The 6 best national parks for persons with disabilities

03.01.2024 - 16:17 / lonelyplanet.com

As national parks look for ways to better serve travelers with disabilities, here are the top parks doing it right.

Visitors entering Yellowstone, America's first national park, pass under a columnar basalt arch from 1903 inscribed with the park's purpose: “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

It's a lofty promise of democratic ideals – one many US parks failed to realize upon inception. Since the founding of Yellowstone in 1872, a lack of accessible features often meant these public spaces excluded people with physical and cognitive disabilities. But thanks to a modern movement that prioritizes inclusion, dozens of destinations are bridging the divide. Today, accessibility isn't considered an additional piece of park maintenance – it's an integrated component, says Jeremy Buzzell, Manager of the Park Accessibility for Visitors and Employees Program at the National Park Service (NPS).

In 2012, the NPS formed the Accessibility Task Force, which implemented a five-year plan to improve disability access by 2020. A handful of parks now offer adaptive equipment for people with mobility impairments, empowering travelers to explore once-off-limits landscapes. Some destinations provide sign language interpretation tours for the deaf or hard-of-hearing, tactile maps for those who are blind or have low vision and sensory guides for travelers with cognitive disabilities. Still, the NPS faces significant barriers to inclusion.

“One of our biggest challenges is figuring out how to resolve conflicts between what we're trying to preserve while, at the same time, trying to provide access to it,” says Buzzell. He uses the Statue of Liberty as an example: maintaining the green goddess' 19th-century frame, built before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) introduced universal design standards in 1990, means it's unlikely there will ever be an accessible elevator to her crown.

These obstacles make it tricky for disabled people to decide which national parks are worth exploring. Opportunities vary from site to site, and when it comes to meeting access needs, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Buzzell suggests that travelers with disabilities consult the NPS accessibility portal and contact a park directly before visiting.

“It's very important to do as much research as possible before your trip,” advises Cory Lee, an accessible travel blogger who uses a wheelchair. “By researching ahead of the trip, you can save time once you're actually there, and you'll be able to fully enjoy the park.”

Candy Harrington, founding editor of accessible travel news site Emerging Horizons and author of accessible national park guidebooks, recommends finding in-depth descriptions of hiking trails, even when they’re labeled