While the U.S. is home to 63 national parks and 429 national park sites (the broader classification also includes everything from preserves and monuments to sites of famous battles), some are much better-known by the wider public than others.
At the end of 2023, the National Park Service (NPS) released numbers showing that Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina, Nevada's Grand Canyon and Utah's Zion were the national parks that saw the most visitors throughout the year — home to animals like the elk, chipmunk and white-tailed deer, the former was the clear front-runner with over 13 million visitors.
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But while the least-visited national parks earned their spots due to their remoteness in places like Alaska and the U.S. territory of Samoa, vacation rental platform Lake.com analyzed park popularity based on both the numbers of visitors and average review rating left on Google (GOOGL) .
The national park that scored the highest has 'over 500,000 acres to explore'
Located in northern Washington at the U.S.-Canadian border with British Columbia, North Cascades National Park won out by a long shot with 1,232 reviews and a 4.8 rating for only 40,351 visitors in 2023. With Lake's rating system, it scored 89.7 on a 100-point scale — outpacing the 86 scored by Michigan's Isle Royale National Park and 84.6 scored by Dry Tortugas National park by Key West.
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"North Cascades, a large blue lake surrounded by forest and snowy mountains in Washington with over 500,000 acres to explore, scored the highest [and so is] the most underappreciated park among visitors last year," reads the report.
While North Cascades is easily accessible with a drive from Seattle, other parks to land in the top 10 include some of the country's most remote — Alaska's Gates of the Arctic National Park was once separately rated as the most expensive to access not because of any entry fee but since getting there requires chartering a flight from Anchorage to a nearby settlement like Kotzebue or Anaktuvuk Pass, staying in designated housing and investing in or renting appropriate arctic gear.
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Remote parks are 'hidden gems' that also come with some dangers
However, the 11,045 people who did get there in 2023 left with a generally positive impression; the 4.5/5 Google rating helped land it in fourth place just above fellow Alaska park Wrangell-St. Elias.
The parks that were designated as "underrated" and "unappreciated" shared certain characteristics like difficulty of access or the lack of promotion due to proximity to a much more popular park — Nevada's Great Basin National Park is often overshadowed by the nearby Grand Canyon while most will associate Texas with Big Bend rather than Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
"There are many hidden gems out there which are just as wonderful as the most-visited spots and that may be better for avoiding crowds," Lake.com CEO David Ciccarelli said in a statement on the findings. "However, while avoiding crowds may appeal to some, it can sometimes leave you more vulnerable as fewer people are around to help should you encounter difficulties."
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