According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), there are over 4,000 national parks globally, which protect about 13% of our global landmass. Australia houses over 600 National Parks, most of any country. 

With so many amazing parks to choose from, curating a list is challenging, but this list provides the top 11 most unique national parks, based on biodiversity, sacred sites, historical artifacts, cave paintings, dynamic ecosystems, and unique experiences.  

1)     Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, USA

The first national park in the USA (widely believed to be the first in the world), Yellowstone is internationally famous for its vast selection of geological and geothermal features. Much of the national park straddles the caldera of a giant supervolcano and contains a multitude of geysers, vividly colored hot pools, mud cauldrons, and fumaroles. 10,000 of these features exist in the park, which is thought to be around half of all those known in the world.

The Yellowstone River also flows through the park, flowing down two huge waterfalls into a vast canyon. A diverse range of fauna and flora calls lives in Yellowstone, including 67 mammals, 330 bird species, and various types of trees and flowers. Microscopic organisms also thrive in the incredibly hot springs, producing their glorious bright colors.

• Yellowstone National Park was established March 1st, 1872 by the 18th United States President, Ulysses S. Grant.

• Delaware and Rhode Island combined are smaller than Yellowstone, which is 3,472 square miles (8,987 square km).

• There are over 10,000 hydro-thermal features, including over 300 geysers.

• The park includes about 290 waterfalls.

• 96% of the park is located in northwest Wyoming.

2)     Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal

Situated deep within the Himalayan Mountain Range, Sagarmatha is an incredible national park with an extreme alpine landscape. Most of it lies at an altitude of 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level and includes a wide range of amazing geological features, ranging from deep valleys and gorges to large glaciers and towering peaks.

The Nepali side of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, is included in the national park (Sagarmatha is the Nepali name for the mountain), as are many other peaks that exceed 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) in height.

It is an incredibly wild and remote national park, which is ideal for trekking, mountain climbing, and wildlife spotting. Many different animal species can be found in the park, including musk deer, the Himalayan tahr and goral, wolves, and the Himalayan black bear.

3)     Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

The Serengeti is a vast national park in northern Tanzania that is famous around the world for its rich variety of wildlife. Many lions, leopards, zebras, giraffes, and around 500 bird species call the Serengeti their home and are often seen roaming or flying over its vast plains. 

The large savannah-type grassland is popular with tourists. Along with the Maasai Mara to the north, the Serengeti is crossed twice a year by the Great Migration, where approximately 1.5 million wildebeest and many other mammal species cross the park from north and south between March and May and return during October and November. It is, therefore, no surprise that the Serengeti is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.  

• Serengeti National Park is huge. It’s nearly twice the size of Yellowstone (14,763 square kilometers).

• Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa is only 180 miles (292 km) from the Serengeti.

4)     Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil

Located on Brazil’s northern coast, Lençóis Maranhenses is made up of a vast system of sand dunes.

However, unlike most coastal dune systems, which are often covered in vegetation, the Lençóis Maranhenses is rather unique.

• Here, the sand of the dunes is exposed, producing an incredibly scenic landscape of white sand dunes that stretches for many miles into the horizon, interspersed with many turquoise-colored ponds of water.

• This park is also known as the “Brazilian Sahara.”

• Lençóis means ‘sheets’ in Portuguese

They are filled by monsoon rains during the wet season and are prevented from draining by an impermeable layer of rock beneath the surface. Aside from the dunes, two oases lie in the middle of the park, forming small pockets of vegetation surrounded by sand. Lençóis Maranhenses is also a magnet for wildlife, with 112 bird species and over 40 reptile species living here.

5)     Zion National Park, Utah, United States

Located in southwestern Utah, Zion National Park is a spectacular area of deep canyons, high peaks, and other geological formations.

The park is incredibly wild and includes a wide variety of habitats that cater to a very diverse ecosystem. Vast canyons eroding into the Markagunt Plateau cover much of the national park, lined with giant red- and gray-colored sandstone cliffs. Unique geological features can be found here, including The Subway – a tunnel-shaped slot canyon situated at the base of a much larger gorge.

Numerous natural arches have been carved into the sandstone, such as Kolob Arch, which hangs high above the canyon system of the same name. A multitude of waterfalls and canyon streams flow through the national park. A series of towering mountain peaks overlook the area, including North and South Guardian Angel, and Horse Mountain.

6)     Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia

Surrounded by the vast wilderness of Australia’s Western Desert, the world-famous Uluru rock formation forms the centerpiece of this national park.

This giant red-colored sandstone formation is very unusual in that it is bordered by flat dryland plains on all sides, with steep slopes rising up from the ground on all sides. Deep gorges and inlets can be found around the slopes of Uluru, including the impressive Kantju Gorge.

The national park also includes a separate series of large domed rock formations called Kata Tjuta, many of which are separated by large gorges. Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta also have a great deal of cultural importance to the local Anangu people, who regard both rock formations as sacred.

7)     Torres del Paine, Chile

The Torres del Paine National Park is situated in the Patagonia region of southern Chile. It is an incredible landscape, most famous for its tower-like granite peaks of the Cordillera Paine mountain range, which reach majestically into the sky.

