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…)

North Carolina National Park

The state of North Carolina has just one national park:

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains national park photoGreat Smoky Mountains National Park is known as the “wildflower national park.” It has over 5,400 plant species and is an excellent location for hiking, photography, birdwatching, camping, and horseback riding. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a hiker's paradise with over 800 miles of maintained trails.

Ridge upon ridge of forest straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. World renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life, the beauty of its ancient mountains, and the quality of its remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain culture, this is America’s most visited national park.