Top 10 Most Visited National Parks

Bucket List

old faithful-110630-02 — Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park.

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The nation's 10th national park is also its 10th most popular. Glacier National Park doesn't have many high peaks only six peaks over 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) but it is one of the best examples of glacier carved terrain from a time 10,000 years in the past. Visitors can view the bedrock and deposited materials exposed by receding glaciers and imagine ancient seas and the movement of giant slabs of Earth that pushed up the mountain range that is known to Native Americans as the "Shining Mountains" and the "Backbone of the World."

Acadia's coastline is constantly changing, although at a pace much too slow for the average visitor to notice, and is evidenced by the parks' cobblestone beaches. The cobblestones were formed as the ocean waves rounded down coastal rocks over thousands of years. Visitors to Acadia will occasionally find visually stunning sea stacks stacks of ocean-smoothed stones hundreds of feet tall that have been sculpted over eons.

Glacial lakes lie at the base of the jagged Teton Mountain Range, which rises more than 7,000 feet (2,100 m) above the valley of Jackson Hole, Wyo. The park's elevation ranges from 6,400 feet (2,000 m) at the sagebrush valley to more 13,770 feet (4,200 m) at the summit of the Grand Teton. Don't visit in the winter, however, as Grand Teton National Park once recorded a record cold of minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) and the park is often covered with snow from early November to late April.

The park's powerful peaks make it hard to imagine that the area was once covered by a sea. However, most of the park contains extensive exposures of sedimentary formations, some over 1,000 feet (300 meters) thick and dating back to 500 million years ago. These formations are filled with the fossil remains of marine organisms. Scientists now know that the Teton Range was once the floor of an ancient sea teeming with algae, coral, clam-like shells known as brachiopods, and early ancestors of the crayfish called trilobites.

On the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the country's most popular national parks Cuyahoga Valley. Named for the winding Cuyahoga River, known as the crooked river, which snakes for 22 miles (35 km) through the parks' deep forests, rolling hills, and open farmlands. The Appalachian Plateau meets the Central Lowlands at Cuyahoga, marking the intersection of two distinct regions formed by multiple glaciations. The park is filled with closely spaced ravines that drop up to 600 feet (183 meters) over only a few miles, and funnel water into the river.

The Cuyahoga River has the infamous designation of being the "river that burned" in the late 1960s because it was so polluted, sparking an environmental movement. Large nearby urban areas have created pollution levels in the river that still prevent its recreational use. The park is also marred by large areas of disturbed land from years of human overuse. Many of these areas are under rehabilitation, and visitors can now enjoy viewing butterflies, birds and other animals return to a more natural habitat.

The park is considered a living laboratory for anyone seeking to learn about the Earth. Igneous rock (formed through volcanism) and metamorphic rock (formed by the squeezing pressures deep in the Earth's crust) are what's inside the glacier formed peaks and deep valleys. Visitors to the park can explore the ebb and flow of glaciers over the last 18,000 years by touring the Rocky Mountain landscape. The mountains aren't the only thing that captivates visitors; elk, mule deer, moose, black bears and cougars all roam the park as well.

Yellowstone is America's and the world's first national park and home to wildlife such as grizzly bears, wolves, bison and elk. It was named after the Yellowstone River. The parks' famous collection of water-spewing geysers makes up nearly 60 percent of the world's geysers. The famous Old Faithful is a cone geyser in Wyoming that can shoot up to 8,400 gallons (32,000 liters) of piping hot water up to 185 feet (56 meters) into the air. The water works can last up to 5 minutes long. Eruptions are currently about 90 minutes apart.

Geysers are temporary geological features, lasting only a few thousand years. Intense volcanic heat, underground water, and natural geologic plumbing fractures, fissures and other open spaces in rock through which the heated water can escape are required to create a geyser. As the water boils underground, a column of water and steam is blasted out of the geyser's opening. Yellowstone has more to offer than just geysers of course; the park covers more than 3,472 square miles (8,987 sq km) filled with lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges.

As one of the first wilderness parks in the United States the park is over 95 percent wilderness Yosemite is best known for its waterfalls, deep valleys, granite cliffs, and ancient giant sequoias and redwoods. The Merced River spills into Vernal Fall, a spectacular geologic feature. Yosemite is a glaciated landscape, or one formed when glaciers reshaped the underlying rocks, which created U-shaped canyons, jagged peaks, rounded domes, waterfalls and moraines.

Rock falls are a regular part of the Yosemite Valley, and at least 600 rock falls have occurred in the park during the past 150 years. Evidence is found in the massive piles of "talus" or rock debris at the base of Yosemite Valley's cliffs. Unstable rocks are created when tectonic stresses the result of big slabs of the Earth pressing against each other and erosion cause granite rocks to fracture. Over the years, water flowing through these fractures, ice freezing and thawing, earthquakes and vegetation can cause the loosened rocks to fall. Falling rocks and snow during the winter can close some trails, so visitors should check with the park rangers before setting off into Yosemite.

Grand Canyon National Park encompasses nearly 2,000 square miles (5,000 sq km) on the Colorado Plateau in northwestern Arizona. The Grand Canyon is one of the most studied geologic landscapes in the world. The canyon is a geologic record of three of the four eras of geologic time, contains a rich fossil record, diverse geologic features and numerous caves. The exact age of the Grand Canyon or how long ago it was carved out by flowing rivers is hotly debated.

The Great Smoky Mountains are among the world's oldest mountain ranges at perhaps 300 million years old. The mountains' unique northeast to southwest orientation allowed species to migrate along their slopes during the climatic changes of the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago. In the southern reaches of the mountains are species common in the southern United States, and in the northern reaches you'll find species common in the northern states.

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Brett Israel was a staff writer for Live Science with a focus on environmental issues. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from The University of Georgia, a master’s degree in journalism from New York University, and has studied doctorate-level biochemistry at Emory University.

Top 10 Most Visited National Parks

Bucket List

Glacier National Park, Montana

Acadia National Park, Maine

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Olympic National Park, Washington

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yosemite National Park, California

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee