The Best National Park to Visit with Kids
With 63 national parks in the US, it's difficult to pick just one for that summer road trip with the kids. Which one do you choose?
A recent study by travel site The Family Vacation Guide sought to find America's best national parks for children based on the following family-friendly factors: kid-friendly hotels, walking trails, attractions, and family sightseeing landmarks. The best national park for young travelers? Yellowstone.
The country's first national park has 2.2 million acres of wilderness and more attractions than your typical playground. It features over 10,000 geothermal sites with 500 geysers (that's about half of the world's geysers and the largest concentration of active geysers anywhere). The most famous of these landmarks, and the one that will get the most 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from your kids, is of course, Old Faithful.
In addition, Yellowstone also has 98 kid-friendly trails that will tour your family across breathtaking and diverse scenery like meadows, forests, canyons, rivers, lakes, and hot springs. Expect to encounter wildlife too, specifically, some of the more than 300 bird species, 16 kinds of fish, and over 50 mammals including wolves, bears, elk, bison, and moose.
The site adds: 'There is a total of 78 attractions for your child to enjoy too, meaning you can make multiple trips to this beautiful park without your child getting bored.'
Not far behind in second place is America's most visited park, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with its 75 child-friendly trails, 35 kids attractions, and 14 landmarks. In third place is Rocky Mountain National Park, with its 54 child-friendly trails, 38 kids attractions, and 13 landmarks. The rest of the top 10 include Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, Acadia, Death Valley, Grand Teton, and Mount Rainier.
The least child-friendly national parks, meanwhile, are all located in Alaska, with the bottom five composed of Lake Clark, Kobuk Valley, Gates of the Arctic, Kenai Fjords, and Glacier Bay.
You can check out the full study here.
This post originally ran on Apartment Therapy. See it here: This Is the Best National Park for Kids, According to One Study
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