Since I recently posted about my favorite U.S. national parks that I’ve visited, I figured I would share some national parks that are still on my bucket list. You can check out that post here, and while you’re at it, let me know in the comments what your favorite national parks are.

All images in this post are courtesy of Pexels.

American Samoa

Somehow an island in the Pacific that’s closer to Australia than the United States is still a U.S. national park, but that just makes me want to visit it even more. The people there seem to have preserved a lot of the traditional Samoan culture, and I think it would be fascinating to explore the island that was one of the first human settlements in Polynesia over 3,000 years ago.

Maybe one day I’ll make it out there, but it’ll probably be the last one I get to on this list because I might as well travel to Australia while I’m at it.

Big Bend

Big Bend National Park in Texas is a really cool park that I want to visit mainly because of its incredible rock formations and archeological sites. It’s estimated that there are over 26,000 archeological sites in the park since native peoples have inhabited the area for thousands of years. It’s also been named the best spot for night sky viewing in the entire U.S. due to how remote the park is.

Denali

Since I’ve never been to Hawaii or Alaska, a solid amount of the parks on this list will likely be in either of those states. I really want to do one of those expeditions that take you on a small plane to the most remote parts of the park and hopefully see some bears and moose (at a distance, of course).

Grand Teton

I almost made it out to Grand Teton National Park when my friends and I were on our road trip to Glacier and Yellowstone, but unfortunately we didn’t have the time. I’ve heard the steep slopes of the mountain peaks and the starry night sky viewing are some of the best, and an older couple that we ran into on one of our hikes claimed that it was the prettiest national park they’d been to.

Now that it’s within an 8 hour drive from where I live, maybe I’ll take a weekend trip up there or something.

Hawai’i Volcanoes

Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park probably takes the number one spot on my list since I’ve never seen a volcano in real life – and the park has two of the most active volcanoes in the world. It’s also in the middle of the ocean, and the park rises from sea level to over 13,000 feet of elevation. The park also has craters, sea arches and lava molds, which aren’t exactly things you can find in the continental United States.

Joshua Tree

These next two parks are both in California, so maybe I’ll be able to kill two birds with one stone by hitting them both in one road trip.

Joshua Tree is a beautiful park with nice hiking trails, great camping opportunities and, most importantly, vast fields of Joshua trees. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a dry and barren yet rolling landscape, and I’d love to make it out there and explore the park.

Yosemite

Although I live within an hour of the Rocky Mountains now, I still think seeing Yosemite’s sprawling valleys and grand waterfalls would be stunning. El Capitan has been on my bucket list of sights to see for years now (probably ever since I saw Free Solo for the first time) and I’m sure it’s a sight to behold. I absolutely positively will not be climbing it, that’s for certain, but I’d love to see it from a safe distance with my own eyes.

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Thanks for reading the post! If you’ve been to any of these parks, be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what you thought. As always, like and subscribe for a new post every Wednesday at 12pm MST and hit the social media icons below for more travel content!

Have a great week!