I Drove Through Every US National Park Last Year and These 5 Were the Worst

Driving to U.S. national parks has become a bigger planning exercise as visitation stays high across the National Park Service system. After a year spent driving through all 63 national parks in 2025, these five were the least rewarding road trip stops for me because the access issues, crowding, or logistics were hard to ignore.

Congaree National Park, South Carolina

Congaree National Park in central South Carolina is one of the smallest draws in the 63-park system if your trip is mainly about scenic driving. The National Park Service centers the experience on the Boardwalk Loop and Cedar Creek, not on a long park road or multiple overlooks.

For drivers, that matters because there is basically one main way in and one main developed area near the Harry Hampton Visitor Center. The park sits about 20 miles southeast of Columbia, and that short approach does not deliver the kind of varied road trip experience many people expect from a national park.

That does not mean Congaree is poorly managed. It means the park is built more for paddling, hiking, and floodplain forest viewing than for a drive-first visit, according to the National Park Service.

Gateway Arch National Park, Missouri

Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, Missouri, is the smallest national park by area at roughly 91 acres, according to the National Park Service. For a traveler trying to drive through every national park, it can feel more like an urban monument stop than a classic park visit.

The Arch itself is nationally significant, and the museum below it is modern and well used. But the road trip downside is obvious once you arrive in downtown St. Louis, where parking, city traffic, and timed entry planning shape the visit more than any natural landscape.

That makes it a weaker fit for people expecting trails, wildlife corridors, or long scenic roads. In my own 2025 loop, this was one of the clearest examples of a park designation not matching the road trip image many travelers bring with them.

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas

Hot Springs National Park wraps around part of Hot Springs, Arkansas, and that mixed urban setting changes the experience immediately. Bathhouse Row is historic, and the park preserves one of the oldest federally protected landscapes in the country, with roots going back to 1832.

Still, for drivers comparing all 63 parks, this one can feel fragmented. The main developed section blends into city streets, storefronts, and regular traffic, and that means the arrival does not have the same sense of separation people get in parks like Yellowstone or Big Bend.

The National Park Service promotes the park’s historic bathhouses, trails, and mountain drives. But if the goal is a dramatic nature-based road trip stop, Hot Springs can feel less distinct than many travelers may expect from the national park label.

Biscayne National Park, Florida

Biscayne National Park in South Florida protects about 95 percent water, according to the National Park Service. That single fact explains why it can be a frustrating stop for people, like me, who are trying to experience every park primarily by car.

The main access point at the Dante Fascell Visitor Center in Homestead gives you views, exhibits, and shoreline access. But most of the park’s reefs, keys, and open water require a boat, guided tour, or other on-water planning that many road trippers do not have on a tight schedule.

As a result, the drive gets you to the edge of the park, not really into it. For travelers ranking parks by what they can actually see from a vehicle or on a short stop, Biscayne is one of the hardest to fully experience.

Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska

Kobuk Valley National Park in northwestern Alaska is the most obvious outlier on this list because there are no roads into the park, according to the National Park Service. For a project built around driving to all 63 national parks, that alone made it one of the toughest and least practical stops.

The park is known for the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes and the Western Arctic caribou migration. But reaching it generally requires chartered air service from regional hubs such as Kotzebue, and there are no visitor center services inside the park itself.

That does not make Kobuk Valley a bad park in any broad sense. It makes it a difficult fit for ordinary U.S. travelers planning a road trip, especially when cost, weather, and access can all limit what a visitor is able to do on a single visit.