National Parks Trivia Questions and Answers

30 national parks trivia questions with answers, from Denali to the Everglades. A free phone deck for the drive to the park, with read-aloud.

The rainbow rings around Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring get their colors from what?

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Tap the card or swipe for the next question. Arrow keys work too.

Tap Show answer under a card to reveal it, then swipe for the next question. Read aloud reads only the question, so the reader can ask without giving the answer away. The deck keeps your place if you close the page, which helps when the park has no signal.

Play it on the drive in

The best time for national parks trivia is the last hour before the park. Everyone is excited, the scenery is changing, and a question about where you’re going lands better than one about somewhere far away. Ask the questions about your park first, then shuffle the rest.

Most parks put up a big wooden entrance sign that families stop to photograph. Make it the finish line: whoever has the most points when you reach the sign stands in the middle of the picture.

What’s in this deck

Thirty questions from all over the country, mixed from easy to hard:

Animals. The bats of Carlsbad Caverns, the bears fishing at Brooks Falls in Katmai, the bison that became the national mammal, the fireflies that flash in sync at Congaree.
Land and water. How Crater Lake formed, what White Sands is made of, the park that is 95 percent water, the rainforest in Washington.
Record holders. The biggest park, the longest cave system, the tallest trees, the tallest mountain in North America.
Parks that are hard to reach. A park with no roads at all, one south of the equator, and islands you can only visit by boat or plane.

Earn the badge too

At most national parks, kids can pick up a Junior Ranger booklet, usually free, at the visitor center, finish the activities, and get sworn in by a ranger with a badge. It’s the natural sequel to this deck. After a round of trivia in the car, kids already know some answers the booklet asks for.

More trivia for the road

If the trip crosses several states on the way, the state trivia deck lets you pick only the states on your route. The Utah, Arizona and Colorado decks cover the Mighty 5, the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde in more detail. For questions about the highways that get you there, try the road trip trivia deck.

All 30 questions and answers

The rainbow rings around Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring get their colors from what?
Answer
Tiny heat-loving microbes that live in the water at the edges.
In what year was the National Park Service created?
Answer
1916.
What is the flat-brimmed hat that park rangers wear called?
Answer
The flat hat, also called a campaign hat.
Which is the biggest US national park by area?
Answer
Wrangell–St. Elias, in Alaska.
Which national park in Kentucky protects the longest known cave system in the world?
Answer
Mammoth Cave National Park.
The tallest mountain in North America gives its name to which Alaska national park?
Answer
Denali National Park.
Which Florida national park is home to both alligators and crocodiles?
Answer
Everglades National Park.
At Carlsbad Caverns on summer evenings, what flies out of the cave in a huge swirling cloud?
Answer
Bats: Brazilian free-tailed bats heading out to hunt insects.
Which national park has two active volcanoes, Kīlauea and Mauna Loa?
Answer
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
Which road crosses Glacier National Park in Montana, over Logan Pass?
Answer
Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Which national park in Washington has a rainforest, the Hoh Rain Forest?
Answer
Olympic National Park.
Crater Lake in Oregon fills the hole left by which volcano when it collapsed?
Answer
Mount Mazama, about 7,700 years ago.
The tallest trees on Earth grow in which California national park, named after them?
Answer
Redwood National and State Parks. The trees are coast redwoods.
Which national park in St. Louis is centered on a 630-foot steel arch?
Answer
Gateway Arch National Park.
Which South Dakota national park gets its name from the Lakota words for "bad land"?
Answer
Badlands National Park.
Which animal became the national mammal of the United States in 2016?
Answer
The American bison.
What program lets kids earn a badge by doing activities at a national park?
Answer
The Junior Ranger program.
Which North Dakota national park is named after a president who once ranched in the area?
Answer
Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Which Alaska national park, north of the Arctic Circle, has no roads or trails at all?
Answer
Gates of the Arctic National Park.
Which is the only US national park south of the equator?
Answer
The National Park of American Samoa.
In which South Carolina national park can you see fireflies that flash in sync in late spring?
Answer
Congaree National Park.
Which Washington national park surrounds a glacier-covered volcano you can see from Seattle on a clear day?
Answer
Mount Rainier National Park.
The white dunes at White Sands National Park in New Mexico are made of what mineral?
Answer
Gypsum. You can sled down them.
Which Wyoming national park has jagged peaks rising straight up from Jackson Hole?
Answer
Grand Teton National Park.
Joshua Tree National Park is where two deserts meet. Which two?
Answer
The Mojave Desert and the Colorado Desert.
How long is Skyline Drive, the road through Shenandoah National Park?
Answer
105 miles.
Which Arkansas national park has a row of historic bathhouses called Bathhouse Row?
Answer
Hot Springs National Park.
How do you get to Channel Islands National Park in California?
Answer
By boat or small plane. The islands sit off the coast.
At Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, what do brown bears come to catch?
Answer
Salmon jumping up the falls.
About how much of Biscayne National Park in Florida is water?
Answer
About 95 percent.

Frequently asked questions

What are some good national parks trivia questions?

Ask which park is the biggest (Wrangell–St. Elias in Alaska), which one is south of the equator (American Samoa), or what flies out of Carlsbad Caverns on summer evenings (bats). The deck has 30 of them, with answers, from Denali to the Everglades.

Are these national parks questions good for kids?

Yes, for kids around 7 and up. Many are about animals, like bison, bears and bats, and one is about the Junior Ranger program kids can join at most parks. Adults tend to get stuck on the Alaska questions.

When was the National Park Service created?

In 1916. Yellowstone had already been a national park since 1872, but there was no single agency to run the parks until Congress created the National Park Service.