You want to take your kids on an unforgettable adventure in one of our spectacular national parks—but which one? In his new book, 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, editor, author, and dad Keith Bellows names the best parks for families—and much more. See his 11 park picks below, then get more expert tips and travel destinations in the book.
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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming/Montana/Idaho
Photograph by Robbie George, National Geographic
"National parks are the best idea we ever had,” wrote American novelist and environmentalist Wallace Stegner. “Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”
When President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill creating Yellowstone Park in 1872, it became the world’s first national park—and a boon to family explorers past and present. Now the National Park System includes 397 areas (58 designated as “national parks”), encompassing more than 84 million acres. But Yellowstone, whose two-million-plus remote and rugged acres encompass half of Earth’s geothermal features, stands as the first—an enduring testament to the mission statement etched on the giant stone Roosevelt Arch at the park’s North Entrance: “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
“Yellowstone always gives me hope that this country is capable of protecting an area of the park’s size, because we did it at one point. Ask kids to imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t,” says David Gafney, a former Yellowstone interpretive ranger, a seasonal interpretive ranger, and author of Yellowstone, Grand Loop Drive Interpretive Road Guide. Spanning Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, “it’s a high volcanic plateau that is inspiring because of its size, wildness, and location. Kids can look in all directions and be surrounded by higher mountains, and everywhere they turn there is tremendous diversity—wildlife, geysers, and geothermals, a petrified forest, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.”
Because Yellowstone is so huge, Gafney suggests breaking up the visit into kid-captivating daily chunks, such as a day each for mammals, thermal features, and waterfalls. This is similar to the format followed by Yellowstone for Families, a three-day, small-group program offered by the nonprofit Yellowstone Association. The association also has naturalists for hire who can re-create some or all of the program’s activities for individual families.
“A lot of people think Yellowstone is only Old Faithful, wolves, and bison, and that’s all their kids get to see,” says the association’s Rebecca Kreklau. “Participating in a program created specifically for kids opens up the whole family’s perspective, and lets everyone experience everything that is out there without wearing them out. We go out wildlife-watching and have laser guns so kids can take temperatures of thermal features. We show younger kids how to track earthworms, and show older kids some of [painter] Thomas Moran’s work to help them see how his art helped to create this park.”
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Arches National Park, Utah
Photograph by Philip and Karen Smith, Getty Images
"This park is way better than any video game,” says 13-year-old Alex Schaefer as he clambers up the base of Double Arch, one of more than 2,000 sandstone arch formations that form the filigreed lanscape of Arches National Park. "I really like that I can get so close to—and even sit under—many of the arches. And the sandstone rock is so smooth and curvy that it makes climbing super fun.”
These words—music to many parents’ ears—sum up what thousands of visitors experience each year at this most interactive of national parks.
“You really can’t beat Arches for broad appeal,” says Alex’s father, Wolfgang Schaefer. “The rock formations here—arches, windows, fins, spires, buttes, towers, domes—and the rich colors of the sandstone make it a visual and recreational wonderland. It’s a video game come to life.”
Five miles north of the adventure town of Moab, in eastern Utah—and just 40 miles from vast Canyonlands National Park—Arches was born of a unique geology that, eroded by winds, rains, and ice, has yeilded the richest concentration of arch and "window" formations in the world. Headliners include Double Arch, two immense arches that share a common support column; Landscape Arch, one of Earth’s longest arches; Balanced Rock, a boulder balanced at an unlikely angle on a stone spire; a congregation of arches known as Devils Garden; and Fiery Furnace, a warren of passageways between stone fins and walls that plunk you right into your own action adventure (and are best explored on a guided hike).
The superstar of them all? Delicate Arch (pictured), a monolith rising at the center of its own natural amphitheater that may be the most photographed arch on the planet and is best viewed at dawn or sunset, when the sun’s rays seem to fire up the salmon-hued sandstone from within.
“Compared to the mega parks—Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and nearby Canyonlands—Arches is so easy and accessible,” says Schaefer. “The 36-mile scenic loop road takes you to the main sights and trailheads, and many of the trails are the perfect length—less than a mile—for kids.”
