Best National Parks for Kids

Top 10 National Parks for Kids in the USA

Glacier National Park, Montana
Popular hikes for children include: Trail of the Cedars, the Rocky Point Trail, the Oxbow Trail, sections of the John’s Lake Loop, Avalanche Lake, Hidden Lake Nature Trail, Barring Falls, The Swift Current Nature Trail, and Running Eagle Falls at Two Medicine. Kids can take a historic boat ride on Lake McDonald, Many Glacier, Two Medicine or St. Mary Lake.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Big Room Route Cave Tour - The Big Room Route is the "must see" tour for all visitors. A one hour, one mile stroll through a massive 14 acre chamber, this self guided walk captures the true essence of Carlsbad Caverns. Entering and exiting the cave by elevator, visitors follow well graded and mostly level trails that also afford convenient access to wheelchairs and mobility impaired visitors. Natural Entrance Route Cave Tour - The Natural Entrance Route follows the traditional entry path into the depths of Carlsbad Cavern, descending over 750 feet on a steep and narrow paved switch- back trail. This one mile, one hour self-guided walk is strenuous and is not recommended for anyone with serious health or walking problems. Upon concluding this walk, visitors can return to the surface by elevator, or continue on the Big Room Route.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Stagecoach rides from Roosevlet Lodge in the northern part of Yellowstone, you can take a trip to the past with a rattling, bumpy ride on an old west stagecoach, just as visitors did back at the turn of the century. The ride lasts an hour and is quite reasonably priced at $8 for kids, $10 for adults. A nice way to soak up the scenery. Geyser Watching. This is where you’ll have your fill of them, as the basin contains over 150 geysers. That’s the highest concentration of geysers in the world. Walking through this alien landscape makes you feel like the Earth’s crust could burst open in a cataclysmic hydrothermal explosion at any moment, totally ruining your dinner reservations at the nearby Old Faithful Inn Dining Room later that night. But seriously, this is the best place for you and your kids to see geysers going off right and left. Many of them, such as Castle Geyser, Grand Geyser, and Riverside Geyser are highly predictable, so you can figure when and where you need to be for the show.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
North Rim mule trips do not go to the river. One-hour rides along the rim and ½ day rim or inner canyon trips are usually available on a daily basis for kids 7 and up. The Grand Canyon Railway will take your entire family back to the Old West on a steam engine ride into the Grand Canyon after a rousing send-off at the Williams Depot.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park offers a Junior Ranger Program just for kids aged 5 through 12! Have a memorable visit to two of the world's most active volcanoes and earn a Junior Ranger badge! Purchase an activity workbook in the Kilauea Visitor Center. View the park's movie or join a ranger on a short guided walk, and complete 3 activities in the workbook to earn a badge.

Other National Parks Great for Kids
Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park, California
Everglades National Park, Florida
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Olympic National Park, Washington
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

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National Parks for Kids
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Top 10 National Parks for Kids in the USA

Top 10 National Parks for Kids in the USA