The National Parks exist in many shapes and sizes from tiny Gateway Arch NP, Missouri to giant Wrangell-St. Elias NP in Alaska. While most parks are in the 10s to 100s of thousands of acres range (with a few in the millions), Congress has been more willing lately to ignore size when it comes to establishing national parks. As evidence, two of the most recent parks are in the bottom five of the list for size.
Here’s a listing of the size of each park from the largest to the smallest–thanks to the readers who help keep this list up-to-date!
Size of Each National Park
| National Park | Acres (approx) |
| Wrangell-St. Elias | 13,188,000 |
| Gates of the Arctic | 8,500,000 |
| Denali | 6,028,924 |
| Katmai | 4,090,000 |
| Lake Clark | 4,045,000 |
| Death Valley | 3,400,000 |
| Glacier Bay | 3,280,198 |
| Yellowstone | 2,221,766 |
| Kobuk Valley | 1,750,000 |
| Everglades | 1,508,570 |
| Grand Canyon | 1,217,403 |
| Glacier | 1,013,572 |
| Olympic | 922,000 |
| Sequoia & Kings Canyon | 863,741 |
| Big Bend | 801,163 |
| Joshua Tree | 794,000 |
| Yosemite | 747,956 |
| North Cascades | 684,000 |
| Kenai Fjords | 607,000 |
| Isle Royale | 571,790 |
| Great Smoky Mountains | 521,490 |
| Canyonlands | 337,598 |
| Grand Teton | 309,994 |
| Rocky Mountain | 265,769 |
| Channel Islands | 249,354 |
| Badlands | 244,300 |
| Capitol Reef | 241,904 |
| Mount Ranier | 235,625 |
| Petrified Forest | 218,533 |
| Voyageurs | 218,054 |
| Hawaii Volcanoes | 217,359 |
| Shenandoah | 196,295 |
| Crater Lake | 183,224 |
| Biscayne | 172,924 |
| Zion | 146,592 |
| White Sands | 145,762 |
| Redwood | 108,400 |
| Great Sand Dunes | 107,000 |
| Lassen Volcanic | 106,372 |
| Saguaro | 91,445 |
| Guadalupe Mountains | 86,416 |
| Great Basin | 77,180 |
| Arches | 76,359 |
| New River Gorge | 72,806 |
| Theodore Roosevelt | 70,447 |
| Dry Tortugas | 64,701 |
| Mammoth Cave | 52,830 |
| Mesa Verde | 52,074 |
| Acadia | 47,633 |
| Carlsbad Caverns | 46,766 |
| Bryce Canyon | 35,835 |
| Cuyahoga Valley | 33,000 |
| Black Canyon of the Gunnison | 30,385 |
| Haleakala | 30,183 |
| Wind Cave | 28,295 |
| Pinnacles | 26,606 |
| Congaree | 22,200 |
| Indiana Dunes | 15,000 |
| Virgin Islands | 12,909 |
| American Samoa | 10,520 |
| Hot Springs | 5,549 |
| Gateway Arch | 91 |
We have 59 national parks. Your list only has 58.
Thanks for checking! All of the parks are there, but I’ve listed Sequoia and Kings Canyon in the same line since they’re managed as a single park.
Gateway Arch National Park has just been established by Trump. It is only 90.9 acres in size.
Thanks, Mark! I’ve added it to the list–that’s definitely the smallest National Park now.
Now introducing, new to your National Park list…… #61
Indiana National Dunes !
at 15,000 acres
As someone previously stated – The list needs to be updated to include Indiana Dunes National Park. I also noted that the size of Petrified Forest National Park is incorrect at 93,353 acres…It was expanded by law in 2004 to include a total of 218,533 acres.
Thanks, Paul and Mark! This page has now been updated to include both Indiana Dunes and the expansion of Petrified Forest.
According to the National Park Foundation (https://www.nationalparks.org/sites/default/files/npf_kids_activity_map_answers.pdf) the smallest park is only 0.02 acres. (What is the smallest national park?Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in Pennsylvania–only 0.02 acres!) We were doing a kids activity and got it wrong. I see that you are sticking with the true list of 59 parks but I thought you might enjoy the insights from the NPF. Thanks!
Thanks for adding that fact! Now we’ll dare someone to find a National Park unit smaller than .02 acres. . .
Hi everyone,
I was wandering if there is, by any chance, a world list of Natural Parks by dimensions (e.g. square meters).
Thanks a lot!
I haven’t seen a list that compares park sizes from different countries. Sorry I can’t help!