9 national parks that might be closer than you think

You can find Anacostia, a neighborhood national park, in the heart of the city. The park offers many recreational opportunities, including fishing, boat tours, trail-running and even rollerskating! The park features basketball courts, playgrounds and picnic areas (with grills!), making it an excellent outdoor venue for quality time with friends and family. If you are in the area, you can also check out the only aquatic garden in the National Park Service: Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens—a subsection of Anacostia Park. The lotus flowers and water lilies bloom every summer, and the park hosts a week-long festival with live performances.

Just 30 minutes from downtown Chicago on the far South Side, you can find Pullman National Historic Park, the city’s first National Park Service site.  The Pullman Strike of 1894, which is commemorated at the park, is considered one of the most pivotal events to shape labor policy as we know it. Later in 1925, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was founded as the first-ever African-American labor union.

Spanning two states, Gateway National Recreation Areas encompasses 27,000 acres of green spaces, beaches, historic structures and cultural landscapes. The area is rich with recreational opportunities, including archery, hiking, bird watching, camping and swimming. The recreation area consists of three parts: Jamaica Bay is in Brooklyn and Queens, New York; Sandy Hook in New Jersey; and Staten Island in New York.

Gateway is also home to hundreds of plant species and wild animals, like harbor seals and osprey, which you may catch a glimpse of when you visit. You can reach the park by car, ferry, bus or train—and some areas are even accessible by bike.

Located in Texas’ sixth most populous city and right across the U.S.-Mexico border is El Chamizal National Memorial. This neighborhood park commemorates the peaceful settlement of the Chamizal boundary dispute. The treaty, signed in 1963, ended a century-old boundary dispute between the United States and Mexico caused by a change in the course of the Rio Grande. The site includes a museum, theatre, art galleries, picnic areas and trails where you can bike or walk your dog.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta has several landmarks, monuments and exhibits. All these sites commemorate the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. You can visit his childhood home, the church where he was a pastor and his and his wife, civil rights activist Coretta Scott King’s, gravesite. The “I Have a Dream” World Peace Rose Garden is full of multi-colored roses representing Dr. King’s ideals of peace through nonviolence. You can access the park by car or public transportation.  

Mostly underwater, Biscayne National Park is the largest marine sanctuary in the National Park Service, preserving more than 172,000 acres of nature. Less than an hour from Miami, the park manages a portion of the only living coral reef in the continental United States, which is the third largest barrier reef tract in the world. The park is home to several islands, mangrove forests and endangered or threatened species including manatees and sea turtles. Visitors can go fishing, boating, diving, snorkeling, paddling, hiking, camping and much more! 

Learn about how a Black family shepherded and protected the park for generations.

Channel Islands National Park is closer to the Los Angeles metropolitan area than people might think. The main visitor’s centers in Ventura and Santa Barbara are accessible by car and public transportation—but you still need to hop on a concessionaire boat to get to the island (which is part of the fun!). The islands provide a quiet break from the congestion and clamor of the city—with endless opportunities to hike, camp under the stars, snorkel, kayak and birdwatch. From spring through summer, you can go whale-watching and might even spot seals, sea lions, dolphins or the island fox (fun fact: the island fox is the size of a house cat, yet is the largest land animal on the island!). 

Twenty miles from Sin City, you will find an urban park preserving thousands of years of a landscape transformed into what we now know as the Las Vegas Valley. Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument shares that history as it protects prehistoric Ice Age fossils. Picture standing in the same exact spot where Columbian mammoths once roamed! You can get there by car, bus or bicycle. And remember, if you find a fossil, you should leave it where it is, take a picture and let park staff know (it’s against federal regulations to disturb or collect fossils on any National Park Service site).