The U.S. National Park Service preserves 58 national parks, 390 parks, historic sites, memorials, and recreation areas that attract nearly 300 million visitors every year. Our U.S. national parks are repositories of the nation’s biological diversity and contain some of the last ecosystem remnants that are found nowhere else in the world. Explore US Parks Online

Shenandoah National Park is a beautiful, historic national treasure which includes the 105-mile long Skyline Drive, a National Scenic Byway. The Park covers the crest of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains for over seventy-five miles. The Appalachian Trail roughly parallels the Skyline Drive and 101 miles of this trail run through the Park. (more…)

Hispanic Heritage Sites

Some 20 national park lands represent America’s Hispanic heritage. Some sites remotely display Hispanic contributions to American culture, while others were influenced by Hispanics who were part of the National Park System.

Among the first Hispanics who influenced the course of the National Parks was George Melendez Wright, who was hired in 1927 at Yosemite National Park as assistant park naturalist.

Through his studies and insight, the park service moved away from the destruction of predators, which he recognized as a keystone group of animals critical to maintaining the balance of all the animals in the park,  to the scientific management of park plants, animals and scenery.

Today, these memorials, monuments, seashores, parks, and historic sites reflect the Hispanic contribution to US History:

Christiansted National Historic Site (Christiansted, United States Virgin Islands)

  • On Saint Croix, it is the only site under United States jurisdiction to have been visited by Christopher Columbus.

Cabrillo National Monument (San Diego, California)

  • Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Portuguese explorer who claimed the West Coast of the United States for Spain in 1542, is memorialized here.

Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (St. Augustine, Florida)

  • Construction on the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States was started in 1672 by the Spanish to protect St. Augustine. St. Augustine is the first permanent continually-occupied settlement in the continental United States.

Chamizal National Memorial (El Paso, Texas)

  • The peaceful settlement of the 99-year boundary dispute between the United States and Mexico is memorialized here. International artists present cultural exchange programs in drama, dance, and music.

Coronado National Memorial (Hereford, Arizona)

  • The first European exploration of the Southwest is commemorated here at the spot whether the expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1540 entered what is now the United States.

De Soto National Memorial (Bradenton, Florida)

  • The landing of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1539 and the first extensive exploration of the southern United States by Europeans are commemorated.

Dry Tortugas National Park

El Morro National Monument (Ramah, New Mexico)

  • “Inscription Rock” is a soft sandstone monolith on which are carved hundreds of inscriptions. Included are inscriptions of the Spanish explorers and settlers of the American Southwest.

Fort Matanzas National Monument (St. Augustine, Florida)

  • This Spanish fort was built (1740–1742) to warn St. Augustine of British or other enemy approach from the south.

Gulf Islands National Seashore Bateria de San Antonio (Gulf Breeze, Florida)

  • Offshore islands have sparkling sand beaches, historic forts, and nature trails.

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail

Padre Island National Seashore

Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park

Pecos National Historical Park

Presidio of San Francisco

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument (Mountainair, New Mexico)

  • This park preserves and interprets the best remaining examples of 17th-century Spanish Franciscan mission churches and coventos remaining in the United States.

Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (San Antonio, Texas)

  • Four Spanish frontier missions, part of a colonization system that stretched across the Spanish Southwest in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries are commemorated here.

San Juan National Historic Site (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

  • These masonry fortifications, oldest in the territorial limits of the United States, were begun by the Spaniards in the 16th century to protect a strategic harbor guarding the sea lanes to the new world.

Tumacácori National Historical Park (Tumacacori, Arizona)

  • This historic Spanish Catholic mission building stands near the site first visited by Jesuit Father Kino in 1691.