Great Smoky Mountains National Park sits on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. Over 12.5 million visitors per year come to enjoy the sprawling landscape, lush forests, wildflowers, streams, rivers, and waterfalls along hiking routes that include the Appalachian Trail.

Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona offers spectacular views of layered bands of red rock revealing millions of years of geological history. Nearly 6 million visitors per year come for the incredible viewpoints along the North and South rims, hiking, camping, and river trips down the Colorado river.

Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado spans the Continental Divide and encompasses protected mountains, forests, and alpine tundra. It’s known for the Trail Ridge Road and the Old Fall River Road, drives that pass aspen trees and rivers. Nearly 5 million people visit every year!

Zion National Park in southwest Utah hosts over 4.5 million people each year. Zion is known for its spectacular scenery, steep red cliffs, and amazing hiking trails. The Virgin River flows through the canyons to the Emerald Pools, waterfalls, and the Zion Narrows famous wading hike.

Yosemite National Park is in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s famed for its giant, ancient sequoia trees, and for Tunnel View, the iconic vista of towering Bridalveil Fall and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome. Over 4.5 million people visit this beautiful park every year!

Yellowstone National Park hosts over 4 million people each year on its nearly 3,500 sq mile wilderness recreation area atop a volcanic hot spot. Mostly in Wyoming, the park spreads into parts of Montana and Idaho too. Yellowstone features many gushing geysers including its most famous, Old Faithful.

Over 3.4 million people visit Acadia National Park annually, a 47,000 acre Atlantic coast recreation area on Maine’s Mount Desert Island. Its landscape is marked by woodland, rocky beaches, and glacier scoured granite peaks such as Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the U.S. East Coast.

Over 3.4 million people visit Grand Teton National Park annually. Located south of Yellowstone National Park and north of the town of Jackson, Grand Teton’s 310,000 acres includes lush valley floors, mountain meadows, alpine lakes, and the rising peaks of the Teton Range.

Olympic National Park is on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest and hosts over 3.2 million visitors each year. The park sprawls across several different ecosystems, from the dramatic peaks of the Olympic Mountains to old-growth forests along the Pacific coastline.

Glacier National Park is in Montana’s Rocky Mountains, with glacier-carved peaks and valleys running to the Canadian border. Over 3 million people visit each year to enjoy more than 700 miles of hiking trails, backpacking, cycling, and camping. Diverse wildlife ranges from mountain goats to grizzly bears.