10 Least Visited National Parks and How to Get to Them
Most National Parks are easily accessible and handle hundreds of thousands if not millions of visitors each year. You won’t find Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, or the Smokey Mountains on this list, but what you will find if you travel to these places, is complete solitude and undisturbed wilderness.
10 — Katmai National Park and Preserve
With 51,511 annual visitors in 2020, or about 141 people per day, Katmai National Park and Preserve just barely beats out Denali for 10th fewest annual visitors. While Denali is easily accessible via the Alaskan Highway System, Katmai is only accessible by boat or plane.
How to get there.
Air:
Located 290 air miles southwest of Anchorage, the best ways to get to the park are via air taxi from Anchorage, Dillingham, Homer, King Salmon, Kodiak or other smaller Alaska towns.
Boat:
Access by boat is either from the West (up the Naknek River) or from the East (direct access from the Pacific Ocean).
9 — Dry Tortugas National Park
48,453 people visited Dry Tortugas National Park in 2020, or an average of 133 per day. Located on a small island way off the end of Key West, Dry Tortugas is one of the most remote national parks in the United States. Despite this, regular charter boat service brings tourists to the island. You can even camp at the park at what have to be the most remote and amazing beach campsites in the entire United States.
How to get there.
Air:
Seaplane charters out of Key West are the only air travel service to the island. While more expensive than taking the traditional ferry, air travel provides a once in a lifetime view of the island and fort from above.
Yankee Freedom Ferry:
Riding the Yankee Freedom is a right of passage for Dry Tortugas National Park. The ferry is a large catamaran and can handle both day passenger and camper transportation to Dry Tortugas from Key West.
Private boat:
Yet another option, if you are lucky enough to have a boat or enough cash to rent one, is to motor or sail to Dry Tortugas yourself. You need a permit to anchor at the park, but traveling this way gives you the most freedom as you can come and go as you please.
8 — North Cascades National Park
The low number of annual visitors at this park is somewhat surprising, only 30,885 people visited the park in 2020 or about 85 people per day. Located in northern Washington State and along the Canadian border, North Cascades is accessible via a Rocky Moutain bisecting highway called aptly, North Cascades Highway. While some parts of the road are closed during the winter due to heavy snow, other areas are accessible year round.
How to get there.
Car:
The easiest way to get to North Cascades is via North Cascades Highway. This highway brings you to the main visitor center and Ross Lake National Recreation Area.
Passenger ferry:
While I’m not sure this really counts as a method for “getting to the park” because of the road access, there is a passenger ferry available to get to more remote and road less sections of the park along Lake Chelan.
7 — Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
This park is the real deal and not extremely hard to get to (as in at least there is road access). Despite this, a measly 16,655 people visited the park in 2020 or an average of 46 per day. You want to see volcanoes? Check. Highest concentration of glaciers in North America? Check. High mountain lakes? Check. Amazing wildlife and incredibly rugged landscapes? Check, check, check.
How to get there.
Car:
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park has good road access to the more front-country areas of the park. While there are always backcountry areas in all parks accessible via boats or planes, driving is really the primary means of access to this park.
6 — Kobuk Valley National Park
When the National Park Service describes a park as “very remote” you better believe it. This is not, heading up to the Finger Lakes remote, this is a whole different planet than that. For this reason very few people visit Kobuk Valley National Park, with the park receiving only 11,185 people in 2020 or only 31 people per day. Getting even close to the park is a journey. You must fly from Anchorage to the village of Kotzebue or from Fairbanks to the village of Bettles. From there, you have to take an air taxi into the park. Alternative access to air taxis are dependent on the season and weather conditions but boat, snowmobile, or hiking is all possible.
How to get there.
Air:
Flying from either the village of Kotzebue or Bettles are the primary methods for getting into the park. Be prepared to take case of yourself out there as this is some of the most remote country in the entire world.
Summer:
In the summer motorized or non-motorized watercraft can enter the park from multiple different directions. You can also just hike in!
Winter:
Snowmobiles and travel on foot and the primary methods of access, other than air, in the winter time. But undoubtedly very few people travel this way as the harsh weather off keeps many people away.
5 — Isle Royale National Park
It’s no wonder Isle Royale is one of the least visited National Parks, with only 6,493 in 2020 or ~18 visitors a day on average, as the park is so complicated to get to there is a whole webpage by the NPS about it! Travel routes differ if you are coming from Michigan or Minnesota so choose your route wisely!
