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PHOTOGRAPH BY KEITH LADZINSKI, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
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Yellowstone may epitomize America’s great outdoors, but it’s just No. 5 on the list of the most visited U.S. national parks last year. Some of the Top Ten saw record visits because people wanted to get into nature—as COVID concerns dented U.S. travel abroad.
Visitors are drawn to the vastness and variety of what novelist Wallace Stegner once called America’s best idea. In all, the National Park Service’s 85 million acres contain more than 18,000 miles of trail and more than 43,000 miles of shoreline, Nat Geo reports.
Some visitors, with limited time or budgets, prefer somewhere close to home. Indiana Dunes National Park (pictured above), ranked No. 9, is an easy ride from Chicago.
Here are all 10 most popular parks. And, for those seeking solitude, here are the 10 least-visited national parks. (Below, in its glory, popular Great Smoky Mountains National Park.)
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