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Photograph by Ian Shive, Tandem
Petrified Forest National Park is truly the land before time—tell the kids that the fossilized plants and animals found here date back to pre-dinosaur days.
Stretching north and south between Interstate 40 and Highway 180 in northeastern Arizona, the area contains one of the world’s largest concentrations of petrified wood, 200-million-year-old fossils, and archaeological objects documenting 13,000 years of human history.
It’s also one of the most convenient places to walk with kids into the Painted Desert badlands—the erosion-striped mudstone and clay slopes, mesas, and buttes located primarily within the Navajo Nation.
Although striking, the badlands backdrop quickly can become boring to a kid watching the view roll by from the passenger seat. It’s only by stepping into the “forests” (large accumulations of petrified logs), and seeing and feeling the petrified material, that kids realize the “wood” they saw from a distance is mostly silica—rainbow-colored quartz. Park paleontologist Bill Parker suggests visiting the most kid-friendly of the park’s “forests”—Crystal Forest, accessible via a short hike. “The logs and views are most spectacular here, and kids can get really close to the wood,” he says.
“Touching the petrified wood and seeing the other fossils is an important part of the process of understanding. It helps kids realize that the Earth and life in general has changed significantly through the eons. Petrified Forest is one place where they can step back in time and experience this firsthand.”
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Great Sand Dunes, Colorado
Photograph by Thomas Peipert, AP
There’s no mystery to what kids will love about Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. It’s the sand, sand, and more sand, including North America’s highest dunes—650-foot High Dune and 750-foot Star Dune.
Dirk Oden, a local parent, teacher, and former seasonal interpretive ranger who leads youth group trips to remote areas of the 100,000-acre park, suggests using the sculpted sand behemoths as a magnet to draw in kids to all the ecological zones represented here—alpine tundra, desert, grasslands, wetlands, dunes, forests, alpine lakes, and 13,000-foot peaks.
“Great Sand Dunes is an amazing place. The best time to go is early June, when Medano Creek is running wide yet shallow through the main access area—the creek dries up later in the summer,” Oden explains. “Catch a children’s program to get an introduction to this wonder and then let your children play and explore in and along the creek. Build sand sculptures and chase fingers of the creek as they mysteriously advance and retreat, or explore further, making sure to take the time to roll down at least one of the dunes.” (By the way, there are no poisonous animals or insects to fear in the dunes.)
Though a challenging hike, kids can make the High Dunes climb—about one to two hours up and 45 minutes down—to get a hawk’s-eye view of the surrounding Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountain alpine peaks. Don’t be fooled by the splotches of snow on surrounding tors, though. This place is often scorching. Surface sand temperatures can rise to 140°F on summer days. Visit in late spring, when the dunes aren’t too hot to climb.
Oden suggests attempting the climb early in the morning, when the weather is cool, the wind is low, and the kids are of full energy. Take plenty of water and have them wear tennis shoes or hiking boots to protect their feet when the sand gets as hot as you know where. Beware: The winds can top 40 miles an hour, but it is these winds that give the dunes their shape.
Don’t make any promises, but come prepared to (legally) slide, ski, sled, or board down any unvegetated areas of the dunes. The kids will want to join in if the weather allows any X Games–worthy boarding action on the sand.
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
For kids, watching Kilauea’s fire-red lava drizzling down the side of the volcano and sizzling into the ocean conjures up images of a mammoth wizard’s boiling cauldron, a sci-fi planet shaped out of mysterious goo, or, true to Hawaiian tradition, the goddess of fire—Madame Pele—making her presence known by breathing fire.
The mystical and magical forces at work on the Big Island’s lush 330,000-acre Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park extend far beyond two of the world’s most active volcanoes—Kilauea and Mauna Loa—but it is the volcanic wonders that mesmerize kids, says Julie Mitchell, general manager of the community-based Friends of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.