How to get there (from Michigan).
Air:
Begin by traveling to the town of Houghton. A chartered seaplane can bring you to either Windigo (southern end) or Rock Harbor (northern end) within the park.
Ferry:
If you like riding ferries and are headed to Isle Royale from Michigan you are in luck! There are two ferries that bring passengers to the park. The first is the Ranger III from Houghton, the second is the Isle Royale Queen IV from Copper Harbor.
How to get there (from Minnesota).
Air:
Seaplane access to Windigo or Rock Harbor is available from Grand Marais.
Ferry:
More ferries! From Grand Portage there are two different ferries (the Voyageur II and Sea Hunter III) that both bring you to Windigo in the park.
How to get there (both states)
Private Boat:
No matter what state you are coming from, you can also take a private boat to the park.
4 — Glacier Bay National Park
A beautiful National Park full of glaciers, coastline, icebergs and wildlife its amazing that only 5,748 people visited the park in 2020, or about 16 per day. While access is also available via chartered airplane, you could consider Glacier Bay to be the most boat friendly National Park with access to boats both large (commercial cruise ships) and small (sea kayaks).
How to get there.
Car:
If you only want to get to the Visitor Center but not the actual park, you are in luck! Assuming you take the Alaskan Maritime Highway Ferry to the small town of Gustavus, you can drive the 10 miles to the park headquarters. You’d be missing out on the park itself though!
Air:
Small air taxis and charter services fly into Glacier Bay National Park out of Gustavus. This may be your best option if you get sea sick easily.
Boat:
Taking a boat to Glacier Bay is the most popular method of access. Sea kayak rentals are available if you are feeling adventurous or simply pay for a ride on a luxury cruise liner that passes through the Cross Sound.
3 — Lake Clark National Park
Lake Clark National Park is another stunning Alaskan wilderness park complete with active volcanoes, glacial lakes, glaciers, and rugged wilderness. Only a handful of people, just 4,948 in 2020 or 14 per day, visit the park. Although the park is close to Anchorage (~120 air miles), due to the geography and lack of roads to the park it is hardly ever visited.
How to get there.
Fly:
Flying is about your only option to get to the park, but the specific vary by season. In the summer, small bush planes can put you down on big fat gravel bars in many of the large rivers in the park. Float planes can also land on many of the large glacial lakes in the area (when there is no ice). Flying the winter is a whole different ballgame. Small planes can land on large flat areas that are not too covered in snow, but let’s be honest you probably won’t want to be at the park for its’ -40 below zero winter days anyway.
2 — National Park of American Samoa
Despite being the second least visited National Park, its amazing that 4,819 people or about 13 people per day even visit the National Park of American Somoa at all. Assuming no tourists, American Samoa has a population of 55,689 people, implying that ~9% of the island’s population visit the park each year. With visitors, or those who are willing to fly to Hawaii and then go another ~6 hours past it to get to American Samoa, this still seems like a high number for how remote this island paradise is. Luckily though, once you’ve made it almost halfway across the planet, access to the National Park itself is relatively easy via a network of buses (just don’t try to get a bus on a Sunday when they are not running).
How to get there.
Car / Bus:
You can rent a car at the airport or use the network of family buses (defined as “frequent by unscheduled”) for a very low cost. Just wave to the buses to hitch a ride to different parts of the park!
1 — Gates of the Arctic National Park
Rugged, in the true Arctic, with 24 hour sun in the summer and 24 hours of darkness in the winter it is no wonder this is the least visited National Park in the entire National Park System. Only 2,872 people per year or ~8 people per day visit this park (as of 2020). There are no road, no trails, no established campsites in the entire park which spans 13,238 square miles (or about the size of Connecticut).
How to get there.
Plane:
Like a lot of similar remote National Parks, most access is available via air. There are few designated air strips in the park, but most outfitters will either fly to you one of these or land you on a remote lake.
Hike:
For the truly adventurous a hike into Gates of the Arctic is the challenge of the lifetime. Rugged unforgivable terrain that could easily see snowfall in July is not for the casual hiker. Be prepared if you plan to enter the park and inform the park of your plans.
Packraft:
Let’s crank it up a notch. Want a true trip of a lifetime? Are you an expert in whitewater and backcountry travel? Then packrafting one of the Scenic and Wild (and official designation) Rivers in the park is truly the trip of your dream. You could be in the park for a month and likely not see a single other person unless you count grizzly or polar bears as people.