11 Facts About National Parks

1. In the National Park System, there are 401 sites covering more than 84 million acres of land.
2. There is a stretch of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail that exceeds 2,000 miles and travels from Maine to Georgia within the National Parks.
3. In 2012, more than 280 million people visited the National Parks.
4. The nation’s deepest cave is 1,593 feet deep in New Mexico at Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
5. Species found In National Parks range from grizzly bears to Dall sheep, timber wolves to peregrine falcons, Pacific Boas to gray whales, and many more.
6. In the National Park System there are:

   • 124 historical parks or sites

   • 78 national monuments

   • 59 national parks

   • 25 battlefields or military parks

   • 18 preserves

   • 18 recreational areas

   • 10 seashores

   • 4 parkways

   • 4 lakeshores

   • 2 reserves

7. The National Parks are home and habitat to more than 400 endangered or threatened plant and animal species.
8. There is 1 active volcano, thousands of petrified trees, and almost 300 waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park.
9. Seneca Falls National Park in New York is the location of the First Women’s Right Conventions, which discussed expanding rights of women in the mid-19th century.
10. The largest living things in the world are in National Parks: Sequoia trees and Alaskan brown bears (the world’s largest living carnivores).
11. There are 27,000 historic and prehistoric structures preserved within the National Parks System.

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Sources: Fun Facts, Protecting Our Parks, Plan Your Visit, NPS Overview