Today we are going on an adventure to the 10 most scenic National Parks in the United States. In our opinion, the best invention the United States ever made was the National Park system.
In 2018, we packed up our lives, sold everything we owned, and moved into our camper van. We took this van all across the US and Canada and visited every National Park we could. We created a USA Bucket List which puts all our favorite places from our year touring the US in one place. Check it out!
But today we are counting down the top 10 most scenic National Parks in the United States.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Coming in at number 10 is Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We love this park because there is so much to do for any type of travel.
Also, it’s free! Who doesn’t love free things? It’s the most visited National Park in the US and for good reason. It’s an incredibly scenic National Park!
We’ve been to Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few times and love driving through it, taking in the gorgeous mountain views. Some of our favorite easy day hikes in this scenic National Park are Laurel Falls, Clingmans Dome and Abram Falls.
Lastly, this is one of the best National Parks to see black bears! If you’re hoping for an awesome wildlife encounter, Great Smoky Mountains is a great National Park to visit!
Crater Lake National Park
Coming in at number 9 on our count down of the most scenic National Parks in the United States is a little place in Oregon called Crater Lake. In our opinion, Crater Lake National Park is extremely underrated! Although it is small, it is mighty! A 2 day itinerary here is the perfect amount of time to see it all!
This place used to be an enormous volcano, called Mount Mazama that erupted and made a big bowl, that is now Crater Lake. This place is the deepest lake in our country, and the clearest lake in the world. There is no water that flows in, and no water that flows out. Because that water isn’t moving in and out, the lake is perfectly still and clear.
You can go swimming here if you want to, but be warned, it is freakin cold!
There are some awesome hikes here, like Mount Scott that takes you to an awesome overlook of the lake or Cleetwood Cove which takes you to the waters shoreline. If you want to jump in, Cleetwood Cove the only place you can do it. Check out our favorite hikes in Crater Lake National Park!
Yellowstone National Park
Coming in at number 8 is Yellowstone National Park! This is the first National Park, and for good reason!
It’s huge! It’s bigger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined and goes into 3 different states. Wyoming, Montana and Idaho! We think a 5 day itinerary is the perfect amount of time to see Yellowstone’s best sites!
If you’re into wildlife this is the place to go! Yellowstone is home to the Serengeti of the United States, A.K.A. Lamar Valley. You’ll see bison, wolves, elk, moose, bears and more! This National Park also has some incredible hiking trails that will lead you to incredible waterfalls, hot springs and mountain views.
Yellowstone has over half the worlds active geysers. Check out Old Faithful, or our favorite, the Grand Prismatic Springs.
Lastly, don’t miss the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone where can see amazing waterfalls and giant yellow cliffs, which is where this park gets its name!
Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park is coming in at number 7 on our countdown of the most scenic National Parks in the US!
This is one of the least visited National Parks in the US, and that’s because there is nothing near it! Since it is so secluded, it also has the darkest sky in the entire US. There is no light pollution near this place! The stars here are so bright and it’s incredible to see in person.
They also have an awesome camping set up at this National Park. You can camp inside the park, off grid, for extremely cheap. Less than $1/day!
Some of the best hikes in Big Bend are the South Rim Trail, the Window Trail and the Lost Mine Trail. Each gives you a different flavor of the Chisos Mountain Range.
Also, don’t miss the free hot springs right in the Rio Grande. Enjoy the hot springs while sitting on the border between the US and Mexico, and jump in the river if you need to cool off.
Haleakala National Park
Coming in at number 6 is Haleakala National Park, located in beautiful Maui, Hawaii.
There are 2 ways to explore this awesome National Park. If you want to see the best sunrise of your life, grab a permit and drive from sea level to 10,000 ft to the top of the volcano and watch the sunrise above the clouds. It is so incredible to witness!
The second way you can experience Haleakala National Park is by driving the Road to Hana. The Road to Hana is the road that takes you along the coast of Maui. Near the end of the loop, you will enter Haleakala National Park. Stop to see the Oheo Pools and hike the Pipiwai trail to see an awesome bamboo forest and spectacular waterfall.
Before you try hiking in Hawaii, read our tips here! Hiking in Hawaii is a unique hiking experience, so you’ll want to be prepared.
None the less, Haleakala National Park is located in paradise! There’s no way you won’t love it!
Rocky Mountain National Park
Number 5 on our list of the most scenic National Park in the US is Rocky Mountain National Park! We spent 4 days exploring Rocky Mountain National Park and loved every second of it!
