The 5 Largest National Parks in the United States

Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest national park in the United States at 8.3 million acres — bigger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the country of Switzerland combined. Four of the five largest parks are in Alaska, and all four received fewer visitors in 2025 than Yellowstone gets in a busy week. The fifth, Death Valley, is the largest park in the lower 48.

Rank	Park	State	Acres	2025 Visitors	Entry Fee
1	Wrangell-St. Elias	Alaska	8,323,147	108,840	Free
2	Gates of the Arctic	Alaska	7,523,897	14,923	Free
3	Denali	Alaska	4,740,911	~600,000	$15/person
4	Katmai	Alaska	3,674,529	34,479	Free
5	Death Valley	California/Nevada	3,372,401	~1.1 million	$35/vehicle

1. Wrangell-St. Elias — 8.3 million acres

Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest national park in the United States and one of the largest protected areas on earth. At 8.3 million acres, it contains more than six Yellowstones. Over a quarter of the park is glacier — including the Nabesna Glacier, the longest valley glacier on the continent — spread across four mountain ranges: the Alaska, Chugach, Saint Elias, and Wrangell ranges. The park is home to four Indigenous communities: the Ahtna Athabascans, Upper Tanana Athabascans, Eyak, and Tlingit.

• Entry fee: Free
• 2025 visitors: 108,840 — fewer than most major city zoos
• Getting there: Two gravel roads enter the park, each roughly 45 miles, passable by most vehicles in summer. No roads reach the interior. Small plane access from Glennallen or Chitina is the primary option for backcountry travel.
• Best for: Backcountry hiking, glacier trekking, flightseeing

Source: NPS — Wrangell-St. Elias

2. Gates of the Arctic — 7.5 million acres

Gates of the Arctic is the northernmost national park in the United States, situated entirely above the Arctic Circle in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska. At 7.5 million acres it is the second largest national park in the country, and it has no roads, no trails, no visitor center, and no entrance station. <cite index=”29-1″>The land is home to Alaska Natives who have relied on the land and caribou for 11,000 years.</cite> Only 14,923 people visited in 2025, making it the second least-visited national park in the country.

• Entry fee: Free
• 2025 visitors: 14,923 — among the lowest of any national park
• Getting there: Fly into Bettles or Coldfoot, then charter a small plane or float plane into the park. There is no road access.
• Best for: True wilderness expeditions, Arctic wildlife, midnight sun in summer

Source: NPS — Gates of the Arctic

3. Denali — 4.7 million acres

Denali is the most accessible of Alaska’s giant parks and the only one with a paved road connection. The park is centered on Denali — formerly Mount McKinley — the tallest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet. At 4.7 million acres it is the third largest national park in the US. Private vehicles are only permitted on the first 15 miles of the 92-mile Denali Park Road; beyond that, visitors must take park buses to travel deeper into the park.

• Entry fee: $15 per person (7-day pass)
• 2025 visitors: Approximately 600,000
• Getting there: 237 miles north of Anchorage on the George Parks Highway. The Alaska Railroad also stops at the park entrance.
• Best for: Wildlife viewing (grizzly bears, wolves, moose, caribou), mountaineering, tundra hiking

Source: NPS — Denali

4. Katmai — 3.7 million acres

Katmai covers 3.7 million acres on the Alaska Peninsula and is best known for Brooks Falls, where brown bears congregate each July and September to catch sockeye salmon mid-leap. The park preserves the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, an ash flow deposited by the 1912 eruption of Novarupta — one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century. Only 34,479 people visited in 2025, placing it among the least visited parks nationally.

• Entry fee: Free
• 2025 visitors: 34,479
• Getting there: No road access. Fly into King Salmon, then take a floatplane to Brooks Camp. Daily commercial flights operate from Anchorage to King Salmon.
• Best for: Bear viewing at Brooks Falls (peak: July and September), fishing, volcanic landscape

Source: NPS — Katmai

5. Death Valley — 3.4 million acres

Death Valley is the largest national park in the lower 48 states at 3.4 million acres, and the hottest, driest, and lowest national park in the United States. Badwater Basin, at 282 feet below sea level, is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. Daytime summer temperatures regularly exceed 120°F. Despite those extremes, the park draws roughly 1.1 million visitors a year and is accessible by car year-round, though summer visits require careful planning around water and heat.

• Entry fee: $35 per vehicle (7-day pass); covered by America the Beautiful annual pass ($80)
• 2025 visitors: Approximately 1.1 million
• Getting there: Accessible by car from Las Vegas (about 2 hours) or Bakersfield, California (about 2.5 hours). The nearest commercial airports are Las Vegas and Fresno.
• Best for: Stargazing, spring wildflowers (in wet years), salt flats, sand dunes

Source: NPS — Death Valley

How do these parks compare to the most visited ones?

The size ranking and the popularity ranking are almost completely inverted. <cite index=”16-1″>Great Smoky Mountains National Park drew more than 11.5 million visitors in 2025</cite> — the most of any national park — across just 522,000 acres. <cite index=”26-1″>Gates of the Arctic, at 7.5 million acres, saw only 14,923 visitors</cite> the same year. Wrangell-St. Elias, the largest park by far, received 108,840.

The reason is access. The five most visited parks all have paved roads, nearby airports, and established lodging infrastructure. Four of the five largest parks have no paved roads at all and require small plane or float plane access, adding high cost and planning to any visit.

The America the Beautiful annual pass ($80) covers entry fees at all federal lands including national parks. It pays for itself quickly for anyone visiting Death Valley and any other fee-charging park in the same year.

Source: National Park Service — Annual Visitation Statistics

Visitor figures from NPS 2025 annual report. Acreage from NPS land statistics. Published September 2026.