National Parks

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Barbara J. Feldman

The world's first national park, Yellowstone National Park, was established on March 1, 1872 by President Ulysses Grant. Forty-four years later, on August 25, 1916, the National Park Service was established by Congress. Today there are fifty-eight National Parks in the United States and its territories. How many have you visited?

GORP: US National Parks

5 stars

To access any of GORP's encyclopedic resources, you'll need to register and be at least thirteen-years old. But it's free and worth the effort. Park info is organized by region, as well as activity and feature such as "Top Ten Biking Parks" or "Top Ten Wildlife Viewing Parks." Don't overlook the photo galleries, slide shows, screensavers, downloadable travel catalogs, or the rest of the National Park Top Ten lists.

L.L. Bean Park Search: United States

5 stars

Whether you're looking to canoe in California or picnic in Pennsylvania, L.L. Bean Park Search will help you choose the perfect National Park. With simple check boxes , you can select any combination of geographic region, state, sport, or service (such as nearby lodging or children's activities.) To expand your search internationally, click over to the main Park Search page listed in the left-hand menu.

National Park Service

5 stars

The official National Park Service is my pick of the week because of the variety of its resources. Highlights include a park directory (from Abraham Lincoln Birthplace to Zion National Park), a listing of all the National Park kids and game pages (look for GoZone in Interpretation and Education), the huge Nature & Science section, and Links to the Past (in History & Culture.) Don't miss the Civil War special section, or the multimedia slide shows featured on the front page. The slide shows are huge (5 MB), but there are "dial-up versions" if you run out of patience.

National Parks Conservation Association

5 stars

The National Parks Conservation Association's mission is to protect our national parks by educating politicians and the public about the parks' importance. Visit to explore both the cause (learn about biodiversity and wildlife threats) and the parks (with the park finder or slide show.) My favorite clicks are Park Wildlife, NCPA Magazine (link at the bottom of the page) and the twelve awesome wallpaper photos. It was hard to choose, but I finally settled on Yosemite for my computer desktop.

U.S. National Parks: Preplanned Routes

3 stars

Need a little help mapping out your National Park adventure? Get inspired of one of these six preplanned road trips. They range from a seven-day circle that starts and ends in Las Vegas (1014 miles) to a sixteen-day Northern California tour (1900 miles) Each day-by-day itinerary is hot-linked to the parks visited, where you can explore the park's attractions and what's offered "For Kids."