US National Parks Quiz
Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, Acadia: 15 questions on the parks that make up America's best idea.
Which park, created by Congress in 1872, was the first national park in the United States?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Yellowstone
President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act on March 1, 1872, creating the first national park in the United States and widely regarded as the first in the world.
Yellowstone holds about half of the world's active geysers, and Old Faithful erupts roughly every 60 to 110 minutes.
Grand Canyon National Park is in which state?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Arizona
The Grand Canyon lies entirely in northern Arizona, where the Colorado River has cut a gorge about 277 miles (446 km) long and more than a mile (1.6 km) deep.
Theodore Roosevelt protected the canyon as a national monument in 1908, and it only became a full national park in 1919.
Half Dome and El Capitan are famous granite landmarks in which national park?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Yosemite
Both rise from Yosemite Valley in California's Sierra Nevada. El Capitan's sheer face climbs about 3,000 feet (900 m) from the valley floor and is a world famous big wall climbing destination.
John Muir's writing about Yosemite helped persuade Congress to make it a national park in 1890.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the border between which two states?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Tennessee and North Carolina
The park is split roughly evenly between Tennessee and North Carolina along the crest of the Smokies. Its two main gateway towns are Gatlinburg in Tennessee and Cherokee in North Carolina.
Unlike most big parks it charges no entrance fee, a condition attached to the land when the states handed it over in the 1930s.
Which Florida national park protects the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Everglades
Everglades National Park covers about 1.5 million acres of sawgrass marsh, mangroves and slow moving water at the southern tip of Florida, and is the only place where alligators and crocodiles live side by side.
The Everglades is really a very wide, very shallow river, sometimes called the River of Grass, flowing south from Lake Okeechobee.
The General Sherman tree, the largest tree on Earth by volume, grows in which national park?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Sequoia
General Sherman stands in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in California. It is about 275 feet (84 m) tall and has a trunk volume of roughly 52,500 cubic feet (1,487 cubic metres).
Coast redwoods grow taller than giant sequoias, but sequoias are far bulkier, which is why General Sherman wins on volume.
Which national park recorded the highest air temperature ever measured on Earth, 134°F (56.7°C), in 1913?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Death Valley
The reading was taken on July 10, 1913 at Greenland Ranch, now Furnace Creek, in Death Valley. The park is also the driest and lowest place in North America.
Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States at about 3.4 million acres (13,800 square km).
Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States, is the centrepiece of a national park in which state?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Oregon
Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon surrounds a lake 1,949 feet (594 m) deep that fills the caldera left when Mount Mazama collapsed about 7,700 years ago.
The lake has no rivers flowing in or out, so it is fed only by rain and snow, which is why its water is so clear and blue.
Delicate Arch, the sandstone span that appears on Utah license plates, stands in which national park?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Arches
Delicate Arch is the best known of more than 2,000 natural stone arches in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. The freestanding arch is about 52 feet (16 m) tall.
Utah has five national parks, nicknamed the Mighty 5: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion.
Which national park is famous for its hoodoos, the tall thin rock spires that fill its natural amphitheaters?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon in southern Utah holds the largest concentration of hoodoos on Earth. Frost wedging and rain carve the soft limestone of the Claron Formation into spires that glow orange and pink.
Despite its name, Bryce Canyon is not a true canyon but a series of amphitheaters eroded into the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.
Which national park protects the longest known cave system in the world?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave in Kentucky has more than 426 miles (686 km) of surveyed passages, more than one and a half times the length of the next longest system, and new sections are still being mapped.
Mammoth Cave was a tourist attraction long before it became a national park in 1941, with guided tours running since the early 1800s.
Which is the largest national park in the United States by area?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Wrangell-St. Elias
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska covers about 13.2 million acres (53,000 square km), an area larger than Switzerland and more than six times the size of Yellowstone.
It contains Mount St. Elias, which at 18,008 feet (5,489 m) is the second highest peak in the United States after Denali.
Which state has the most national parks?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
California
California has nine national parks, from Redwood in the north to Joshua Tree in the south. Alaska is second with eight, Utah has five and Colorado has four.
California's Pinnacles, upgraded from a national monument in 2013, protects one of the release sites for the endangered California condor.
Which was the first national park established east of the Mississippi River?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Acadia
Acadia on Maine's Mount Desert Island became Lafayette National Park in 1919, the first east of the Mississippi, and took its current name in 1929. Shenandoah and the Smokies followed in the 1930s.
Cadillac Mountain in Acadia, at 1,530 feet (470 m), is the tallest point on the eastern seaboard of the United States.
Which site became the 63rd and newest US national park when it was redesignated in December 2020?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
New River Gorge
New River Gorge in West Virginia was upgraded from a national river to a national park and preserve on December 27, 2020. White Sands had become the 62nd park the year before.
The New River Gorge Bridge is closed to traffic only once a year, on Bridge Day in October, when BASE jumpers leap from its deck.
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All Geography quizzes →About the US National Parks Quiz
America's national parks range from the geysers of Yellowstone, the world's first national park, to the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon and the swamps of the Everglades. Together they draw hundreds of millions of visits a year, and the biggest of them, Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska, is larger than Switzerland.
These 15 questions cover the headline parks everyone has heard of, the states they sit in and the record holders: the hottest, the deepest, the oldest and the newest. The first few are warm ups, the later ones reward people who have actually worn out some hiking boots. It suits road trippers, park passport collectors and anyone planning their next big American trip.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
How many national parks are there in the United States?
