Parks Near Me

America is home to some of the most beautiful parks and natural reserves in the world, but also contains one of the most dangerous. Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is famous for its geyser known as Old Faithful, but it is also infamous for being centred directly on top of the largest super-volcano in North America.

Another world famous park, though not quite as volatile, is New York’s Central Park. Central Park was built in 1857, and is visited by 40 million people each year. This makes it the most visited urban park in the United States. While you may not be close to either of these parks, search “Parks Near Me” to see which ones you can visit!

Parks Near Me – Find it on the Map

Parks Near Me – Parks Trivia

Who Looks After The Parks?

All national parks in the United States are managed by the National Park Service. They also look after some national monuments, conservations and historical properties. The NPS was established in 1916, with two main areas of focus – to preserve the history and ecology of the parks, and also to make them available and accessible to the public. Remember to search “Parks Near Me” in order to find a close one to visit!

How Big Is Central Park?

Central Park is 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide, stretching from 59th Street all the way up to 110th Street. As New York experienced rapid population growth in the early to mid 1800s, the citizens were drawn to the few remaining open spaces and areas. The area of Central Park was surveyed in order to set up a large public area. In fact, one of the surveyor’s bolts is still there today, embedded in a rock and kept as a historical relic.

What’s Interesting About Yellowstone National Park?

Yellowstone National Park is famous for its geysers and mountain ranges, both of which are as a result of volcanic activity underneath the park. In the 1960s, a survey of the park turned up something odd. It had been known for a while that the park was volcanic in nature, but nobody could find the volcano’s crater. Coincidentally, at this time NASA decided to test some new cameras by taking high altitude photos of Yellowstone. The surveyor saw these photos and instantly realised, there was no crater in the park because the entire park was the crater. The last time the volcano had exploded, the resulting crater was nearly 40 miles across, far too large to be seen at ground level.

One interesting event happened in 1959, at a place just outside the park, called Hebgen Lake. There was an earthquake in the middle of the night, and nearly eighty million tonnes of rock was dislodged off the top of the mountain, and moved with such force and speed that it managed to go nearly 400 feet up a neighbouring hill! Oddly, despite this event and other such risks, the park didn’t get permanent seismometers until the 1970s.

Parks Near Me – Parks Facts

The United States Has 59 Parks

There are 59 national parks in the United States. The first national park was Yellowstone, which became a park due to a law signed by President Grant in 1872. All of the national parks put together take up approximately 81,000 square miles. Yellowstone is also often regarded as the first national park in the whole world.
Search “Parks Near Me” in order to find one of the 59 parks around you!

The Largest Park is 14,000 Square Miles

The largest national park is Wrangell – St Elias National Park and Preserve, in Alaska. It takes up a vast 14,000 square miles, which is larger than all of Maryland! The smallest national park, on the other hand, is Hot Springs, in Arkansas. Its area is only 8.6 square miles, which is over 1600 times smaller!

Great Smokey Mountains Are The Most Popular

The most visited park is the Great Smoky Mountains, which are in North Carolina and Tennessee. In 2014, they were visited by over 10 million people. This is even more than the Great Canyon, which is one of the more famous landmarks, especially outside of the US. In the same year, the Grand Canyon came second, with 4.7 million visitors.

Only One State Has No Park

Only one state in the whole US doesn’t have either a national park or national monument – Delaware.

Death Valley Is One Of The Hottest Parks

Death Valley National Park, in eastern California, is well known for being extremely hot. In fact, it is the lowest, driest and hottest area in all of North America. An area of the park called Badwater Basin has the lowest point – 282 feet below sea level. Another area, called Furnace Creek, holds a record for one of the highest air temperatures in the world. On July 10, 1913, the temperature was a scorching 134° F.

There’s Always Something Interesting About The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon has many interesting properties. The rock found near the top is believed to be around 200 million years old, while the rock at the bottom is over 2 billion years old! The canyon is 277 miles long, and at its deepest point is 6000 feet deep – nearly four times as tall as the Empire State Building! The Grand Canyon takes up 1900 square miles of area, which is enough to fit all of Rhode Island inside. Washington DC could fit inside the canyon 25 times over.