Grundstenen til den første nationalpark, ikke bare i USA, men i hele verden, Yellowstone National Park i Wyoming, blev lagt i 1872. Det blev begyndelsen til det, som er blevet kaldt for USA’s bedste idé eller bedste opfindelse.
Nedenfor kan du finde en oversigt over de 63 nationalparker, som ligger spredt udover USA. Nationalparkerne dækker over områder som det bjørne rige Brooks Falls i Katmai National Park i Alaska over tørre, ørkenagtige Death Valley i Californien til de store sumpede vådområder i Everglades National Park i Florida og charmerende træ-og klippeskærsrige Acadia ved kysten i Maine.
Nationalparkerne findes i mange amerikanske delstater, men dog med en klar overvægt i det vestlige USA og i Alaska. Californien er med 9 nationalparker den delstat med flest nationalparker, derefter følger Alaska med 8 og Utah med 5.
I de 48 sammenhængende delstater er der 52 nationalparker, mens der er 8 i Alaska og 3 i Stillehavet:
1. Acadia, 2. Arches, 3. Badlands, 4. Big Bend, 5. Biscayne, 6. Black Canyon of the Gunnison, 7. Bryce Canyon, 8. Canyonlands, 9. Capital Reef, 10. Carlsbad, 11. Channel Islands, 12. Congaree, 13. Crater Lake, 14. Cuyahoga Valley, 15. Death Valley, 16. Dry Torgas, 17. Everglades, 18. Gateway Arch, 19. Glacier, 20. Grand Canyon, 21. Grand Teton, 22. Great Basin, 23. Great Sand Dunes, 24. Great Smoky Mountains, 25. Guadalupe Mountains, 26. Hot Springs, 27. Indiana Dunes, 28. Isle Royale, 29. Joshua Tree, 30. Kings Canyon, 31. Lassen Vulcanic, 32. Mammoth Cave, 33. Mesa Verde, 34. Mount Rainer, 35. New River Gorge, 36. North Cascades, 37. Olympic, 38. Petrified Forest, 39. Pinnacles, 40. Redwood, 41. Rocky Mountain, 42. Saguaro, 43. Sequoia, 44. Shenandoah, 45. Theodore Roosevelt, 46. Virgin Islands, 47. Voyageurs, 48. White Sands, 49. Wind Cave, 50. Yellowstone, 51. Yosemite, 52. Zion.
Alaska
53. Denali, 54. Gates of the Arctic, 55. Glacier Bay, 56. Kenai Fjords, 57. Katmai, 58. Kobuk Valley, 59. Lake Clark, 60. Wrangell-St. Elias.
Stillehavet
61. American Samoa, 62. Haleakala, 63. Hawaii Volcanoes.
USA’s 63 nationalparker
Her får du en liste over alle USA’s nationalparker fordelt på områder.
Alaska
Denali National Park
Gates of the Arctic National Park
Glacier Bay National Park
Katmai National Park
Kenai Fjords National Park
Kobuk Valley National Park
Lake Clark National Park
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
Amerikansk Samoa
National Park of American Samoa
Arizona
Grand Canyon National Park
Petrified Forest National Park
Saguaro National Park
Arkansas
Hot Springs National Park
Californien
Channel Islands National Park
Death Valley National Park
Joshua Tree National Park
Kings Canyon National Park
Lassen Volcanic National Park
Pinnacles National Park
Redwood National Park
Sequoia National Park
Yosemite National Park
Colorado
Black Canyon National Park
Great Sand Dunes National Park
Mesa Verde National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park
De Amerikanske Jomfruøer
Virgin Islands National Park
Florida
Biscayne National Park
Dry Tortugas National Park
Everglades National Park
Hawaii
Haleakala National Park
Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park
Indiana
Indiana Dunes National Park
Kentucky
Mammoth Cave National Park
Maine
Acadia National Park
Michigan
Isle Royale National Park
Minnesota
Voyageurs National Park
Missouri
Gateway Arch National Park
Montana
Glacier National Park
Nevada
Death Valley National Park
Great Basin National Park
New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
White Sands National Park
North Carolina
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina og Tennessee)
North Dakota
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Ohio
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Oregon
Crater Lake National Park
South Carolina
Congaree National Park
South Dakota
Badlands National Park
Wind Cave National Park
Tennessee
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina og Tennessee)
Texas
Big Bend National Park
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Utah
Arches National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Canyonlands National Park
Capitol Reef National Park
Zion National Park
Virginia
Shenandoah National Park
Washington
Mount Rainier National Park
North Cascades National Park
Olympic National Park
"National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."
Wallace Stegner (1909 – 1993)
amerikansk forfatter, historiker og miljøforkæmper.