By state
National parks in Washington
Every National Park Service unit in Washington, scored and ranked by our Experience Score.
100ESSENTIAL
NPS Photo / H. Richards
National Historical Reserve · WA
Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve
Ebey's Landing is unlike almost any other unit in the NPS system: more than 80% of it is privately owned farmland, and the 'park' is really a living community on Whidbey Island wrapped around the historic town of Coupeville.
100ESSENTIAL
NPS Photo/D.Dixon
National Park · WA
North Cascades National Park
North Cascades is the real deal for anyone willing to earn their views.
97ESSENTIAL
NPS Photo
National Recreation Area · WA
Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area
Lake Roosevelt is a sprawling freshwater playground backed by ice age geology and genuine eastern Washington solitude.
90ESSENTIAL
JD Hascup Photo
National Park · WA
Mount Rainier National Park
Mount Rainier is the rare park that rewards visitors at almost every level of ambition.
90ESSENTIAL
NPS Photo/Jon Preston
National Park · WA
Olympic National Park
Olympic is one of the genuinely rare parks where you can surf Pacific waves in the morning, hike through old-growth temperate rainforest at midday, and stargaze above snowfields by evening.
88ESSENTIAL
NPS Photo/Gary Tarleton
National Historical Park · WA
San Juan Island National Historical Park
San Juan Island NHP pulls off something rare: a genuinely compelling history lesson wrapped inside a beautiful Pacific Northwest island setting.
83EXCELLENT
NPS Photo
National Historical Park · ID
Nez Perce National Historical Park
Nez Perce National Historical Park is unlike almost any other unit in the system: 38 separate sites scattered across four states, free to enter, and built around one of the most consequential and underrepresented stories in American history.
78EXCELLENT
NPS Photo
National Historical Park · OR
Lewis and Clark National Historical Park
This is one of the more immersive historical parks in the country, and it earns that status by pairing serious museum content with genuine outdoor activity on the Oregon and Washington coast.
75EXCELLENT
NPS Photo
National Historic Site · WA
Whitman Mission National Historic Site
Whitman Mission punches above its size.
74EXCELLENT
NPS Photo / Alex Wiles
National Historic Trail · IA
Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail
At nearly 4,900 miles across 16 states, this is less a destination than a framework for road-tripping American history.
66WORTH IT
NPS Photo / Troy Wayrynen
National Historic Site · OR
Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
Fort Vancouver punches above its weight for a $10 urban history site.
62WORTH IT
NPS photo
National Historic Trail · ID
Oregon National Historic Trail
The Oregon National Historic Trail is less a destination than a 2,000-plus-mile framework for understanding westward migration across six states.
43NICHE
NPS
National Historical Park · WA
Klondike Gold Rush - Seattle Unit National Historical Park
Tucked into Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood, this free urban park punches above its weight as a history lesson on the 1897-1898 Klondike Gold Rush and Seattle's role as the supply hub that made it all possible.
43NICHE
Los Alamos National Laboratory
National Historical Park · NM
Manhattan Project National Historical Park
This is not a park you visit for scenery.
42NICHE
NPS Photo
National Historic Site · ID
Minidoka National Historic Site
Minidoka is not a comfortable park, and it is not meant to be.
40NICHE
Lindsay Kennedy
Affiliated Area · WA
Wing Luke Museum Affiliated Area
The Wing Luke is a small but genuinely affecting museum in Seattle's Chinatown-International District, dedicated to the Asian Pacific American experience in the Pacific Northwest.
38NICHE
NPS Photo
National Geologic Trail · WA
Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
This is not a park you visit so much as a region you decode.