Americans are always on the search for great national parks—and this week, Google released its Year in Search trends for 2023, along withsome unpublished data shared directly with Condé Nast Traveler, confirming exactly which parks were searched the most via Google Maps over the past year.
“We continue to see Americans show a great deal of interest in traveling to national parks, whether that’s to see the sights or to check off another park from their bucket list,” Jenny Lee, Google Search’s Data Insights Lead, tells CNT.
Yes, there are the usual suspects on the below list—big, household names that no doubt countless Americans roadtripped to—but what’s surprising is the absence of a few regular suspects on most-visited lists from the National Park Service (NPS) in recent years, and the rise of some that don’t always make “top 10” lists.
Read on for the full run-down of the 10 national parks people searched for most on Google Maps this year, in descending order—plus, how to enjoy a visit that allows you to bypass everyone else who has planned a trip there (including some totally underrated parks and NPS sites nearby to detour to).
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10. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
For those seeking an elevated national park adventure—literally—Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the highest parks in the US, with altitudes ranging from 7,860 to 14,259 feet. That includes sixty peaks that each stretch more than 12,000 feet into the Colorado skies. With the 415-square-mile site straddling the Continental Divide, visitors are treated to a range of ecosystems and terrains, from sprawling valleys with summertime wildflowers to lush subalpine forests with dense evergreen trees and alpine tundras with dwarfed plants and wide open viewpoints.
