grand canyon national park Grand Canyon National Park at sunset. (Photo from National Park Service)

America has an incredible array of parks, monuments, preserves, forts, caves, pueblos, battlefields, and missile sites all managed by our National Park Service.

Here are a few interesting facts about those parks.

Most popular, biggest and deepest parks

    1. Yellowstone National Park is not only America's first national park, it is considered the First National Park in the WORLD. This spectacular setting was established in 1872 by Congress.

    2. In 1920, there were 1 million visitors to our national parks.

    3. In 2016, there was a record-setting 331 million visitors.

    4. In 2017, it was reported that 61 of 385 reporting parks set NEW visitation records.

    5. There are actually 417 sites within the National Park Systems.

    6. All those sites cover 84,000,000 acres.

    7. The Most Popular Park in America? Not Yellowstone, Yosemite or the Grand Canyon. It's Great Smoky Mountains National Park with about 11 million visitors per year. Click here to see a list of the Top 20 National Parks in the US by Visitors.

    8. The biggest park - Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Preserve with 13.2 million acres.

    9. The smallest? Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial. It covers .02 acres.

    10. Our parks are home to 247 plants and animals that are considered endangered or threatened.

    11. The biggest creature - the Alaska Peninsula brown bear (technically a brown bear, although actually a member of the grizzly subspecies, but different than inland grizzlies. They can weigh from 800 to 1,200 pounds and stand taller than 9 feet).

    12. The largest living thing - Giant Sequoia trees. The trees in Sequoia National Park can reach as much as 20 feet - in diameter.

      Yellowstone National Park (Photo from NPS/Neal Herbert

    13. Highest point - Denali National Park at 20,310 feet.

    14. Longest cave - Mammoth Cave National Park with 400 miles of mapped caves.

    15. Deepest lake - Crater Lake National Park - 1,943 feet in depth.

    16. Lowest point? Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park - 282 feet below sea level.

    17. The museums store more than 167 million historical items.

    18. There are more than 75,000 archeological sites.

    19. You can hike on more than 18,000 miles of trails.

    20. The NPS offers children a "Junior Ranger" program. More than 660,000 kids have participated.

    21. Children under 16 are admitted free to national parks.

    22. A lifetime pass for people 62 and over is $80 (it was only $10 just last year).

    23. People with permanent disabilities are admitted for free.

    24. There are 22,000 NPS employees to manage all those parks and sites.

    25. Thankfully, there are 339,000 Volunteer-in-Parks who help out, which adds up to about 8 million hours donated every year.

 

Bear Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska (NPS Photo)

Support your national parks - they need it

If you like your parks, be sure to support them. Write your Congressman. The federal budget to support ALL of those 417 sites is just $2.9 billion per year.

Not only is the tourism and health benefits from these parks a huge benefit to this county, but the economic contribution is massive as well.

It is estimated that visitors spent about $18.4 billion at gateway areas while visiting NPS properties. Hotels and restaurants receive the most dollars from visitors.

When you combine salaries, tourism, and other expenditures, it is estimated that our national park service generates $35 billion in economic activity.

So our return on investment is not bad at all. In fact, we should consider allocating more.

Most park superintendents will tell you that money is badly needed not only for general maintenance but for needed repairs and improvements as well.

The record number of people that are visiting our parks are taking a heavy toll on the land and structures.

More than 80 parks had more than 1 million visitors. The Grand Canyon National Park passed the 6 million visitor mark for the first time and Zion National Park moved up to third for most popular parks with more than 4.5 million visitors.

All those people require quite a few rangers, parking spots, roads, concession stands, bathrooms, picnic tables, park benches, trash receptacles, etc.

Keep that in mind next time you visit a national park site. Donate if you can. Buy something in the park store.

And let park employees and volunteers know, you do appreciate all the work they do to protect and maintain these spectacular national treasures.

Note: Aug. 25, 2018, will be the 102nd birthday for our National Park Service.

national park week