The chance to spot a bear, bison, or bald eagle in the wild is one of the major reasons travelers visit the United States’ 63 national parks. You might assume that a megafauna mecca like Yellowstone National Park would offer the best odds of seeing multiple animals.
But a recent report from vacation rental site Casago crunched each park’s total number of species and its size, resulting in surprising news about which parks offer the best wildlife viewing. Hint: To see the highest number of critters, think small, as in places rife with tiny insects or flocks of migrating birds. Here’s where to see the widest variety of animals, from spiders to raptors to bears.
Number of species per square meter: 362Life of all kinds, from tiny synchronous fireflies to 160-foot-tall loblolly pines, crowds this park’s bottomland hardwood forest ecosystem 18 miles from Columbia, South Carolina’s capital. Congaree is also laced with rivers and lakes that sustain its astonishing biodiversity.
(See fireflies magically light up this national park.)
Paddling the Cedar Creek Canoe Trail is a great way to look for wildlife, says Billy Easterbrooks, owner of Carolina Outdoor Adventures, one of a handful of companies leading kayak or canoe trips in the park. “Most commonly you see what we call the creepy-crawlies,” he says, including fishing spiders with leg spans wider than your palm and red-bellied water snakes. Other residents you might encounter: barred owls, river otters, pileated woodpeckers, and, sometimes, alligators gliding on the water.
Number of species per square meter: 317Located 20 miles southwest of Cleveland, Ohio, Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a mixed ecosystem of oak-hickory forest, meadows, and wetlands sheltering a variety of animals. From the boardwalk at Beaver Marsh, watch for water-loving mammals (river otters, muskrats, beavers) or snapping turtles that can weigh as much as 55 pounds each. “It’s neat to see the old-timers covered in moss,” says Gene Stepanik, a naturalist and longtime park volunteer.
More than 200 bird species live or migrate through the park, including nesting peregrine falcons (near the Route 82 bridge) and bald eagles (hike the Towpath Trail north from Station Road Trailhead). Check the park website for occasional birding walks or ranger talks.
Number of species per square meter: 286“The poster child for Carlsbad Caverns is the Brazilian free-tailed bat,” says bat biologist Debbie Buecher. Every summer, hundreds of thousands of the furry, big-eared creatures roost in these honeycombed limestone caves in southeastern New Mexico, attracting crowds at sunset with their spectacular outflight. “But it’s just as exciting to come just before dawn and watch the bats come back,” she says,
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