CNN —
Yellowstone, Yosemite, and all of Switzerland will be part of America’s largest national park, at 13.2 million acres in Alaska.
And it would take about 2,400 of the smallest of the 61 headliner national parks to fill the pristine mountainous terrain of the largest national parks.
Elsewhere in Alaska, climbing North America’s highest peak takes trained mountaineers two to four weeks round trip, but it is also the hottest place in the world and the lowest and driest place in North America. However, travelers visiting this place are advised to “travel prepared for survival.”
The world’s longest continuous cave system has not yet been fully explored, and may never be.
All these wonders are protected within 419 national parks spanning more than 84 million acres and overseen by the U.S. National Park Service in every state, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands .
CNN investigated 10 record-setting spots that are now protected by laws passed 100 years ago to preserve the nation’s natural and cultural treasures for current and future generations.
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Wrangell St. Elias National Park & Preserve, Alaska
Yellowstone National Park, the world’s first national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is vast.
But at 2.2 million acres, Yellowstone falls short of the nation’s largest national park, the remote Wrangell-St. Louis National Park. Elias National Park & Preserve in Alaska.
It takes 6 Yellowstones to fill Wrangell Street. Elias’ 13.2 million acres.
The Wrangell Street area is also home to the largest glacier system in the United States, nine of the 16 highest mountains in the United States, the largest Piedmont glacier and longest tidal glacier in North America, and the world’s longest inland valley glacier.
More than 25 percent of Wrangell Street Elias is covered by glaciers, which may explain why the park, 320 miles east of Anchorage, welcomed nearly 80,000 visitors in 2018.
The best time to visit is summer. The park is often covered with snow by late September, and the two state highways leading to the park are not regularly maintained during the winter.
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Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
Hot Springs is the smallest of the nation’s 61 national parks.
The park in Arkansas is so small, at just 5,550 acres, that it could fit on Wrangell Street. Elias National Park approximately 2,400 times.
Alaska’s cousin is also likely to melt. That’s because the park’s 47 hot springs come from the 143 degrees Fahrenheit (62 degrees Celsius) Hot Springs Mountain.
The area was first protected as a reservation in 1832 due to the popularity of its therapeutic geothermal springs.
Many businesses have been established around the hot springs to provide access to the hot springs, and city parks protect not only the water but also the historic bath buildings.
Visitors can soak in the traditional Buckstaff Bath (park concession stand) and the more modern Quapaw Bath & Spa. Both are located on Bathhouse Row, as is the park visitor center located in the old Fordyce Bathhouse.
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Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
Dubbed “a magnificent, gloomy, strange place” by early cave guide Stephen Bishop, a slave who eventually won his freedom, the world’s longest cave system lives up to its name.
Mammoth Cave National Park, located in the foothills of south-central Kentucky, has more than 600 miles of explored and mapped caves, with more recorded each year.
Much of the early credit goes to the enslaved and eventually freed African Americans who explored the cave and led tours in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Frozen Niagara is one of the few guided tours that welcomes young children, the elderly, and those who can only walk short distances, but there are also more difficult tours available.
St. Louis Gateway Arch
It is better known as the St. Louis Arch, a 630-foot-tall monument that was once part of the Jefferson National Expansion Monument. This monument was elevated to Gateway Arch National Park in 2018.
And yes, it’s taller than the 555-foot Washington Monument in our nation’s capital.
The Gateway Arch marks St. Louis’ role in its westward expansion in the 19th century.
The park, previously named for President Thomas Jefferson and his role in the expansion of the young nation, is also a memorial to Dred Scott, an enslaved man who unsuccessfully sued for freedom in the Old Courthouse .
World-famous architect Eero Saarinen collaborated with his architect father on several projects and independently entered and won the 1947 commemorative competition. This was his first major success, but of course not the last.
Ride the tram to the top of the Arch Observation Deck for stunning views of the city.
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Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Three Gateway Arches stacked together are the depth of the deepest lake in the United States.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, volcanic eruptions here built Mount Mazama. An eruption about 8,000 years ago removed a large amount of material from the mountain’s inner chambers, causing it to collapse.