“From steam vents, steaming bluff, and sulfur banks to the fuming vent at Halema‘uma‘u Crater, nothing is more exciting than seeing the Earth as alive and dynamic,” Mitchell explains. “The volcanic forces that shaped the Hawaiian Islands are visible here in a way that can help kids envision how much of the world was formed.”
Seeing the living, breathing volcanoes inspires amazement, creativity, and tons of rapid-fire questions from curious young adventurers. To help kids understand what they are seeing, Mitchell suggests heading first to the Kilauea Visitor Center to watch a movie about the volcano, explore the interactive displays, listen to the sounds of the rain forest, and see dioramas of creatures who live in the park.
While there, pick up a copy of the Junior Ranger Handbook: A Guide to Discovery and Exploration of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. By working through the booklet to earn the Junior Ranger badge, kids learn how scientists measure changes in the volcanoes, can see and touch different types of lava rock at the park’s Jaggar Museum, watch seismographs track earthquake activity, and learn the sacred stories of Kilauea’s and Hawai‘i’s gods and goddesses.
Park education specialist Joni Mae Makuakane-Jarrell says the goal of the Junior Ranger program—and of all the ranger-led activities—is for kids to “have fun as they explore, discover, and fall in love with the park. In this ever changing landscape, you never know where or when an eruption will be seen on the Kilauea or Mauna Loa volcanoes. Here, the very ground you walk on is a wahi kapu (a sacred place) and the home of the fire goddess, Pelehonuamea.”
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Denali National Park, Alaska
Photograph by Michael DeYoung, Alaska Stock/Alamy
On December 2, 1980, President Jimmy Carter put pen to paper preserving 79.53 million acres of Alaska wilderness. In just one day, the unprecedented Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) he signed into law created ten new national park properties, increased the size of three others, and set aside additional public acreage for the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Of the new parks—including Arctic, Glacier Bay, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kobuk Valley, and Lake Clark—13.2-million-acre Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve instantly became the nation’s largest.
Most of Alaska’s newest parks are pretty remote and rugged, so to help kids begin to comprehend the enormity of what the legislation achieved (and to launch loftier discussions about the American democratic process, how laws are made, and land use), take them to the most famous park (and one of the more accessible ones) included in the law. Originally called Mount McKinley National Park when it was established in 1917, Alaska’s first national park was renamed and expanded by ANILCA as Denali National Park and Preserve. The area is named after the Athabaskan term for “high one.” Its massive centerpiece—20,320-foot-tall Mount McKinley, or Denali—is North America’s tallest peak, requiring a near backbend for kids to be able to look high enough in the sky to see the top, which is often obscured with clouds from the severe weather on the mountain. Because the sheer size of the peak and the six-million-acre park can make kids feel extra small, Anne Beaulaurier, program coordinator at Camp Denali and North Face Lodge, suggests engaging in earthbound activities.
Start with the hands-on, educational exhibits at the Denali Visitor Center and Murie Science and Learning Center, followed by a bus ride out to the Eielson Visitor Center. “The kids can keep their eyes open for wildlife and ask the bus driver lots of questions. On the way, hike in the Thorofare Pass area on the open alpine tundra,” says Beaulaurier. Although spotting moose, caribou, grizzly bears, sheep, and beavers from the bus or trail is a natural highlight for kids, Beaulaurier says joining a guided hike allows them to learn from trained naturalists and absorb Denali in a more meaningful way.
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Grand Canyon, Arizona
Photograph by Richard Perry, The New York Times/Redux
For too many kids, seeing the Grand Canyon—277 river miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and a mile deep—is just an hour spent staring out over the abyss, posing for photos, and jostling with other tourists for prime viewing spots without ever dipping a single sneaker below the rim.
Yet, below the rim, says botanist and wilderness skills expert Mike Masek, is precisely where kids need to go to begin to appreciate the Grand Canyon’s natural, geologic, and historical wonders.
“The Grand Canyon is not just an object to be seen, it is an experience to relish for a lifetime,” Masek explains. “Each child should spend time hiking below the rim. The immensity of the canyon makes people think big. While this is rewarding, the true nature of the canyon comes alive upon closer inspection.”
