The Best And Most Underrated National Parks In The U.S
Millions of travelers flock to Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon each year, drawn by iconic landmarks and decades of relentless promotion. Meanwhile, a considerable number of equally spectacular national parks sit largely overlooked, offering genuinely comparable natural beauty without the crowds, traffic and reservation systems that increasingly define America’s most famous parks throughout peak season.
These underrated parks reward travelers willing to put in a bit of extra effort to reach them, whether that means a bush plane, a ferry or simply a long drive down a remote highway. Solitude itself becomes part of the genuine appeal, giving visitors a considerably more intimate connection with landscapes that busier parks can’t offer anymore, regardless of how spectacular those more famous parks genuinely remain.
Gates Of The Arctic Skips Roads And Trails Entirely
Sitting entirely above the Arctic Circle in northern Alaska, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve holds the distinction of having no roads, trails, or facilities of any kind within its considerable boundaries. Visitors reach this genuinely remote wilderness exclusively by bush plane or by hiking in directly from outlying villages, making it one of the least accessible parks in the entire national park system.
Established in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the park protects more than 8 million acres of pristine Brooks Range wilderness, giving it a footprint considerably larger than many entire states found elsewhere in the country. Caribou herds migrate through the park in massive numbers each year, and the complete absence of infrastructure means wildlife throughout the region behaves with a genuinely wild, undisturbed character rarely seen in more developed parks.
Backcountry travel throughout Gates of the Arctic requires genuine wilderness skills, since no marked trails exist to guide hikers between destinations. Visitors navigate purely by topographic map and compass, or increasingly by GPS, across terrain that shifts between tundra, river valleys, and considerable mountain passes throughout the Brooks Range.
Kobuk Valley Guards Massive Arctic Dunes
North of the Arctic Circle in northwestern Alaska, Kobuk Valley National Park protects a genuinely surprising landscape of massive dunes, some reaching more than 100 feet tall, set incongruously against the surrounding Arctic tundra. These Great Kobuk Sand Dunes formed from glacial sediment deposited thousands of years ago, giving the park a genuinely unexpected desert-like character despite its considerable distance from any conventional desert region.
Established in 1980 alongside Gates of the Arctic, Kobuk Valley has no roads or maintained trails and, like its neighboring park, requires bush plane access for the vast majority of visitors. The Kobuk River, which gives the park its name, serves as the primary travel corridor for both wildlife and the small number of visitors who make the journey each year.
Half a million caribou migrate through the valley twice annually, crossing the Kobuk River at specific points that have remained genuinely consistent for thousands of years, based on archaeological evidence found throughout the surrounding region. This migration represents one of the largest wildlife spectacles in North America, though the park’s remote location means few visitors ever witness it firsthand.
Visitors hoping to see the caribou migration specifically should time a trip around the animals’ seasonal movement patterns, since missing this narrow window means encountering a considerably quieter landscape without the massive herds passing through. Summer temperatures atop the dunes can climb considerably higher than the surrounding tundra might suggest, since the exposed sand absorbs and radiates heat far more intensely than the region’s typical Arctic terrain. Onion Portage, a specific site along the Kobuk River, holds considerable archaeological significance, since Indigenous communities have used this exact crossing point to intercept migrating caribou for thousands of years. Sturdy footwear also helps considerably given how difficult walking across loose dunes genuinely proves over longer distances. Insect repellent also helps considerably given how persistent mosquitoes genuinely stay throughout the Arctic summer months.
American Samoa Spans Coral Reefs And Rainforest Peaks
The only US national park located south of the equator, the National Park of American Samoa protects paleotropical rainforest, coral reefs and traditional Samoan village life spread across three separate islands in the South Pacific. Established in 1988, the park represents a genuinely unique partnership between the National Park Service and local Samoan communities, who retain ownership of much of the land the park actually occupies.
Visitors reach the park via a genuinely long flight to Pago Pago, American Samoa’s capital, followed by additional travel to reach the more remote islands of Ta’ū and Ofu, both of which hold considerable portions of the park’s total protected area. This journey’s sheer length and cost help explain why the park ranks among the least-visited units in the entire national park system despite its genuinely spectacular scenery.
Coral reefs surrounding the islands hold considerable biodiversity, rewarding snorkelers and divers with genuinely vibrant underwater ecosystems largely undisturbed by the mass tourism found throughout much of the broader Pacific region. The park’s rainforest-covered volcanic peaks rise directly from the ocean, creating dramatic elevation changes within remarkably short distances from the coastline.