In May I will be moving back to Vancouver Island where I’ll be just down the road from Englishman River Falls:
About an hour and a half for me, just to the entrance to the park though.
I’m 28 minutes from Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. I think that qualifies as a park even though it’s not in the name, right?
Wikipedia lists it as a national monument, but like I said, I’ve never been in it.
About 2 miles from the closest part of Camino Las Cruces National Park near Panama City. About 1 mile from Metropolitan Nature Park, which is part of the national protected areas system but not officially a National Park. I can be at Metropolitan Park in 10 minutes and Camino Las Cruces in 15 if there’s no traffic.
A great thing about Panama City is that we have green areas so close (or like Metropolitan Park even inside) the city.
In Chicago proper, there’s the Pullman National Monument, which isn’t a National Park but is run by the National Park Service. Not much there of actual Pullman facilities but an interesting neighborhood easy to get to; I’ve been there by train (half-hour or less from downtown, 111th St. station right across the street) and bicycle.
You’re right, it’s a national monument that is administered by the NPS, but restored and operated by the National Trust for Historical Preservation. It’s a complex system we have set up.
Last week I drove by a sign that said something about “For NPS Employees” and I was like “huh, that’s nice that they National Park Service has access to take care of our little park.” Then I remembered oh yeah, it’s THEIR little park!
I believe that it is the most visited! I’ve gone for the last 2 weeks on weekday nights and all the parking lots were packed! Just with people walking the trails. In the middle of March!
According to Wikipedia Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited national park at 10,000,000 a year, which jibes with my past understanding, with Cuyahoga at 2,000,000. I would think that some of GSM’s count would be due to the highway running through it which would mean that a lot of “visitors” are just travelling from/to TN or NC, but the Wikipedia list does specify recreation visitors. I’m not sure how they tell the difference since I’m sure during the fall a lot of people just travel the highway and never get out, just to see the foliage.
My current location is about three miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway.
My home is approximately 850 metres (2800 feet) from the nearest edge of the Table Mountain National Park. (Which doesn’t make me particularly special since there are probably hundreds of thousand of people living within a similar distance of the park.)
36 miles from Fort Washington. About a 45-minute drive.
The same, except we’re more southeast than east of RMNP. The views from here do not suck.
According to the handy map posted earlier, Isle Royale is the closest to me, though I’m not far from Voyageurs being closer.
The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is closer, and the St Croix National Scenic Riverway is even closer.
Brian
Counting only the 59 National Parks and not other areas administered by the National Park Service:
From home, Acadia is the closest, about 3½ hours by car. Well, technically Parc National du Mont-Orford just outside Sherbrooke QC is a little closer. Despite its name it’s actually a provincial park of Quebec and not a national park of Canada.
From where I am right now, Shenandoah is closest, about 2½ hours by car.
If you want to be rigid about the definition, then Acadia is the nearest. It’s four-ish hours away, if there’s little traffic. But you have to stop at LL Bean, practically by law, and for lunch in Camden, so it’s a pretty full day’s drive.
If you want to relax your definition to the point where the rangers driving the trucks are paid by the Feds and go home when Ted Cruz shuts down the government, then I live reasonably close to the Plum Island Wildlife refuge.
According to that, I’m about equally far from both Mt. Rainier & Olympic national parks, and only slightly further away from North Cascades. I’m pretty sure drive time to all three parks is about 2 hours, give or take.
8.7 miles to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, i.e. the Gateway Arch.
[The park was established to commemorate:
The Louisiana Purchase, and the subsequent westward movement of American explorers and pioneers;
The first civil government west of the Mississippi River; and
The debate over slavery raised by the Dred Scott case.](Gateway Arch National Park - Wikipedia)
It depends on if you count National Recreation Areas and National Historical Parks.
Gateway National Recreation Area is about 1.5 hours away although there are other shore locations I would rather go to.
Morristown National Historical Park is about an hour away.
For a National Park it looks like Shenandoah is about 5.5 hours away.
Thank you for this - I didn’t know that there was a Hot Springs National Park, but I’m about 420 miles from it.
I’m not sure since I’m not the OP, but I’d say National Forests would be closer since the outdoors experience, should you be seeking that, is more comparable to National Parks than what you could find in most Historical Parks. I have not been to a National Recreation Area but from what I hear some of them are also fairly close to a national park as far as the experience goes and some of them aren’t.