratory for its wolves and moose. Reached only by boat or seaplane and closed for half the year, it rewards backpackers and paddlers with…
Wapusk, Cree for “white bear”, protects one of the largest known polar-bear denning areas on Earth, a vast, roadless wilderness of subarctic tundra and taiga on the Hudson Bay coast near Churchill, Manitoba. This is one of Canada’s most remote and least-visited national parks, reachable only on a guided expedition, where the reward is a…
Riding Mountain rises like a forested island above the Manitoba prairie, a highland plateau where boreal forest, aspen parkland and open grassland meet, cupping the clear waters of its namesake lakes. A comfortable resort town on Clear Lake sits at its heart, making it an easy family escape, while a captive bison herd and abundant…
Acadia is where the mountains meet the sea on the rugged coast of Maine, a park of pink-granite peaks, surf-battered headlands, spruce forest and quiet ponds, crowned by Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the U.S. Atlantic coast. Compact but astonishingly varied, and laced with historic carriage roads, it is New England’s beloved coastal wilderness….
Mammoth Cave protects the longest known cave system on Earth, more than 400 mapped miles of passages winding beneath the green hills of central Kentucky, with more still being discovered. Above ground, a quiet landscape of hardwood forest, sinkholes and the Green River rounds out a park that is really two worlds: a vast subterranean…
Indiana Dunes packs a startling amount of nature into a slice of the industrial Midwest, 15 miles (24 km) of Lake Michigan beach backed by towering sand dunes, quiet woodlands, wetlands and prairie, all within sight of Chicago’s skyline and the steel mills of the lakeshore. Its improbable mix of habitats makes it one of…
