How To Score Your National Park Rankings

Trying the find out which is your favorite National Park of the 5 you have seen? Easy! What happens when you get to the 63rd? That's where having a ranking system will make things a bit easier. When it comes to ranking your National Park list, it is all dependent on what you are looking for. Before you set up your own list, let's look at what we use to rank our National Parks and then I will ask some helpful questions to make sure you are ready to make your own list and have something to help you when it comes down to two parks that you can't decide which one should be higher ranked.

First of all, we started visiting National Parks before we ever thought about getting to all of them. We have had a mutual interest in camping and exploring nature that naturally guides you into National Parks. We went to a few conveniently close and the next thing we knew, we took a long trip to Teton NP when we lived in Colorado and we were obsessed! We started making plans to visit more and more. It wasn't until we visited Saguaro NP (our 15th) that we even really thought about ranking them! So naturally, we did what most would do: ask the internet! On our drive home we started looking at the rankings of a few people who have visited all or close to all the National Parks of the US. As we started looking, we noticed a few parks we LOVED were much lower on some people's list. So we looked at their categories for ranking and realized we needed to make our own to meet our desires and expectations for a National Park. A few things we needed on our system are: 1) a large enough point system to avoid too many ties. 2) a tie breaker category and 3) a clear description of what a high score and a low score are described as. Here are the Categories and why for our ranking system:

Score #1: Wow Factor

I feel like this was something we were missing in other rankings. When we got there did we say "wow"? Some similar options we saw in other rankings were photographic or feeling in general but we felt it needed to be more about the National Park beauty and uniqueness.

10	Holy Sh*t/ Awestruck
5	Pretty Cool
2-4	Unimpressed
0-1	Complete Letdown

Score #2: Would We Go Back?

It's pretty self-explanatory but I felt this was important to score just how impactful this park was to us. Convenient or otherwise if we would go back to this park is a great way to add a score to the ranking.

10	Will Go Back
9-6	Would like to go back
5-3	If Convenient, sure.
2-1	Don't plan on it.
0	Will NOT go back

Score #3: Ammenities/Activities

This was a big discrepancy that we saw between what we thought was a top 10 park and what others saw. But it really depends on what is important to you. Having a hard time getting around the park won't dramatically affect our experience (we're thinking in advance when we try to get to Samoa and Arctic). Activities available at the park are also not a priority but can still add a bit so we combined these to add a little bit of a score of each.

Ammenities	10	Multiple diverse activities
And	5	Some types of activities/ strained to get around
Activities	1	One main attraction/ Impossible to get around

Score#4: Hiking!

Hiking options are HUGE for us. The main reason we are escaping into Parks is to hike to pretty views and avoid people for the most part haha! Not all trails are created equally and this is an area where some cool parks disappoint.

10	Plenty of Great Trails
5	Several Trails/ Average Trails
1	Little to no trails, not great hiking.

Score #5: Available Lodging/Camping

A lot of rankings have this as a score but our reasoning is we love to randomly decide to leave on a weekend to go hiking. Knowing that we have a place to stay is very valuable to us! Not going to call out anyone.... but if you recognize this photo, you know.

10	Multiple places to stay
5	Few options/ need reservations
1	Good luck not sleeping in car and getting fined.

Scoring #6: Crowds

Let's be honest. Crowds are not my favorite and they can negatively impact my experience to an extent. Mostly if the only options are like waiting in line for an amusement ride... This could mean nothing to you. but it does make a difference to me. I would like to also note that we update our rankings when we revisit places and knowing the time of year does effect how this number changes. For example my first experience in Yellowstone was in winter and having only a handful of other people waiting to watch old faithful made that experience better than if we were in a crowd of hundreds. Obviously does not include wildlife. We love animals!

10	The Park was ours
5	Manageable; slightly annoyed with humans
1	Amusement park lines. NYC is less crowded.

Tie Breaker Scoring: Pet Friendly

This is obviously a personal choice but due to our 60 point system we needed a few tie breaker points to help! This system is only intended to be added if the Park has the same score as another and we need a relatively unbiased way to put one above the other. And since our dog Zion has impressively been to 12 National Parks of his own, we really love the idea of dog friendly parks.

10	Loves Pups
5	Few Puppy Options
1	Should've left them at home

Questions to help you build your own ranking system!

I am sure just looking at our ranking system has given you some ideas but is it the right system for you? From first hand experience, other's did not have the same goals in mind. So here are some questions to ask yourself as you make your ranking system.

What's your current favorite National Park?

Why do you love it?

Could something have made it better?

Our current favorite is Glacier National park and it has a ton of the things we are looking for and is currently at 59/60 points for us. The only thing that it is a 9 on is Amenities due to part of the park being shut down during the winter. But it didn't stop us from enjoying a bunch of the park! This was a great way to help narrow down your priorities.

What is your favorite? Was this helpful towards your system? Please let me know what you think!