Much of this land is developed into large cities or urban areas like los angeles california and chicago illinois but a large portion of it is protected from development via national parks and other federally protected. List of us states by size the first national park yellowstone was established in 1872 by president grant.
The national park system of the united states is the collection of physical properties owned or administered by the national park service the collection includes all national parks and most national monuments as well as several other types of protected areas of the united states.
Us national parks by size. It is truly astounding when one realizes that the national parks of the united states take up 52 million acres of the land area. While the smallest is 9 times smaller than central park in new york city new york. Largest national parks in the us.
Of these 62 have a national park designation. On august 25 1916 recognizing the importance of national parks president wilson signed an act to create the national park service responsible for managing the national parks and monuments. In many national parks visitors are welcome to camp and enjoy outdoor activities while inside the park.
The largest national park in the united states is the size of maryland. The united states has 62 protected areas known as national parks that are operated by the national park service an agency of the department of the interior national parks must be established by an act of the united states congress a bill creating the first national park yellowstone was signed into law by president ulysses s. The national parks come in all shapes and sizes.
The united states is one of the world s largest countries based on the area with a total of 3 794 100 square miles 9 826 675 sq km spread out over 50 different states. There are currently 419 official national park service units in the united states the district of columbia and u s. While most parks are in the 10s to 100s of thousands of acres range with a few in the millions congress has been more willing lately to ignore size when it comes to establishing national parks.
The national parks exist in many shapes and sizes from tiny gateway arch np missouri to giant wrangell st. This list includes all units managed by the national park system including national parks national monuments national historic sites national battlefields national preserves and other related sites. Grant in 1872 followed by mackinac national park in 1875.
The united states has 12 national parks exceeding 1 million acres in area with 7 of these being found in alaska. Territories as of august 2019. As of january 2020 there are 419 units of the national park system.
Below is a list of national parks in the country starting with the largest park. Elias np in alaska. A list of urban parks by size includes urban parks at least 404 7 hectares 1 000 acres or 4 square kilometres 1 5 sq mi and contained entirely within a locality s municipal or metropolitan boundary.
Rocky mountain national park s trail ridge road is one of the few places in america where you can drive above 12 000 feet elevation a full third of the park is above the tree line.
