All California’s National Parks Ranked

24.03.2024 - 19:19 / forbes.com / Joshua Tree

With nine National Parks, California has more than any other state. If you’re in the early stages of planning a road trip, which should you choose? I’ll answer that question without having to scroll at all: Whatever you want to see most. National Parks are all incredible in their own ways, and offer unique experiences.

A list like this is, of course, entirely subjective. That’s the fun though, right? I’ve been to 34 US National Parks plus dozens more all around the world. Even so, there’s no objective way to look at this. My intent is to explain my thinking with each rank.

In alphabetical order, we’re talking about Channel Islands, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Kings Canyon, Lassen Volcanic, Pinnacles, Redwoods, Sequoia, and Yosemite.

If you’re interested in more of my travel babblings, my book Budget Travel for Dummies is available everywhere including Amazon and Barnes & Noble .

This is a temporary rating, and only applicable at the time of this writing. This is because most of the park is closed due to road damage. Some will open in 2024, others later. Depending on the current weather/season you can still see huge General Grant tree, and the drive from Sequoia National Park on the Generals Highway is a stunning. A loop through that park, then through a corner of Kings, and down to Fresno or Bakersfield, is a great day.

So because most of the park is off limits, it has to rank low (for now).

I visited Lassen at the end of a road trip that included Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and a flight and drive to the incredible Wrangell–St. Elias National Park in Alaska. Parts of Lassen are incredible, with burbling mud pots and rolling views. Sadly, the 2021 Dixie Fire scorched more than 2/3 of this park. It’s slowly growing back but for now there’s less to see than most of the other parks on this list. Definitely worth a drive through if you’re nearby, though.

All apologizes to Pinnacles, and I really like this park. I visited there on a test run when I was building out my campervan. It offers some great hikes, gorgeous rock formations, and is the habitat for the legendary California Condor. It’s a short drive from San Francisco, yet it’s one of the least visited parks in the National Park system. Underrated, for sure, and only rates so low on this list because of the incredible parks in California. Compared to all 63 National Parks, it’s mid-pack at least.

This is the only National Park in California I haven’t visited, so I reserve the right to increase (or perhaps decrease) this ranking in the future. However, the parks that are higher on this list are incredible so Channel Islands would have to be pretty remarkable to rank higher. A lot of that is to do with its remoteness. It’s the only NP in California