Taking a day hike or participating in a ranger-led hiking program gives kids the chance to safely examine little treasures they would miss from the rim, like the fossils in the rock layers, lizards basking in the sun, and desert wildflowers and wildlife, Masek adds.
“As they are walking down the trail, have the kids stop and look back up to see the work that went into building the trail,” he advises. “Point out the transition from one rock layer to the next. Encourage them to think about the different body responses they experience when descending and climbing.”
Both Masek and Flagstaff-based wilderness guide and forester Brad Ball suggest taking the South Kaibab Trail to Cedar Ridge, a three-mile round-trip hike that’s appropriate for kids, yet still offers a 360-degree view of the inside of a canyon.
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Glacier Bay National Park and Perserve, Alaska
Photograph by Rich Reid, Tandem
No roads lead from Juneau to Glacier Bay, so for kids, getting there—either by air or water—pumps up the adventure quotient and offers a whale’s- or bird’s-eye view of how the Earth has changed since the last ice age.
On the trip over or through Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, let the kids know that the shorelines and islands they see were covered by ice 200 years ago. Gliding back from the bay to the glaciers gives kids a visual time line of the melting ice through views of the vegetation.
Point out to them that the land nearest the bay (where the ice first receded) is lushly forested, while the plants and trees shrink and thin out as they move toward the barren ice face. The new vegetation has provided ample nutrition for wolves, moose, mountain goats, ptarmigan, and brown and black bears to survive. The sea also supports a new—in geologic time, less than 200 years old—food chain for salmon, bald eagles, harbor seals, harbor porpoises, humpback whales (which summer here after wintering near Hawai‘i), and killer whales.
Of course, the monster ice blocks in motion provide the biggest “wow” moments for wide-eyed kids. The park has nine tidewater glaciers, each of which emits a thunderous roar when it “calves”—chucking thousand-year-old icebergs (some up to 200 feet high) into the water. “What can compare to watching a tidewater glacier calve into the ocean?” says Steve Schaller, Glacier Bay’s supervisory park ranger. “Glaciers have a tremendous influence on the land, and most kids have only seen this activity on television. Glacier Bay is one place on Earth that they can still experience the power of a calving glacier.” Cruise ships ply the bay, but a one-day charter tour boat offers a more intimate sightseeing experience and can travel closer to the shore.
For an even closer look at the richness of the area, head to Bartlett Cove to take the kids on a guided kayak tour of the glacier-nourished water, vegetation, and marine life.
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Photograph by Jim West, Alamy
When President Theodore Roosevelt established Mesa Verde in 1906, it became the first national park created to “preserve the works of man.”
More precisely, the southwestern Colorado park protects the remnants of stone neighborhoods constructed by the ancestral Puebloan, the people who lived on the Mesa Verde (“green table”) from a.d. 600 to a.d. 1300. There are more than 4,000 known archaeological sites here, the most recognizable—and most appealing to kids—being the 600 cliff dwellings built high within the canyon’s sheltered alcoves.
Climbing up, down, over, and through this ancient jungle gym community will delight any child. It is the story of the people who built the structures, though, that helps kids to grasp what makes Mesa Verde truly amazing: the engineering, the history, the traditions, and the culture.
To help prepare her sons for their first Mesa Verde visit, Colorado teacher and mom Betsy Henry sat down with the kids to look through history and travel books related to the site. Developing a basic appreciation for the civilization before traveling and seeing photos of the cliff dwellings helped build excitement.
“When they recognize what they are seeing, it has a lot more interest to them,” observes Henry. “We also had talked about ancient Rome and Greece, so to discover some ruins in our own country and state was really neat for them. Another helpful educational tool is the park’s Junior Ranger booklet. You can download and print it off the Mesa Verde National Park website ahead of time to prep the kids about what they are going to see.”
