There are more National Park Service websites than you can possibly imagine. Really. You'll find no site map on the agency's main website, so there's really nothing you can do but hunt and poke and stumble around to see what's out there.
After 18 years of the National Parks Traveler, I continue to run across new ones. Let's take a look at some of them that you might not be aware of.
Kemp's ridley sea turtle returning to surf at Padres Island National Seashore/NPS
Park Science
Enter this portal and you'll find quarterly issues of Park Science, a publication that tracks some of the science being conducted in the National Park System.
In the summer edition you'll find stories on work to control plague in wildlife, how "worm fishers" are lending insights into the declining fisheries around Acadia National Park, and the struggles at Padre Island National Seashore in Texas to help Kemp's ridley sea turtles increase in number.
Natural Resource Publications
A great resource for students working on term papers, travelers in search of new experiences, writers in search of stories, and park fanatics curious about science tied to their favorite park(s). Among the new reports in 2023:
- Estimated changes in glacial volume at Mount Rainier National Park.
- Inventories of bats and owls at Devils Postpipe National Monument.
- A pygmy rabbit inventory at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.
- A look at spatial patterns of overflights at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
NPSpecies
Curious about the flora and fauna you might find in a park during your visit? Use this site in advance of your travel to generate a list. You can search by park name, by species to see in which parks it exists, or go down the rabbit hole of the more advanced search that allows you to filter for native vs. nonnative, mammals vs. reptiles vs. birds, etc., or whether they're rare or common.
Visitor Use Stats
So many parks, so many numbers, so much crunching. Here you can find the 1976 (or any other year up to the present) visitation numbers for individual parks, compare annual numbers, get monthly tallies, see backcountry and front-country campground counts, and even see how visitor counts are measured. And more.
Oceans, Coasts, and Seashores
In search of water-related experiences in the park system? This page will point you in the right direction. There's the obvious list of national seashores, national lakeshores, and parks surrounded by an ocean, information on how human activities impair the waters and their life, and how climate change is impacting oceans. There also are pages on how to enjoy these parks, and information on what you can do to help oceans.
Some of the underwater scenery you might see in the National Park System/NPS, Virgin Islands National Park
Fish and Fishing
That says it all, no?
Scenic Views
In case you're in need of help finding the gorgeous scenery of the National Park System.
Volcanoes, Craters, and Lava Flows
Your primer on where to see volcanic eruptions, explore lava tubes, or learn about the different types of volcanoes.
Geohazards
Yes, there are places in the National Park System where you can die. This site explains the various geohazards in the parks — earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, mudslides, rockfalls, sinkholes and more — and how you can stay alive.
The Arctic
When your wanderlust convinces you it's time to head north, this site can help you understand what awaits you in Alaska. There are sections on archaeology, wildlife, science, wilderness, subsistence, and wild and scenic rivers.
A mostly dry pool with formations in Carlsbad Cavern, Carlsbad Caverns National Park/NPS, Ronal C. Kerbo
Caves and Karst
Explore the underworld of the National Park System by starting with this resource. You'll learn about cave resources, cave forms, types of caves, where caves in the park system rank in the world in terms of length, and even paleontological resources found in caves.
Natural Sounds
It really is incredible when you find yourself in a place where the only sounds you hear are natural. This page will help you find some of those places, and even offer snippets of sound from them.
Climate Change
Here you'll find information on how climate change is impacting parks and how the National Park Service is responding.
Fire
Is fire good or bad? When are the fire seasons in different parts of the country? Is the Park Service prepared for fire in parks? You'll find the answers here.
The Margerie Glacier, a tidewater glacier, at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve/NPS
Glaciers
Yes, you can learn about rivers of ice in the National Park System on this site. You'll also learn about the different types of glaciers, which parks contain glaciers, and which parks once were glaciated. You'll also come away knowing how to share your knowledge about glacial erratics with your friends.
Arches, Buttes & Rock Formations
There are arches and bridges comprised by rock across the National Park System. This site points to parks where you can find them and other interesting landforms.
Underwater
Like to scuba dive or snorkel? This site is for you, as it tells you where you can do either. Oh, and it also contains some pretty cool underwater images.
Mountains
This page points to them.
Trails & Hiking
Need help deciding on your next hike? Turn here.
Rivers
Grab your paddle or oar.
Battlefields
Walk into history with a walk in one of the National Park System's battlefields.
Arts in the Parks
Learn about art in the parks, artist-in-residence programs, music, even pottery and sculpture in the park system at this site.
Kids in Parks
Get the young-uns involved in parks early! This site includes a link to Junior Ranger online, discusses the various Junior Ranger badges, and provides some tips to make your children's park visits memorable.
Transportation
This page is misnamed in that it doesn't focus on trains, planes, and automobiles, but rather scenic drives you can explore in the National Park System.
Park History Program
Here you'll find...history! Administrative histories of parks, background on the African American Civil Rights Network, Historic Resource studies compiled by NPS staff, National Park Service history, and more. Curious about memorabilia not on display in the parks, but stored in archives? Check out this! Planning a roadtrip through the National Park System? Check out this couple's story.
There are, no doubt, many other hidden pages through nps.gov. Please add the ones you've found in the comments below.
Comments
Personally I have found that both the NPS and Recreation.gov sites to be very poor. In every sense of the word. Poorly organized, full of propaganda, lacking critical inforation, slow to load, slow to update both technically on-line as you use it and slow to be updated with current accurate information. The pages are poorly laid out pages. Other than the overall graphics, the organization of real nformation is not consistent from site to site, park to park and even within the same park from recreation.gov to NPS. Links between the Recreation.gov and NPS take you to information that is out of date, or just plain dead. There is often contradictory information between them. Contact information on the websites is often wrong or completely missing altgether. Its as if whoever is running these things is from a poorly informed public relations firm, siloed within their own world, and is afraid to take initiative to get accurate data from anyone who works or uses the parks. Last year my wife and I stumbled upon an Astronomy Weekend at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, sponsered by state and local astronomy clubs. The evening and night time programs were fantastic and well attended by those who were at the park. The only problem? The only people who seemed to know about it were local rangers and the sponsering clubs, who were disappointed that hardly anyone other than them knew about the event. Why? Because there was NO mention of the event on the park's web site or the NPS app. This is insane.