Largest US & Canadian National Parks

Which North American National Parks are the largest?

When visiting national parks, your mind begins to wonder about some of the strangest things. Well, with our industry-best dataset, we figured we’d throw together a table to show the answer to that question above. While we’re at it – let’s look at it for Canada too!

The Largest National Park in the US

The largest US National Park is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, with 13 million acres. It is almost double that of the next largest park (which is also in Alaska), the Gates of the Arctic.

Seven of the ten largest National Parks in the United States are all in Alaska. All but 2 of these are so deep into the wilderness that they are only reachable via either boat or air. Only Denali and Kenai Fjords are easily accessible for a road trip.

The largest National Park in the contiguous United States is Death Valley, with just under 3.5 million acres.

The Smallest National Park in the US

The two smallest National Parks in America are also the only two in an urban setting. Hot Springs and Gateway Arch are located within the downtown area of two Midwest cities. The third- and fourth-smallest National Parks in the USA are the two that are on our island territories: The Virgin Islands and The American Samoa.

All told, our national parks account for over 56.6 million acres across our great country. While this amount is small compared to our overall country’s size, it is amazing that we’ve been able to preserve this amount of land for our future generations to enjoy.

List of U.S. National Parks by Size

Rank	Name	State(s)	Acres	Square KM
#1	Wrangell-St. Elias National Park	AK	13,000,000	52,632
#2	Gates of the Arctic National Park	AK	7,523,897	30,461
#3	Denali National Park	AK	4,740,911	19,194
#4	Katmai National Park	AK	3,674,529	14,877
#5	Death Valley National Park	CA,NV	3,373,063	13,656
#6	Glacier Bay National Park	AK	3,223,383	13,050
#7	Lake Clark National Park	AK	2,619,816	10,607
#8	Yellowstone National Park	ID,MT,WY	2,219,791	8,987
#9	Kobuk Valley National Park	AK	1,750,716	7,088
#10	Everglades National Park	FL	1,508,968	6,109
#11	Grand Canyon National Park	AZ	1,201,647	4,865
#12	Glacier National Park	MT	1,013,129	4,102
#13	Olympic National Park	WA	922,650	3,735
#14	Big Bend National Park	TX	801,163	3,244
#15	Joshua Tree National Park	CA	790,636	3,201
#16	Yosemite National Park	CA	761,748	3,084
#17	Kenai Fjords National Park	AK	669,984	2,712
#18	Isle Royale National Park	MI	571,790	2,315
#19	Great Smoky Mountains National Park	NC,TN	522,427	2,115
#20	Kings Canyon National Park	CA	461,901	1,870
#21	Sequoia National Park	CA	404,064	1,636
#22	Canyonlands National Park	UT	337,598	1,367
#23	Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park	HI	335,259	1,357
#24	Grand Teton National Park	WY	310,044	1,255
#25	Rocky Mountain National Park	CO	265,795	1,076
#26	Channel Islands National Park	CA	249,561	1,010
#27	Badlands National Park	SD	242,756	983
#28	Capitol Reef National Park	UT	241,904	979
#29	Mount Rainier National Park	WA	236,382	957
#30	Petrified Forest National Park	AZ	221,416	896
#31	Voyageurs National Park	MN	218,200	883
#32	Shenandoah National Park	VA	199,195	806
#33	Crater Lake National Park	OR	183,224	742
#34	Biscayne National Park	FL	172,971	700
#35	Zion National Park	UT	147,237	596
#36	White Sands National Park	NM	145,762	590
#37	Redwood National Park	CA	138,999	563
#38	Great Sand Dunes National Park	CO	107,342	435
#39	Lassen Volcanic National Park	CA	106,589	432
#40	Saguaro National Park	AZ	91,716	371
#41	Guadalupe Mountains National Park	TX	86,367	350
#42	Great Basin National Park	NV	77,180	312
#43	Arches National Park	UT	76,679	310
#44	Theodore Roosevelt National Park	ND	70,447	285
#45	New River Gorge National Park	WV	70,000	283
#46	Dry Tortugas National Park	FL	64,701	262
#47	North Cascades National Park	WA	61,949	251
#48	Mammoth Cave National Park	KY	52,830	214
#49	Mesa Verde National Park	CO	52,485	212
#50	Acadia National Park	ME	49,057	199
#51	Carlsbad Caverns National Park	NM	46,766	189
#52	Bryce Canyon National Park	UT	35,835	145
#53	Wind Cave National Park	SD	33,971	138
#54	Cuyahoga Valley National Park	OH	32,572	132
#55	Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park	CO	30,750	124
#56	Haleakalā National Park	HI	30,183	122
#57	Pinnacles National Park	CA	26,686	108
#58	Congaree National Park	SC	26,276	106
#59	Indiana Dunes National Park	IN	15,000	61
#60	Virgin Islands National Park	VI	14,948	61
#61	National Park of American Samoa	AS	8,257	33
#62	Hot Springs National Park	AR	5,549	22
#63	Gateway Arch National Park	MO	91	0

Largest 20 Canadian National Parks

Similar to the US, 9 out of the top 10 largest Canadian National Parks are located in the Arctic wilderness. The province of Nunavut has four parks, and the Northwest Territories contains five.

On the small end, five of the smallest six National Parks in Canada are islands. The only one that is not is Point Pelee, which is a small peninsula in Ontario that we highlighted in one of our recent road trips.

Rank	Name	Province(s)	Acres	Square KM
#1	Wood Buffalo National Park	AB,NT	11,112,960	44,992
#2	Quttinirpaaq National Park	NU	9,334,400	37,791
#3	Nahanni National Park Reserve	NT	7,413,120	30,013
#4	Sirmilik National Park	NU	5,485,440	22,208
#5	Ukkusiksalik National Park	NU	5,159,680	20,889
#6	Auyuittuq National Park	NU	4,716,800	19,096
#7	Tuktut Nogait National Park	NT	4,492,800	18,189
#8	Thaidene Nëné National Park Reserve	NT	3,534,720	14,311
#9	Aulavik National Park	NT	3,014,400	12,204
#10	Wapusk National Park	MB	2,835,840	11,481
#11	Jasper National Park	AB	2,774,400	11,232
#12	Qausuittuq National Park	NU	2,720,000	11,012
#13	Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve	NL	2,643,840	10,704
#14	Ivvavik National Park	YT	2,408,960	9,753
#15	Torngat Mountains National Park	NL	2,396,800	9,704
#16	Banff National Park	AB	1,640,960	6,644
#17	Kluane National Park Reserve	YT	1,457,920	5,903
#18	Nááts’ihch’oh National Park Reserve	NT	1,198,720	4,853
#19	Vuntut National Park	YT	1,073,920	4,348
#20	Prince Albert National Park	SK	957,440	3,876

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