Category Ranking
Best National Parks for Stargazing in Fall
Top parks for stargazing during fall, ranked by a composite of activity quality and seasonal conditions.
Updated
Gateway Arch National Park
Gateway Arch National Park is 0.14 square miles of westward expansion history beneath a 630-foot steel monument with three million visitors.
Hot Springs National Park
Hot Springs' 143-degree thermal water flows through historic bathhouses where health seekers once shared sidewalks with gangsters.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
The Ohio & Erie Canal towpath runs 20 miles along the Cuyahoga River, past 65-foot Brandywine Falls and glacial rock ledges.
Everglades National Park
America's largest subtropical wilderness—a slow-moving river creating sawgrass marshes, mangrove islands, and alligator habitat.
Congaree National Park
The largest old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the Southeast protects champion trees you'll reach via elevated boardwalk.
Mammoth Cave National Park
The world's longest cave system—over 400 miles mapped—lies beneath Kentucky's limestone plateau, explored for over 200 years.
Biscayne National Park
Miami's skyline floats on the horizon while you snorkel over the continental United States' only living coral reef system.
Indiana Dunes National Park
Lake Michigan's wind built these dunes into the park system's highest plant biodiversity—over 1,100 species on 15 miles of Indiana shore.
Pinnacles National Park
Volcanic spires rise above talus caves where you can crawl through darkness on designated routes. Half of Yosemite's crowds.
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.