The remaining caldera is currently 1,943 feet deep, making it the deepest lake in the United States and the ninth deepest lake in the world.
A 1.8-mile hiking trail descends 700 feet to the lakeshore, the only place where visitors can swim. It’s cold though. Average summer surface temperatures are only 55°F to 60°F (13°C to 16°C). If that’s not cold enough, the average temperature below 300 feet is 38°F (3°C).
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Denali, Denali National Park & Preserve, Alaska
Climbing Denali is not for the faint of heart.
At 20,310 feet tall, North America’s highest peak dwarfs Mount Whitney in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks by 5,900 feet.
While it’s not quite as demanding as hiking the world’s highest peak, Asia’s 29,029-foot Mount Everest, climbing Denali is no small feat.
Hike for days in arctic conditions, carry backpacks weighing up to 70 pounds and pull heavily loaded sleds on expeditions lasting up to four weeks to reach this Alaskan peak. is all natural.
Once known as Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak’s official name was changed back to Denali in 2015, a name held by the Athabascan Indians for thousands of years.
President William McKinley, a native of Ohio, never visited the mountain that most Alaskans, native and non-native, have always known as Denali.
The summit is often hidden by clouds, but can occasionally be seen while driving the 92-mile Denali Park Road, the park’s only road.
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Death Valley National Park, California
The lowest point in North America, 80 meters above sea level, is also the hottest place in the world.
Death Valley National Park set a record of 134°F (57°C) in 1913, and the park hasn’t gotten much colder since then. High temperatures in August can be expected to range from 100 °F to over 120 °F (49 °C), which is normal for this long, narrow valley surrounded by mountain ranges.
And we don’t have enough water. The park is also the driest place in North America, with an average annual rainfall of less than 2 inches, which is much less than other deserts.
Due to the heat, the park may also warn against summer hikes after 10 a.m.
“Be prepared to survive your trip,” the park warns, even before the admission deadline. Visitors heading to Badwater Basin in the Furnace Creek area should pack plenty of water and sunscreen, as the park drops to 82 feet above sea level.
Too extreme? Spring and winter should be pleasant.
General Sherman, Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park, California
One tree stands out among the famous groves of gigantic giant sequoias.
The world’s largest tree by volume (over 52,500 cubic feet), the General Sherman Tree is the centerpiece of Sequoia National Park.
Its circumference on the ground is a whopping 102.6 feet, and its largest branch is approximately 7 feet in diameter.
The General Grant Tree, located approximately 40 miles away in Kings Canyon National Park, is the second largest tree in the world by volume, measuring over 46,600 cubic feet in length. (The two national parks are managed as one.)
They are the largest, but not the tallest. That honor goes to the sequoia tree.
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Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Intrepid drivers can reap rich rewards on Rocky Mountain National Park’s Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the United States.
At 12,183 feet above sea level, this trail meanders through fragile alpine tundra, giving visitors the opportunity to witness a unique ecosystem without the breathtaking nature of high-altitude hiking.
Eleven miles of the 48-mile route traverse vast tracts of land above treeline, with 200 species of ground-covering alpine plants giving way to evergreen forests at 11,500 feet.
At the Alpine Visitor Center, the highest visitor center in the park, yellow marmots, bighorn sheep, pikas, and summer elk go about their business as out-of-breath tourists open their car doors to let in a rush of cold air. are doing.
Temperatures at the rough top of the road are typically 20 to 30 degrees cooler than the bookends of the road in Grand Lake and Estes Park.
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina
The Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone national parks may be the most famous in the United States, but the most popular of the country’s 61 major national parks are located in the Southeast.
Split roughly evenly between North Carolina and Tennessee, this 500,000-acre park is home to flora and fauna found in both the northern and southern states.
Northern animals and plants are found at higher elevations in the park, while southern animals and plants are found at lower elevations.
Many Appalachian Trail hikers walk the border between the two states through trails within the park. Some prefer to enjoy the views from Clingman’s Dome, which is 6,643 feet high, or hike one of his 16 mountains with summits over 6,000 feet.
With over 500,000 acres, there’s plenty of room to spread out. If you’re looking for something lesser-known, explore 419 other National Park Service sites.
