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Which US national park is best for wildlife watching?

by YPB Team

Sixty-three parks, and only a handful where the animals reliably show up. Alaska is heavily represented, and not by accident.

  1. Yellowstone National Park — ranked #11
    Yellowstone National Park
    Bison, wolves, elk and grizzlies in one caldera, and the only place the wolf reintroduction can be watched from a road.
    1000pts
  2. Kenai Fjords National Park — ranked #22
    Kenai Fjords National Park
    Orcas, humpbacks, puffins and sea otters, most of it best seen from a boat.
    494pts
  3. Acadia National Park — ranked #33
    Acadia National Park
    Peregrine falcons on the cliffs and harbour seals offshore, packed into a small Maine coastline.
    494pts
  4. Grand Teton National Park — ranked #44
    Grand Teton National Park
    Moose in the willows and bears on the valley floor, with the Tetons directly behind them.
    428pts
  5. Everglades National Park — ranked #55
    Everglades National Park
    The only place alligators and crocodiles share a habitat, plus roseate spoonbills and manatees.
    428pts
  6. Glacier National Park — ranked #66
    Glacier National Park
    Montana's grizzly and mountain goat country, threaded by the Going-to-the-Sun Road.
    428pts
  7. Big Bend National Park — ranked #77
    Big Bend National Park
    Desert bighorn, javelina and over 450 bird species along a remote stretch of the Rio Grande.
    428pts
  8. Rocky Mountain National Park — ranked #88
    Rocky Mountain National Park
    Elk rutting in Moraine Park each autumn, loud enough to draw traffic jams.
    428pts
  9. Olympic National Park — ranked #99
    Olympic National Park
    Roosevelt elk in the rainforest, tide pools on the coast, and marmots in the alpine meadows.
    350pts
  10. Katmai National Park — ranked #1010
    Katmai National Park
    Alaska's brown bear capital, where the Brooks Falls cameras run all summer and Fat Bear Week is decided.
    350pts
  11. Dry Tortugas National Park — ranked #1111
    Dry Tortugas National Park
    A seabird colony seventy miles off Key West, with nesting sooty terns and reef life below.
    350pts
  12. Channel Islands National Park — ranked #1212
    Channel Islands National Park
    Island foxes found nowhere else, and one of the great whale-watching channels on the Pacific coast.
    257pts
  13. Denali National Park — ranked #1313
    Denali National Park
    Six million acres of Alaskan tundra holding grizzlies, caribou, Dall sheep and wolves on one park road.
    0pts
  14. Great Smoky Mountains National Park — ranked #1414
    Great Smoky Mountains National Park
    The densest black bear population of any US park, and the most visited park in the country.
    0pts
  15. Congaree National Park — ranked #1515
    Congaree National Park
    An old-growth floodplain forest with barred owls, otters and a synchronous firefly display each spring.
    0pts

#USA316#Travel86#Animals43#National-Parks3

Comments

Katmai's Brooks Falls webcams run all summer and decide the Fat Bear Week bracket: https://youpick.best/articles/bear-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team·9h ago·
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