The United States manages 474 national park sites covering more than 85 million acres across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several territories. This interactive US national parks map plots every site in the National Park System, from iconic national parks like Yellowstone and Grand Canyon to lesser-known national historic sites, national monuments, national seashores, and national recreation areas. Use the type filters to focus on the sites that interest you most, then click any marker for details including entrance fees, activities, and a direct link to the NPS page.

How to Use This Map

Filtering by Designation

The NPS divides its sites into more than 20 designation types. This map groups them into six color-coded categories visible in the toolbar: National Parks (dark green), National Monuments (orange), Historic Sites and Historical Parks (brown), Recreation Areas and Seashores (teal), National Memorials (blue), and Battlefields and Military Parks (deep red). Check or uncheck any category to show or hide those sites. The badge on each filter button updates in real time to show how many sites of that type are currently visible.

Exploring Park Details

Click or hover on any marker to open a popup showing the park’s full name, designation, a brief description, the state or states it spans, its entrance fee (or confirmation that it is free), and a sample of its listed activities. Each popup includes a direct link to the official NPS page where you can find operating hours, directions, visitor alerts, and permit information.

Sharing a View

Use the Share button to copy a link that preserves your current map position, zoom level, and active filters. Send it to a friend or save it for later to return to exactly the same view.

Understanding NPS Designations

The 474 sites in the National Park System carry widely different designations, each reflecting a different type of resource, management mandate, or historical origin. Understanding these categories helps you find the right type of site for your visit.

• National Parks (51): The flagship designation, reserved for areas of exceptional natural significance. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Great Smoky Mountains are national parks. They typically cover large wilderness areas with restricted development.
• National Monuments (83): The largest single category. Presidents can designate national monuments without an act of Congress under the Antiquities Act of 1906. They protect objects of scientific, historic, or prehistoric interest and range from tiny archaeological sites to vast landscapes like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
• National Historic Sites and Historical Parks (142 combined): Sites directly associated with events, people, or places significant to American history. Independence Hall, Ford’s Theatre, and the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park fall in this group.
• National Recreation Areas (16): Often centered on reservoirs or urban green spaces managed for water-based recreation. Lake Mead, Golden Gate, and Cuyahoga Valley are examples.
• National Memorials (17): Sites commemorating a historical person or episode, not necessarily where the event occurred. The Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and USS Arizona Memorial are national memorials.
• National Battlefields and Military Parks (20 combined): Sites preserving American battlegrounds from the Revolutionary War through World War II. Gettysburg, Antietam, and Chickamauga are in this group.
• National Seashores and Lakeshores (13 combined): Coastal and freshwater shoreline areas managed for public recreation and resource protection. Cape Cod, Cape Hatteras, and Sleeping Bear Dunes are examples.

Which States Have the Most NPS Sites

The District of Columbia leads with 36 NPS sites within its small footprint, reflecting its dense concentration of memorials, historic sites, and monuments. California follows with 34 sites, the most of any state, spanning habitats from redwood coast to desert floor. Virginia and New York each manage more than 30 sites, anchored by Revolutionary War and Civil War battlegrounds and significant urban historic parks.

Among western states, mountain-rich states like Arizona (25 sites), Utah (17), Colorado (17), and Washington (17) concentrate national parks and monuments in high-elevation terrain. Alaska holds 19 NPS sites covering enormous roadless wilderness areas, including eight national parks that together protect more land than the entire state of California. Explore our US federal public lands map to see how NPS land compares to Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service territories in your region.

National Parks and Outdoor Recreation

More than 325 million visits are recorded across the National Park System each year. National parks are the anchor of many outdoor trips, but the surrounding public lands often offer uncrowded alternatives for camping, hiking, and wildlife viewing. Our US campgrounds map plots more than 4,500 federal campgrounds including NPS campgrounds, making it easy to find a site near the park you plan to visit. For trail access beyond park boundaries, the National Forest Roads and Trails map shows more than 70,000 trail segments on adjacent Forest Service land.

Rivers running through or alongside national parks often carry their own federal protection. Our US Wild and Scenic Rivers map shows all 249 designated river segments, many of which flow through or border NPS units. For boundary data you can download and use in your own GIS project, the USA Parks boundary explorer provides NPS and state park polygons in GeoJSON, KML, and GPX formats. If you want to understand broader public land access rules, the US Public Access Areas map uses PAD-US data to show open, restricted, and closed zones across every type of federally managed land.

Data Sources and Limitations

Park locations and attributes are drawn from the NPS API maintained by the National Park Service. The API provides official park coordinates, designations, descriptions, entrance fee data, and activity lists for all 474 current NPS units. Data is accurate as of May 2026.

A small number of NPS sites span multiple states; those sites appear once on the map and are listed under all relevant states in the popup. Entrance fee data reflects the standard adult per-person or per-vehicle fee from the API and may not reflect all fee categories or seasonal variations. Always verify fees on the official NPS website before your visit.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many national parks are in the United States?

There are 51 sites formally designated as national parks, but the broader National Park System includes 474 units across more than 20 designation types, including national monuments, national historic sites, national recreation areas, national seashores, and national memorials.

Which state has the most national parks?

California has the most formally designated national parks of any state, with nine: Channel Islands, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Kings Canyon, Lassen Volcanic, Pinnacles, Redwood, Sequoia, and Yosemite. Alaska has eight national parks but holds more total NPS acreage than any other state.

Are all national park sites free to visit?

No. About 130 NPS sites charge an entrance fee. The most visited national parks typically charge to per vehicle. Most national monuments, memorials, historic sites, and trails are free. An America the Beautiful annual pass () covers entrance fees at all fee-charging NPS sites for one year.

What is the difference between a national park and a national monument?

National parks are established by an act of Congress and must meet the highest bar of natural or cultural significance. National monuments can be designated by presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act, which allows faster protection of significant resources. National monuments often have fewer visitor services and restrictions than national parks but protect equally important land.

How is this map different from other NPS maps?

This map shows all 474 NPS units as individual point markers color-coded by designation type. It is built on live NPS API data and lets you filter by designation, share your view, and link directly to each park’s official NPS page. For downloadable park boundary polygons, use the USA Parks boundary explorer. For all federally managed land including BLM and Forest Service, see the US federal public lands map.