What Do You Know About National Parks?

Article April 21, 2018 Read time: 3 min

Projects: Restore America's Parks

The country is celebrating National Park Week from April 21 to 29. How much do you know about some of the most unique and treasured places in America?

National Park Service (NPS) sites recorded how many visits in 2017? (Rounded to the closest million)
1. 56 million
2. 180 million
3. 331 million
  NPS sites saw nearly 331 million visits in 2017 —just 90,000 short of 2016’s record-breaking year. The most popular was the Blue Ridge Parkway, which logged 16 million visits.
4. 603 million
Which of the following claims to fame is true of our national parks?
1. Home to the highest point in North America
2. Home to the longest cave system known to the world
3. Home to America’s deepest lake
4. All of the above
  The National Park System is home to the highest point in North America—Denali (elevation 20,130 feet), the longest cave system in the world, in Mammoth Cave National Park (with more than 400 mapped miles of caves), and the nation’s deepest lake—Crater Lake (depth 1,943 feet).
Which park was the first designed to protect man-made structures, not just natural features and land?
National Park Service
1. Guadalupe Mountains National Park
2. Dry Tortugas National Park
3. Mesa Verde National Park
  Mesa Verde National Park preserves Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings that were built more than 700 years ago. The park was established to “preserve the works of man,” and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
4. Voyageurs National Park
There are 417 sites in the National Park Service system. How many charge an entrance fee?
1. 117
  One-hundred and seventeen sites charge entrance fees. These fees help staff protect park resources and maintain visitor amenities.
2. 263
3. 386
4. 417
This is the least visited national park, perhaps because no trails or roads lead to it, requiring visitors to fly or hike in.
National Park Service
1. Congaree National Park
2. North Cascades
3. Black Canyon of the Gunnison
4. Gates of the Arctic
  North of the Arctic Circle, Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve is home to glacier-carved valleys, soaring mountain peaks, and an abundance of wildlife, but no roads or trails. Visitors to this park must hike or fly in to enjoy the solitude of its vast wilderness. The park recorded only 11,177 visitors in 2017, the fewest of the nation’s 59 national parks.
How much does the National Park Service estimate it would cost to address needed repairs at all of its sites?
1. $116,000
2. $11.6 million
3. $11.6 billion
  According to FY2017 data, the National Park Service estimates that it needs $11.6 billion to address deferred maintenance. This includes crumbling roads and bridges, deteriorating historic buildings, impassable hiking trails, and failing electrical, water, and sewage systems.
4. $11.6 trillion
Two national parks lie entirely north of the Arctic Circle: The Gates of the Arctic, and which other one?
National Park Service
1. Kobuk Valley National Park
  While there are four National Park Service sites that lie entirely north of the Arctic Circle, only two are actually national parks: Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Kobuk Valley National Park. The other two sites are not national parks, because they have other designations. They are Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve.
2. Denali National Park
3. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve
4. Katmai National Park and Preserve
Which is the only park completely closed in the winter?
National Park Service
1. Isle Royale National Park
  Visitors to Isle Royale, an island in Lake Superior just south of the Canadian border, must arrive by seaplane or boat from the shores of Minnesota or Michigan. Known for its rugged landscape and icy winters, it is the only national park to completely close for the season.
2. Glacier Bay National Park
3. Lake Clark National Park
4. Kenai Fjords National Park
As much as we love public transit, we’d rather take this “subway.” Which park is home to this stunning trail?
Julius Schlosburg
1. Carlsbad Caverns National Park
2. Capital Reef National Park
3. Mammoth Cave National Park
4. Zion National Park
  The scenic canyons at Zion National Park lead hikers through mazes of sandstone. Hiking the Subway Trail requires some technical expertise, but rewards the adventurous with a breathtaking journey through the Left Fork of North Creek.
This president is the only one to have served as a park ranger. He worked at Yellowstone National Park, where one of his assignments was as an armed guard on a truck used by rangers to feed bears.
1. Gerald Ford
  Gerald Ford described his time as a seasonal ranger at Yellowstone National Park as “one of the greatest summers of my life.” As president, Ford added 18 new units to the National Park System, including Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area in Ohio and Valley Forge National Historical Park in Pennsylvania.
2. Teddy Roosevelt
3. Jimmy Carter
4. Lyndon B. Johnson