Vast glaciers run down from the mountains through deep valleys, with icebergs frequently calving into lakes filled with beautiful turquoise-colored glacial water.

A large lake named Lago Nordenskjold forms a boundary between the mountains to the north and a series of rocky grass-covered hills to the south – its southern shore provides the best views of the Cordillera Paine peaks. The Salto Grande waterfall is another highlight, with its bright blue-colored glacial water flowing over the wild landscape from one lake to another.

8)     Katmai National Park, Alaska, USA

Katmai National Park is located in southern Alaska, around 290 miles to the southwest of Anchorage. Katmai, the 6th least visited National Park and is larger than any park in the lower-48, is hard to get to. The only way into this park is by boat or floatplane, which departs from nearby King Salmon.

It has a wonderful landscape, with wild coniferous forests renowned for their brown bears, and large glacial lakes that are rich in salmon. The centerpiece of the national park is a giant snow-capped volcano named Mount Katmai, which last erupted in 1912, forming a vast caldera that was subsequently filled in by a lake that exists to this day.

The national park is also famous for its Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes – a deep layer of ash flow from the 1912 eruption. It was named a few years after the eruption when thousands of fumaroles venting steam from the ash were observed. Although the steam vents have since stopped, the ash-filled valley remains a rather unique landscape, a barren and flat stretch of land flanked by hills and forests.

The Bears of Brooks Falls

The coast of Katmai is home to 1,500-2,000 brown bears, which is the highest density of coastal brown bears in the world. This is because this region is also home to the largest salmon run in the world. Due to the sheer abundance of salmon, bears in the region tolerate close proximity to other bears and humans.

Here at Brooks River, you causally walk next to bears and oftentimes are within 10 feet (see picture above). The main reason visitors come to Katmai is to experience the unique interaction with bears and watch the river run pink with salmon.

9)     Zhangye Danxia National Park, Gansu Province, China

In the eastern foothills of the Qilian Mountains sits the Zhangye Danxia National Park.

• It is renowned for its impressive and unusual hill markings, which are a series of vibrantly colored bands of rock – orange and reddish hues that contrast against gray and whiteish colors to create a beautiful and rather unique piece of scenery.

Since this is a badlands environment located in the middle of a vast, semi-arid part of China, there is a lack of soil or vegetation, leaving the bedrock exposed to the elements. Over many thousands of years, water erosion has formed steep valleys and gullies between each rocky hill, carving out an incredibly wild and rugged landscape.

10)  Calanques National Park, France

Located on the coast of southern France, just south of the city of Marseille, Calanques National Park is a superb blend of wild limestone cliffs and a quintessentially Mediterranean landscape.

The national park is made up of a scenic karstic environment, with craggy limestone hills overlooking the beautiful turquoise sea. The coastline is incredibly dramatic, with large rocky cliffs meandering their way around headlands, narrow inlets, and hidden beaches made of pristine white sand.

A range of large limestone hills lines the coast, covered by shrubs and wood of Mediterranean pine trees. The view from the hilltops is spectacular; the summit of Mont Puget provides amazing views of the coastline, and for many miles across the limestone plateau to the north.

 11) Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park

This national park starts at the Pacific Ocean and extends all the way to 13,677 feet (4,169m) as it encompasses the summits of two of the world's most active volcanoes - Kīlauea and Mauna Loa.

Hawaii National Park opened in 1916, 43 years before Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state. Since there is nearly 14,000 feet of elevation change, plants and trees are widely varied, with climates ranging from desert to tropical rainforest.

• There are at least 1,000 native species of flowering plants in Hawaii. Over 90% of these are endemic, meaning they are only found in Hawaii.

• The park includes at least nine ecological zones; nearshore marine, seacoast, lowland, mid-elevation woodland, rain forest, upland forest, subalpine, alpine, and aeolian.

• Numerous lava caves occur throughout the park. These include lava tubes, crater vent caves, fissure and rift zone caves, pressure ridge caves, tree mold caves, and sea caves among others.

• Mauna Loa, at 13,677 feet (4,169m), is the world’s largest active volcano and has erupted nearly 40 times since 1832.

• The two longest lava tubes in the world are located within the park.

Valentina is a guide for Pedal Chile and is our geology expert. Valentina has been in love with volcanoes ever since she first saw Villarrica glowing in her native country of Chile. Valentina was born and raised in La Patagonia, which probably explains her affinity for adventuring. When Valentina isn’t crushing some poor dude’s soul, you can find her shredding down Rucapillán. Favorite season: Austral Summer

References & Sources

• https://www.nps.gov/katm/index.htm.

• https://torresdelpaine.com/atraccion/parque-nacional-torres-del-paine/

• https://www.lelongweekend.com/calanques-national-park-marseille-cassis/

• https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/

• https://www.chinahighlights.com/zhangye/attraction/danxia-landform-geological-park.htm

• https://www.nps.gov/zion/index.htm

• https://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm

• https://www.britannica.com/place/Yellowstone-National-Park/Physical-features

• https://www.serengeti.com/

• https://www.visitbrasil.com/attractions/lencois-maranhenses-national-park.html

• https://www.welcomenepal.com/places-to-see/sagarmatha-national-park.html