There are 63 congressionally designated national parks, the newest being New River Gorge in West Virginia, which was upgraded from a national river in December 2020.
Which state has the most national parks?
California leads with nine, including Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Redwood, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Channel Islands, Lassen Volcanic and Pinnacles. Alaska is second with eight.
Is this quiz suitable for kids?
The first half is gettable for older children who have visited a park or two. The later questions on cave lengths, park sizes and founding dates are aimed at adults and park enthusiasts.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Which park, created by Congress in 1872, was the first national park in the United States?
Yellowstone President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act on March 1, 1872, creating the first national park in the United States and widely regarded as the first in the world. Yellowstone holds about half of the world's active geysers, and Old Faithful erupts roughly every 60 to 110 minutes. - Grand Canyon National Park is in which state?
Arizona The Grand Canyon lies entirely in northern Arizona, where the Colorado River has cut a gorge about 277 miles (446 km) long and more than a mile (1.6 km) deep. Theodore Roosevelt protected the canyon as a national monument in 1908, and it only became a full national park in 1919. - Half Dome and El Capitan are famous granite landmarks in which national park?
Yosemite Both rise from Yosemite Valley in California's Sierra Nevada. El Capitan's sheer face climbs about 3,000 feet (900 m) from the valley floor and is a world famous big wall climbing destination. John Muir's writing about Yosemite helped persuade Congress to make it a national park in 1890. - Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the border between which two states?
Tennessee and North Carolina The park is split roughly evenly between Tennessee and North Carolina along the crest of the Smokies. Its two main gateway towns are Gatlinburg in Tennessee and Cherokee in North Carolina. Unlike most big parks it charges no entrance fee, a condition attached to the land when the states handed it over in the 1930s. - Which Florida national park protects the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States?
Everglades Everglades National Park covers about 1.5 million acres of sawgrass marsh, mangroves and slow moving water at the southern tip of Florida, and is the only place where alligators and crocodiles live side by side. The Everglades is really a very wide, very shallow river, sometimes called the River of Grass, flowing south from Lake Okeechobee. - The General Sherman tree, the largest tree on Earth by volume, grows in which national park?
Sequoia General Sherman stands in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in California. It is about 275 feet (84 m) tall and has a trunk volume of roughly 52,500 cubic feet (1,487 cubic metres). Coast redwoods grow taller than giant sequoias, but sequoias are far bulkier, which is why General Sherman wins on volume. - Which national park recorded the highest air temperature ever measured on Earth, 134°F (56.7°C), in 1913?
Death Valley The reading was taken on July 10, 1913 at Greenland Ranch, now Furnace Creek, in Death Valley. The park is also the driest and lowest place in North America. Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States at about 3.4 million acres (13,800 square km). - Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States, is the centrepiece of a national park in which state?
Oregon Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon surrounds a lake 1,949 feet (594 m) deep that fills the caldera left when Mount Mazama collapsed about 7,700 years ago. The lake has no rivers flowing in or out, so it is fed only by rain and snow, which is why its water is so clear and blue. - Delicate Arch, the sandstone span that appears on Utah license plates, stands in which national park?
Arches Delicate Arch is the best known of more than 2,000 natural stone arches in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. The freestanding arch is about 52 feet (16 m) tall. Utah has five national parks, nicknamed the Mighty 5: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion. - Which national park is famous for its hoodoos, the tall thin rock spires that fill its natural amphitheaters?
Bryce Canyon Bryce Canyon in southern Utah holds the largest concentration of hoodoos on Earth. Frost wedging and rain carve the soft limestone of the Claron Formation into spires that glow orange and pink. Despite its name, Bryce Canyon is not a true canyon but a series of amphitheaters eroded into the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. - Which national park protects the longest known cave system in the world?
Mammoth Cave Mammoth Cave in Kentucky has more than 426 miles (686 km) of surveyed passages, more than one and a half times the length of the next longest system, and new sections are still being mapped. Mammoth Cave was a tourist attraction long before it became a national park in 1941, with guided tours running since the early 1800s. - Which is the largest national park in the United States by area?
Wrangell-St. Elias Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska covers about 13.2 million acres (53,000 square km), an area larger than Switzerland and more than six times the size of Yellowstone. It contains Mount St. Elias, which at 18,008 feet (5,489 m) is the second highest peak in the United States after Denali. - Which state has the most national parks?
California California has nine national parks, from Redwood in the north to Joshua Tree in the south. Alaska is second with eight, Utah has five and Colorado has four. California's Pinnacles, upgraded from a national monument in 2013, protects one of the release sites for the endangered California condor. - Which was the first national park established east of the Mississippi River?
Acadia Acadia on Maine's Mount Desert Island became Lafayette National Park in 1919, the first east of the Mississippi, and took its current name in 1929. Shenandoah and the Smokies followed in the 1930s. Cadillac Mountain in Acadia, at 1,530 feet (470 m), is the tallest point on the eastern seaboard of the United States. - Which site became the 63rd and newest US national park when it was redesignated in December 2020?
New River Gorge New River Gorge in West Virginia was upgraded from a national river to a national park and preserve on December 27, 2020. White Sands had become the 62nd park the year before. The New River Gorge Bridge is closed to traffic only once a year, on Bridge Day in October, when BASE jumpers leap from its deck.
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