Category Ranking
Best National Parks for Backpacking in Fall
Top parks for backpacking during fall, ranked by a composite of activity quality and seasonal conditions.
Updated
Channel Islands National Park
California's Galápagos lies 12 miles offshore with 145 endemic species. Sea lions, island foxes, and rare seabirds inhabit five islands.
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
The giant sequoias here include General Sherman, the largest tree on Earth by volume, anchoring a forest where trunks exceed 30 feet wide.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Texas's highest peaks rise from a 265-million-year-old fossil reef in the Chihuahuan Desert, holding more species than any Texas park.
Grand Canyon National Park
The Colorado River carved through two billion years of rock to create a chasm one mile deep and 277 miles long at the South Rim.
Canyonlands National Park
Four districts carved by the Colorado River—from Island in the Sky's overlooks to The Maze's backcountry spanning canyons larger than LA.
Yosemite National Park
Granite cliffs rise 3,000 feet, seasonal waterfalls drop half a mile, and giant sequoias reach into the Sierra sky in this iconic valley.
Haleakalā National Park
A dormant volcano where you stand above the clouds at 10,000 feet, then descend through alpine desert to rainforest in a single morning.
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Two active volcanoes shape terrain from tide pools to alpine desert. Walk across recent lava flows and through rainforests on ancient rock.
Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve
North America's tallest sand dunes rise 750 feet against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, with alpine lakes and tundra at 13,000 feet above.
White Sands National Park
The world's largest gypsum dunefield covers 275 square miles where white sand dunes shift up to 30 feet per year and swallow ecosystems.