Category Ranking
Best National Parks for Scenic Drives in Fall
Top parks for scenic drives during fall, ranked by a composite of activity quality and seasonal conditions.
Updated
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.
Arches National Park
Over 2,000 natural stone arches carved from red sandstone—the world's highest concentration—including the iconic Delicate Arch.
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.
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.
Grand Teton National Park
The Tetons rise 7,000 feet without foothills—granite and glaciers visible from every corner of Jackson Hole. Thirteen peaks top 12,000 feet.
Yellowstone National Park
The world's first national park sits on a supervolcano where half of Earth's geysers erupt on schedule and bison herds cross roads freely.
Shenandoah National Park
Skyline Drive traces 105 miles of Blue Ridge crests where 500 miles of trails drop into mountain hollows that were farmland a century ago.
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.
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.