This allows you to cover the northern half of the US National Parks during summer in places like Glacier National Park, Mount Rainier, etc. The map also includes park hiking trails and campgrounds to help you plan! National Park Road Trip ItineraryĪt a minimum, you wouldn’t want to take less than three months, in my opinion, to do a trip of this magnitude, as you shouldn’t have to rush through something like this.įor this hypothetical, albeit still rushed timeline, I would consider starting this national park road trip in the Northeast (since that’s where the largest population centers are clustered) and visiting Acadia National Park in Maine as the first stop in mid-July. Interactive National Park Road Trip Mapīe sure to zoom in and explore the interactive road trip map above, you will find additional notes and details about the trip planning process to better help guide your decision-making process. Furthermore, in areas where there aren’t national parks, I tried to route the trip through areas of interest, like the Mississippi Delta for a Blues and Americana trip in order to connect parks or regions. I also made the route go through a number of exciting cities or landmarks, like the Golden Gate Bridge, Las Vegas, or even places like New York City, since an epic American Road Trip would seem almost incomplete without at least passing through some of these places. I’ve also deliberately tried to route the map to visit a number of incredible scenic areas that aren’t necessarily national parks, like Monument Valley or Grand-Staircase Escalante, for instance. White Sands National Park, on the other hand, is included on the main route and is definitely not to be missed! And at the end of 2020, the New River Gorge in West Virginia was designated as a National Park. Indiana Dunes, on the other hand, would be easy to include and is a nature area. That’s one park I would probably skip if your focus is on nature.

Honestly, I’m not really sure why Gateway Arch is a National Park when it is more of a historical monument.

I’ve added an option to the route which would include these new two Midwest parks, but the addition of Gateway Arch makes it difficult to make a nice, clean route… This Epic National Park Road Trip covers terrain in at least 39 of the 50 states, across more than 16,950 miles (27,277 km), and visits 45 of the 51 National Parks located in the Continental USA, but does not specifically include the four island-based National Parks (although you get pretty close and could organize boat transport to reach them), nor the two Midwest national parks.īack in 2019, three national parks were added to the system: Indiana Dunes National Park, Gateway Arch National Park, and White Sands National Park.

Gateway arch national park designated