Rocky Mountain National Park is home to the highest paved road in the US, at over 10,000 ft high. This is an amazing place to see wildlife! You’ll see plenty of elk, deer, moose and maybe even some bears.
Zach saw his first ever moose at Bierstadt Lake. Rocky Mountain National Park is full of beautiful lakes to explore and numerous hikes to complete. Our favorites were Sprague Lake, Dream Lake, Cub Lake and Emerald lake. But with over 150 lakes in the park, that’s only skimming the surface.
As a bonus right outside of the park is Lily Lake and Lily Mountain you can hike or walk around.
Zion National Park
Coming in at number 4 on our countdown of the most scenic National Parks in the United States is Zion National Park.
Zion National Park was the first National Park we visited together right after our wedding, and it’s the reason we fell in love with National Parks and hiking.
If you are planning a road trip through Utah, make sure Zion National Park is one of your stops! Consider planning an awesome road trip through Utah that takes you to Utah’s mighty five to see all of Utah’s National Parks and some of our favorite places!
Zion has some of the best hikes in the country, and some of our favorite hikes, we’ve ever done. Angel’s Landing is a super unique and challenging hike that requires the use of chains to get to the top. Of course, your effort is rewarded with an epic view of Zion Canyon at the top.
The Narrows and Observation Point are two of our other favorites.
We loved Zion so much that we decided to buy a house nearby that we now rent out on Airbnb! Check it out!
Yosemite National Park
We are down to our bronze medalist. Coming in at number 3 on our countdown of the most scenic National Parks in the United States is Yosemite National Park!
Yosemite Valley is home to the United States largest waterfall called Yosemite Falls. It’s extremely powerful and awesome to see in person.
At the end of the Valley is the Mist Trail, one of our favorite hikes in the entire country. Don’t miss these 4 hikes on your trip to Yosemite!
Also don’t miss driving the south rim where you can drive to Glacier Point and hike to Taft Point and Sentinel Dome. Driving up to these points gets you on top of the mountains that surround Yosemite Valley. Therefore, all of these sites give you an incredible birds eye view of Yosemite Valley below including Half Dome, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls.
Yosemite National Park actually sparked the idea of the National Park system. AKA the idea of protecting public land for its natural beauty! If that doesn’t convince you that you have to see Yosemite, I don’t know what will!
Grand Teton National Park
The silver medal on our countdown of the most scenic National Parks in the United States is Grand Teton National Park.
This National Park is full of wildlife. It’s actually where we saw our first bear on our year touring the country in our camper van. Kind of scared us at first, but he was just taking a snooze in the woods. Besides bears, we saw moose, elk and a fox.
We loved Grand Teton so much that we stayed for over a week and hiked every trail that we could and found so many favorites! Check out our Grand Teton itinerary!!
Grand Teton National Park has some epic lakes to hike to, and if you go early in the morning you’ll be rewarded with a perfect reflection of the Teton mountains on the lake. They are literally perfect!
Some lakes you shouldn’t miss are Jenny Lake, Taggart Lake, and Bradley Lake. And some of our favorite views were at Signal Mountain and Hermitage Point.
Glacier National Park
And finally we’ve made it to our gold medalist! Glacier National Park in Montana comes in at number 1 of the most scenic National Parks in the United States. It has some of the best hiking trails in the US, and even has lots of easy hiking trails everyone can enjoy!
The park is split into a few major sections. The most visited area is called West Glacier. Here you can find Lake McDonald and Avalanche Lake.
On the west side but further north near the Canada border is called Polebridge. This area is the most remote. Most visitors don’t make it here, but we highly recommend you make the trek! It is so worth seeing these views all alone in nature.
On the east side of the park you’ll find the Two Medicine area, St. Mary’s area, and our favorite area, Many Glacier. In Many Glacier you can hike to Iceberg Lake, Cracker Lake, and Grinnell Lake/Grinnell Glacier. If you’ve heard to Moraine Lake and Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Canada, these 3 makes are the US version! Maybe even more beautiful! But less well known because they are harder to get to.
What connects the west and east side of this park? Only, the most beautiful road in the world! While visiting Glacier National Park you must drive the Going-To-The-Sun Road!!
Fun fact… It’s the first international peace park! The park actually goes into Canada making this an International Park. Pretty cool, right?
Get Exploring!
We hope you found some awesome National Parks to add to your travel bucket list. National Parks are great budget friendly destinations that have so much to see and do.
We hope you enjoyed this blog on the most scenic National Parks in the United States! Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. If you have a National Park you think deserves a spot on this list, let us know so we can visit it ASAP!
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