Olympic National Park ranked #3 and North Cascades National Park ranked #5

information released

In celebration of National Parks Week, Travel Lemming analyzed data to rank all 63 US national parks. Olympic and North Cascades both rank as Top 5 national parks in the country.

Travel Lemming recently released a data-backed ranking of all 63 US national parks. Olympic was crowned the #3 best park in the USA, while North Cascades was ranked #5. Mount Rainier fell behind to slot #16.

Travel Lemming’s national parks ranking is based on an analysis of data scoring each park across seven factors: affordability, accessibility, biodiversity, crowds, reviews, jobs, and weather.

The report revealed the following insights:

  • Olympic National Park scored modestly across all factors. Its highest ranking factor is jobs, where it comes in at #15 and is linked to 2450 jobs across various sectors.
  • North Cascades scored #2 in Affordability, indicating it’s the second-most cost-effective national park in the USA with an average spend of $39.65 per visitor.
  • Mount Rainier also scored well in Visitor Spending, coming in at #3 with an average spend of $40.14 per visitor.
  • North Cascades holds the #2 slot in biodiversity with 3228 species present or probably present in the park. Olympic ranks #18 and Mount Rainier #37 in biodiversity.
  • Mount Rainier has the worst weather of any national park in Washington and ranks #55 in the weather category. North Cascades ranks #38 and Olympic #20.
  • Mount Rainier has the best reviews of Washington’s national parks. It ranks #4 with an average review score of 4.90. North Cascades and Olympic are tied in slot #23 in the reviews category.
  • North Cascades is the least crowded of Washington’s national parks. It ranks #7 for an average of 0.07993764582 visits per acre.

Overall, Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley is the most affordable park, Hawai’i’s Haleakalā National Park has the best weather, Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains is the most biodiverse, Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic the least crowded, and Missouri’s Gateway Arch the most accessible.

The top 10 US national parks in the USA according to the report are:

Ranking

National Park Name

State

1

Shenandoah National Park

VA

2

Joshua Tree National Park

CA

3

Olympic National Park

WA

4

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

TN, NC

5

North Cascades National Park

WA

6

Grand Canyon National Park

AZ

7

Channel Islands National Park

CA

8

New River Gorge National Park

WV

9

Everglades National Park

FL

10

Redwood National and State Parks

CA

Surprisingly, the most renowned national parks did not perform well in the rankings, largely due to the crowds and affordability factors. Yellowstone National Park ranks at position #16,  Zion National Park at slot #18, and Yosemite National Park at slot #22.

Travel Lemming Writer Meg O’Connor commented: “As a data scientist and a huge fan of the outdoors, I love how much variety the United States has in its terrain, flora, and fauna. These data-driven rankings provide a numerical glimpse into how diverse our National Parks really are, and I feel like I could live several lifetimes and never get bored of visiting them.”

“Since we truly have some stunning hidden gems in our park system, I think these rankings will help draw attention to some of the lesser-known but absolutely awe-inspiring parks in this country.”

Methodology

National Parks were ranked on seven factors, based on the following data:

  • Crowds – Number of visits per acre of park land in 2023. (Sources: NPS 2023 Recreation Visit Data, Wikipedia Acreage Data)
  • Reviews – Average visitor review score out of 5. (Sources: Google Maps, Yelp, TripAdvisor)
  • Weather – A human comfort-based points system based on monthly temperature, seasonal humidity, amount of precipitation, and number of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. (Sources: NOAA, Current Results, American Meteorological Society, Lightning Safety Council, CDC)
  • Affordability – Average spending per visitor per park in 2023 (Sources: NPS Visitor Spending Effects, NPS 2023 Recreation Visit Data)
  • Accessibility – Average driving distance to the park from the closest FAA Primary Airport and the closest hub airport. (Sources: FAA, Google Maps Driving Distance, Wikipedia Major US Airports)
  • Jobs – The total number of jobs associated with each national park as defined by the 2022 NPS Visitor Spending Effects Report (Sources: NPS)
  • Biodiversity – Number of species deemed “present or probably present.” (Source: NPS Species List)

Overall rankings were determined by each park’s average ranking across all factors. Further details are available in the report’s methodology section.

About Travel Lemming

Travel Lemming is a popular online travel guide with over 10 million annual readers. It is known for highlighting emerging and off-the-beaten-path destinations, and for the authentic guides produced by its team of dozens of local and expert travel creators.