How well do you really know your favorite National Park? Test your knowledge of these incredible places, from Acadia to Zion, with some National Parks trivia.
Some are easy, some are hard, but everyone of these National Parks fun facts is sure to delight and even surprise you.
I’ve broken these National Park trivia questions up into categories to make it easier for you to navigate through them. Each category focuses on a different theme or topic, from National Parks to international travel.
The categories are:
- Can You Name that National Park?
- National Parks History Trivia
- WIldlife, Geology & More National Park Fun Facts
Get ready to test your knowledge and discover some hidden gems with these National Parks trivia questions.
Looking for more outdoorsy trivia? Check out 65 Travel-Themed Road Trip Trivia Questions to Pass the Time on Your Next Drive.
National Parks TriviaCan You Name that National Park?
Ready to test your knowledge with these National Park trivia questions?
This category will challenge your knowledge and perhaps even introduce you to a few hidden gems. Let’s see if you can name that National Park!
1. This national park in Florida is the largest tropical wilderness of any kind in the U.S., and also the third-largest national park in the lower 48 states. What is its name?
Answer: Everglades National Park.
2. Which U.S. national park is known for having the deepest lake in the country?
Answer: Crater Lake National Park in Oregon is known for having the deepest lake in the United States. The lake, also named Crater Lake, has a maximum depth of 1,949 feet (594 meters) and was formed over 7,700 years ago by a collapsed volcano. It is also one of the clearest and purest large bodies of water in the world.
3. The magnificent scenic drive known as “Going-to-the-Sun Road” is located in which National Park?
Answer: Glacier National Park in Montana.
4. Which national park is home to the world’s largest tree by volume, the General Sherman Tree?
Answer: Sequoia National Park in California is home to the General Sherman Tree, which has a volume of over 52,500 cubic feet and stands at 275 feet tall. This massive giant sequoia tree is estimated to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old.
5. Known as “The Natural State,” which famous national park in Arkansas is known for its ancient thermal springs, mountain views, and historic architecture?
Answer: Hot Springs National Park.
6. This Hawaiian National Park is known for its active volcanoes, where visitors can witness lava flow into the ocean. What is the name of this park?
Answer: Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
7. Located on the Upper Peninsula, this national park is known for its untouched wilderness, diverse wildlife, and beautiful lakesides. What is the name of this national park?
Answer: Isle Royale National Park.
8. This national park in North Dakota is the only National Park named after a person, and is famous for its rugged badlands and diverse wildlife. What is the name of this national park?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
9. This is the most visited National Park in the United States. Name that National Park.
Answer: Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park. In 2023 this Park received a staggering 12.9 Million visitors.
10. This Alaska park is the largest National Park in the United States – its the size of Switzerland, Yosemite, and Yellowstone combined!
Answer: Wrangell St.-Elas National Park, located in southeastern Alaska, is a massive 13 million acres, the largest National Park in the United States.
11. Want to ditch the crowds? This National Park sits a mere 30 minutes from nearby Arches National Park, yet only receives less than half the number of annual visitors?
Answer: Canyonlands National Park
12. This National Park is home to the highest concentration of geysers and mammals in the Lower 48 states?
Answer: Yellowstone National Park
13. This National Park in Nevada is home to what is believed to be the oldest trees on earth.
Answer: Great Basin National Park. Some bristlecone pines, located at the park’s higher elevations, have been estimated to live almost 5,000 years old! These trees were seedlings just as humankind was emerging from the Stone Age.
14. This National Scenic Trail passes through 14 states over 2,190 miles and ends (or starts) at Mount Katahdin, Maine.
Answer: The Appalachian National Scenic Trail is perhaps the world’s most famous hike, stretching from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katadhin, Maine it is jointly managed by public and private partnerships, including the National Park Service and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
15. Located off the coast of Miami, what National Park is 95% underwater?
Answer: Biscayne National Park is mostly water, and protects the fragile reefs, open water, mangroves and other ecosystems of Biscayne Bay.
16. Which National Park is home to the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world?
Answer: Arches National Park in Utah.
17. What national park, characterized by massive sand dunes, is located in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado?
Answer: Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
18. Which National Park is home to the greatest concentration of “hoodoo” rock formations on earth?
Answer: Bryce Canyon National Park is famous for the hundreds of red stone spire formations – called hoodoos – found throughout the Park, and particularly in Bryce Canyon Amphitheater.
19. What national park in Alaska features the world’s largest non-polar ice cap and the tallest peak in North America, Mount Denali?
Answer: Denali National Park and Preserve
20. Located in Kentucky, this national park is home to the world’s longest known cave system. What is it called?
Answer: Mammoth Cave National Park.
21. This national park in Colorado is distinguished by its ancient cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Puebloans. What is its name?
Answer: Mesa Verde National Park.
22. This Hawaiian National Park is known for its active volcanoes, where visitors can witness lava flow into the ocean. What is the name of this park?
Answer: Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is home to Kilauea and Mauna Loa, which are two of the world’s most active volcanoes.
