#NATIONAL PARK ROAD TRIP PLANNER PLUS#

But to truly experience the environment and majesty of places like Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, or Acadia, you’re going to want to plan on several days in many of these places. Sure, you could pull into each and spend a few minutes oohing and ahhing and then get on the road to the next one so you can cross them all off your bucket list. territories.Īs you’re planning your ultimate national parks road trip, you’ll want to consider how much time you want to spend at each of those 51 national parks.

#NATIONAL PARK ROAD TRIP PLANNER PLUS#

There are now 51 national parks in the lower 48 states, plus 12 national parks in Alaska, Hawaii, and other U.S. How many national parks are in the lower 48? You could easily take half a year to drive this road trip, making leisurely stops at the national parks and at other interesting towns and attractions along the way. To properly see the parks, there are many of them you may want to take days, or even a week, to explore and appreciate. It’s also predicted to take about two months “traveling at a breakneck pace.” But that’s really no way to see some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. The route is designed as a loop, so you can pick it up from anywhere along the way and still be able to get to all the parks. The optimal driving route to see some of the most popular US national parks, mapped

Since then, a few more have been added, which we highlight at the end, along with the parks that are not on the mainland but are certainly worth a visit. When Randy designed his trip, there were only 47 national parks in the contiguous U.S. Who knows? By the time you finish, there could be even more! For the purposes of this trip, we only looked at national parks, but there are enough national monuments, national historic parks, national sea-and-lakeshores, and other nationally designated places that you could probably spend several years trying to visit them all. There are, as of 2022, 63 national parks in the United States and its territories. So it only makes sense that he set up a road trip to see every park in the contiguous 48 states. Randy studies computer science and engineering and optimizes road trips on his blog for fun. In honor of the National Park Service’s 100th year of managing the country’s system of amazing national parks – sometimes called “America’s Best Idea” – Randy Olson came up with the ultimate national parks road trip.

National park road trip planner