# Which US national park is best for wildlife watching?

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

*By YPB Team · Published September 19, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/which-us-national-park-is-best-for-wildlife-watching*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

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

Tags: usa, travel, animals, national-parks