23. Which national park in West Virginia, designated and the newest National Park in 2020, is known for its scenic river, rugged canyon, and popular rock climbing spots?
Answer: New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.
National Parks History Trivia
24. The National Park Service is so much more than the 63 National Parks, and includes National Monuments, Historic Parks, Recreation Areas, National Scenic Trails and so much more. How many total National Park Service individual park units currently exist?
Answer: There are 429 National Park Service units throughout the United States, as of May 2024.
25. This National Park, established by President Grant in 1872, was the world’s first National Park, created “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
Answer: Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Montana was the world’s first National Park.
26. There are 63 designated National Parks in the United States, as of 2024. Which US State has the most National Parks?
Answer: California currently has the most National Parks with a total of 9 parks.
27. Gateway Arch National Park, the smallest National Park, commemorates the United States westward expansion in the 19th century and is located in a city known as the “Gateway to the West” What city and state is it located in?
Answer: St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis served as a major departure point for pioneers heading westward during the westward expansion of the United States in the 19th century, earning it the nickname “Gateway to the West.”
28. The only National Park in Ohio is named after THIS river, which was once so polluted it actually caught fire over a dozen times?
Answer: The Cuyahoga River. National uproar over the state of the Cuyahoga River and other midwestern waterways in the 1960s eventually led to the landmark Clean Water Act of 1972 and the creation of the EPA. Cuyahoga Valley National Park – now a haven for biking, birding and boating – is a monument to what’s possible in conservation and environmental activism.
29. How fitting! This National Park was upgraded from National Monument status to a full National Park on Halloween 1994. It is now the largest National Park in California.
Answer: Death Valley National Monument became Death Valley National Park on October 31, 1994, along with Joshua Tree National Park.
30. The Stanely Hotel, located just outside this National Park, inspired Stephen King to write The Shining after he and hi wife spent the night there as the only guests in the hotel….
Answer: Rocky Mountain National Park
31. Capitol Reef National Park in Utah was once a hideout for which notorious bandits, famous for their bank and train robberies?
Answer: Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, along with the Wild Bunch gang were said to use the inhospitable winding canyon and caves of Southern Utah for their hiding spots. Several features in Capitol Reef now bear their names, including Cassidy Arch in Capitol Reef National Park.
Wildlife, Geology & More National Park Fun Facts
32. What is the name of the iconic geyser that erupts every 60-110 minutes in Yellowstone National Park?
Answer: Old Faithful.
33. What is the name of the highest continuously paved highway in the U.S., located in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado?
Answer: Trail Ridge Road, located in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park reaches an elevation of 12,183 feet!
34. This iconic rock formation in Arches National Park is a famous symbol of Utah, and appears on the State’s license plate. What is the name of this formation?
Answer: Delicate Arch.
35. Yosemite National Park, along with nearby Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are all located within the same mountain range? Which mountain range are they in?
Answer: The Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Sierras are a majestic range spanning 430 miles long down the length of California and Nevanda.
36. Big Bend National Park in Texas is named for an enormous “bend” in which river, which runs through the park?
Answer: The Rio Grande
37. This National Park is the only ecosystem in the world where both crocodiles and alligators are naturally found?
Answer: Everglades National Park, in Florida.
38. Hyperion, located in Redwoods National and State Parks in California is the world’s tallest what?
Answer: Hyperion is the world’s tallest living tree, standing at an immense 380 feet tall!
39. The Hoh Rainforest receives over 12 feet of rain each year, and is located within this National Park?
Answer: Olympic National Park.
40. The Florida Reef – the 3rd largest coral reef in the world – stretches 170 miles between these 2 Florida National Parks?
Answer: The Florida Reef stretches between Biscayne National Park, outside Miami, and Dry Tortugas in the Florida Keys.
41. This National Park has more Grizzly bears per square mile than anywhere else in the world, and is home to an annual Fat Bear Week competition.
Answer: Katmai National Park celebrates Fat Bear Week each year, when a large group of Grizzlies gather in the park’s streams and rivers, coinciding with the salmon run, in order to eat as much as possible and fatten up for winter hibernation.
42. Thank to its incredible remoteness, this Texas National Park has the darkest skies of any National Park in the Lower 48.
Answer: Big Bend National Park
43. Supplies to LeConte Lodge, located in THIS National Park, are transported to the hike-in only lodge via llama pack train!
Answer: LeConte Lodge, located on Mount LeConte in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
44. Only 2 National Parks extend to the far reaches above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, name those National Parks?
Answer: Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic both extend beyond the Arctic Circle (66° 34’ N). These remote parks have no roads, no services, and no ranger stations.
45. Death Valley National Park is famous as one of the hottest, driest, and lowest places on earth. What was the scorching temperature recorded here in 1913, which still holds the record as the hottest air temperature recorded on earth?
Answer: U.S. Weather Bureau observers recorded a temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit in Death Valley on July 10, 1913. Although the reliability of the recording is up for debate, Death Valley still holds the records as the hottest reliably measure place on earth, recording 130 degrees in 2021.
National Parks Trivia – Pin This For Later!
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