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee/North Carolina
Photograph by Shawn Poynter, The New York Times/Redux
"We have a nature deficit among kids in this country,” says Emily Guss, ranger at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited in the nation, “but kids will be excited by nature, if we only let them see it and touch it and be in it. Since I was a kid, I played in the woods and learned a lot about life and death by observing nature. The Smokies is a special place for kids because there’s beauty everywhere—and there’s mystery and exploration. Our kids’ world is so shaped by TVs and computers. What they experience here is completely different.”
The 500,000-acre national park (a combination international biosphere reserve and World Heritage site) and its fringes—straddling Tennessee and North Carolina—is one of the richest biodiversity zones in America (more than 13,500 species have been identified in the park, and scientists believe many hundreds more are yet to be discovered). This is a place where children meet nature head-on.
You’ll encounter as much biodiversity walking up a mountain in the Smokies as you will hiking 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail. There are, for example, 19 kinds of fireflies, 39 reptiles (including turtles, lizards, and snakes), 43 amphibians, 200 birds, and 66 native mammals. Some species, like Rugel’s ragwort and Jordan’s (red-cheeked) salamander, are found nowhere else.
For ten days in early June, the Smokies host a flash mob of fireflies, insects that are America’s only species that can synch their flickering light patterns with each other. To view them, plan ahead and skip the public trolleys. Meet at Elkmont’s Little River trailhead, and tour with a naturalist ($10 from the Great Smoky Mountains Association, free for adult-accompanied kids under 12).
This is also the salamander capital of the world; the park harbors 30 species, giving it the planet’s most diverse population. “Catching” salamanders in the park is illegal. So the only safe way for kids to hunt for, capture, examine, and then return salamanders to their habitat unharmed is through a ranger- or naturalist-led program—one of the many hands-on junior ranger and Smoky Mountain Field School opportunities available to kids in the park.
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows
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Sierra Nevada Parks, California
Photograph by Mark Crosse, Fresno Bee/MCT/Getty Images
California’s side-by-side, southern Sierra Nevada national parks—Sequoia and Kings Canyon—collectively are known as the “land of giants.”
And for good reason: Everything here is super-duper-size, from 14,494-foot Mount Whitney (tallest mountain in the lower 48 states, partially located in Sequoia) to the cloud-climbing trees, including the world’s largest single-trunk tree—the 275-foot-tall General Sherman sequoia in Sequoia’s Giant Forest (where kids will love riding through the “Tunnel Log” cut through another 275-foot tree that fell along Crescent Meadow Road in 1937).
The giant attractions, although spectacular, are obvious and easily viewed from the passenger seat of the family car. That’s why junior explorers in particular will delight in discovering the flip side of the parks, where more than 200 marble caves are hidden under the surface.
Steve Fairchild, who grew up in Kings Canyon and now leads family cave and canyoneering tours here, says the views and ecosystems underground are different from anything kids will see up top.
“Kids are amazed when we tell them that what they find inside the cave is what it looks like from under a giant coral reef,” he says. “About 100 million years ago we had gigantic coral reefs that were pulled underneath the continent and pushed up into the Sierra to the spot where they now stand. They understand immediately that they are seeing something that few kids get to see.”
The year-round 55-degree temperatures make caves comfortable, living classrooms in which kids can learn by seeing, asking questions, and, most important, doing, adds Fairchild.
He designs kid-friendly tours of nearby Boyden Cavern (pictured) and of natural river caves and canyons downstream. Additional cave tours are offered at Crystal Cave. Sequoia-size, underground expeditions available to young Kings Canyon visitors—including Pirate River Cave Adventures, where kids rappel down canyon walls—are designed to help convey basic geology and speleology knowledge while building outdoor skills.
“On the world scale, Boyden Cavern is not big, but it is a perfect size for kids,” says Fairchild. “They can crawl beyond the trail with the guides, explore, and then pop back out on the trail. Kids have an innate sense of adventure, so when they go down in the lower section of the cave, they can’t believe they are allowed to go somewhere so wild—no handrails, no cement, just boulders and a stream bed. They look back up at mom and dad and say: ‘We get to go down there?’ They can’t believe it. That makes the trip for them.”
Read more in 100 Places That Can Change Your Child's Life, by Keith Bellows