In preparation for National Parks Week, Travel Lemming has released data-backed rankings for all 63 national parks in the United States. Indiana Dunes National Park came in at number 28 overall, largely due to data showing it to be the second-worst rated and fourth-most crowded national park in the United States.
Travel Lemming’s national park rankings are based on data analysis that scores each park across seven factors: affordability, accessibility, biodiversity, crowds, reviews, jobs, and weather.
This report reveals the following insights about national parks:
Indiana Dunes was ranked 28th overall and in the top 20 for biodiversity (10th), accessibility (6th), employment (19th), and visitor spending (7th). However, the overall ranking was affected by low review scores and crowding. Indiana Dunes is the seventh most affordable national park in the United States, with an average visitor spending of $50,978,293. Indiana Dunes received his second-worst review score among U.S. national parks, ahead of Kobuck Valley National Park in Alaska. Indiana Dunes National Park has 1,964 species present or probable, making it the 10th most biodiverse national park. Indiana Dunes is America’s fourth busiest national park. In 2023, 15,349.08 acres of land had 2,765,892 recreational visitors, and the average number of visitors per acre was 180.1992,041. Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park received excellent scores for biodiversity, affordability, weather, and accessibility, ranking No. 1 overall for the second year in a row. Surprisingly, the most famous national parks did not perform well in the rankings, mainly due to crowding and affordability factors. Yellowstone ranks slot 16th, Zion National Park ranks 18th, and Yosemite National Park slots 22nd. Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley is the most affordable park, Hawaii’s Haleakala National Park has the best weather, Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains has the most biodiversity, Alaska’s Arctic Gate is the least crowded, and Missouri’s Gateway Arch is the most accessible.
According to the report, the top 10 national parks located in the United States are:
Ranking of National Parks State 1 Shenandoah National Park VA2 Joshua Tree National Park CA3 Olympic National Park WA4 Great Smoky Mountains National Park Tennessee, North Carolina 5 North Cascades National Park WA6 Grand Canyon National Park AZ7 Channel Islands National Park CA8 New River Gorge National Park WV9 Everglades National Park FL10 Redwood National and State Park CA
Travel Lemming writer Meg O’Connor commented: “As a data scientist and a big fan of the outdoors, I love the diversity of the U.S. landscape, flora and fauna. Rankings based on these data highlight just how diverse our national parks really are. I can get a numerical glimpse of what’s going on here, and I feel like I’ll never get tired of it, no matter how many times I live my life or how many times I visit.”
“There are some truly amazing hidden gems in our park system, so these rankings highlight some of the country’s lesser-known but absolutely awe-inspiring parks. I think it will help you collect.”
methodology
National parks were ranked based on seven factors based on the following data:
Crowd – Number of visitors per acre of parkland in 2023. (Source: NPS 2023 recreational visitation data, Wikipedia area data)
Reviews – The average score for visitor reviews is 5 out of 5. (Source: Google Maps, Yelp, TripAdvisor)
Weather – Human comfort-based points system based on monthly temperature, seasonal humidity, precipitation, and number of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. (Source: NOAA, Current Results, American Weather Society, Lightning Safety Council, CDC)
Affordability – Average spending per visitor per park in 2023 (Source: NPS Visitor Spend Effectiveness, NPS 2023 Recreational Visitation Data)
Accessibility – Average driving distance from the nearest FAA major airport and nearest hub airport to the park. (Source: FAA, Google Maps Driving Distances, Major U.S. Airports from Wikipedia) Employment – Total number of jobs associated with each National Park as defined in his 2022 NPS Visitor Spending Impact Report (Source: NPS)
Biodiversity – The number of species considered to be “existing or probably present.” (Source: NPS species list)
The overall ranking was determined by each park’s average ranking across all factors. Please see the methodology section of the report for more information.
About Travel Lemming
Travel Lemming is a popular online travel guide with over 10 million readers annually. We highlight emerging destinations and off-the-beaten-path places and are known for authentic guides created by a team of dozens of local and expert travel creators.
