There are 433 sites managed by the US National Park System. Here is the current breakdown of naming designators and number of sites:
- US NATIONAL PARKS NAMING DESIGNATORS
- National Battlefields, 11
- National Battlefield Parks, 4
- National Battlefield Sites, 1
- National Military Parks, 9
- National Historic Parks, 63
- National Lakeshores, 3
- National Memorials, 31
- National Monuments, 87
- National Parks, 63
- National Parkways, 4
- National Preserve, 19
- National Reserves, 2
- National Recreation Areas, 18
- National Rivers, 4
- National Wild and Scenic Rivers, 10
- National Scenic Trails, 6
- National Seashores, 10
- Other Designations, 11
Maybe it is just me but I think this list could be simplified. Is the park scenic or historical, any questions? That was rhetorical, we all know how the government works.. We are blessed to have this system in place for current and future generations.
This is the passport book for the national park system. I kept thinking about buying this and finally pulled the trigger when we visited Chickamauga National Military Park. It lists all of the national park sites organized by region and then by state. I don’t think (hope?) we will become obsessed about seeing all of the sites. It is a great reference for finding new places to visit as we travel the country.
After dinner we went through the book to cross off sites we already visited. It’s pathetic that we have been in more (number and %) parks in Arizona and New Mexico than our home state of Ohio.
Each park site is listed with a brief description. There are rubber stamps at the park you can use to document that date you visited. Stick on stamps are also available to order, not sure if we will do that or not.
We did notice that there are 6 sites in Alaska we have not visited. Hmmm
HAPPY TRAILS, STEVE