30 National Parks That You Should Add To Your Bucket List

The sun’s rays strike the rocky coast of Acadia National Park, in Maine.

Band-e Amir has become the nation’s soothing antidote to the daily horrors elsewhere of improvised bombs, suicide attacks and bribe-hungry police. Partly that’s due to the peacefulness and startling beauty of the remote region, which is tucked away high in the Hindu Kush of Central Afghanistan, and partly because four years ago it became Afghanistan’s first national park.

A man walks over a frozen Lake Minnewanka to a boathouse in front of the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Banff National Park, Alberta.

The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in Indonesia includes volcanoes Mount Bromo, Mount Semeru and Mount Batok.

Endangered mountain gorillas from the Bitukura family play inside a forest in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in the Ruhija sector of the park, about 550 km (341 miles) west of Uganda’s capital Kampala. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest borders the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The total population of mountain gorillas worldwide is estimated at 880, half of which are to be found in Uganda’s Bwindi forest.

Cinque Terre National Park is Italy’s first national park.

Death Valley National Park in California and Nevada is home to some of the highest temperatures ever recorded on Earth.

Dall sheep stand on a rocky outcropping in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Richie Moretti, left, and Bette Zirkelbach of the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital release a rehabilitated green sea turtle near Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys. The Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon named them “Las Tortugas,” “Las Tortugas” for the sea turtles he and his crew slaughtered there for food.

A anole lizard sits in a water lily flower in the murky waters of the Florida everglades during the rainy season at the Everglades National Park.

Fiordland National Park is in the south-western corner of New Zealand, and covers an area of 1,260,740 hectares.

A giant tortoise is seen on a road at Santa Cruz island at Galapagos National Park.

Hidden Lake overlook is a popular 1.5-mile hike from the visitor center at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, Montana.

People gather on viewpoints at Goereme National Park, specified in the UNESCO World Heritage List, to enjoy the sunset among the “fairy chimney” rock formations in the Cappadocia region. Ash and lava formed soft rocks after the eruption of Mount Erciyes about 2000 years ago. The rocks have been carved out later to form houses, churches or monasteries.

A mule train winds its way down the Bright Angel trail at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.

The view of the Grand Tetons and Jackson Lake from a room at Signal Mountain Lodge in Grand Teton National Park.

Iguazu Falls in Iguazu National Park in Brazil.

One horned Rhinoceros are seen inside the Kaziranga National Park in Kaziranga about 250 kilometers (156 miles) east of Gauhati, India, Tuesday, April 9, 2013. Declared a national park in 1968 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Kaziranga National Park is famous for the one-horned rhino habitat apart from other animals and birds.

Located in Surat Thani province in Thailand, the Khao Sok National Park comprises the largest area of virgin forest in Southern Thailand and is a remnant of rainforest which is older and more diverse than the Amazon Rainforest.

A White Rhinoceros lazes in the sun in Kruger National Park in Lower Sabie, South Africa. The Kruger National Park was established in 1898, and is South Africa’s premier wildlife park, spanning an area of approximately 2 million hectares.

A lenticular cloud hovers over Mount Rainier at sunset in this view from Klapatche Park Camp in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington.

A large male polar bear feeds on the fin of a whale carcass in Nordvest-Spitsbergen National Park in northwestern Svalbard.

Rock formations known as sea stacks protrude out to the Pacific Ocean at the north end of Shi Shi Beach in Washington state’s Olympic National Park. One of the most pristine beaches in Washington state, Shi Shi provides blissful disconnect to hikers and campers at the beach.

The Twelve Apostles are seen in Port Campbell National Park, Australia.

In this Sunday, Aug. 11, 2013 photo, a herd of African elephants gather during the dry season in Serengeti National Park, 335 kilometers (208 miles) north of Arusha, Tanzania. The Serengeti is famous for its annual migration, when millions of wildebeest, zebra, and Thomson’s gazelle trek for fresh grazing. The park covers over 14, 300 sq. kilometers (5,600 sq. miles).

Ancient moss covered woodland surrounds Llyn Dinas in Snowdonia National Park. Llyn Dinas nestles in a valley a few miles north of Beddgelert and is fed by the River Glaslyn.

The first national park in the world, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho is home to the famous Old Faithful geyser among many other well known natural sights.

Tourists enjoy the view at Glacier Point in California’s Yosemite National Park.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is a popular tourist destination in the Hunan province, home to striking sandstone and quartz cliffs and famously known for renaming a peak after the mountain formations inspired the fictional world of ‘Pandora’ in James Cameron’s film, ‘Avatar’.