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Quiz: How Well Do You Know the National Parks?

Test yourself on America's 63 natural wonders

Lynn Addison,

AARP

En español

Published February 19, 2016

/ Updated February 08, 2022

11 Questions

Quiz: How Well Do You Know the National Parks?

[ {
 "question" : "What was the first national park?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Grand Canyon (Arizona)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Yellowstone (Wyoming, Montana, Idaho)",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Yosemite (California)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Theodore Roosevelt (North Dakota)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Yellowstone was the first national park, signed into law in 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Which national park has the deepest lake in the U.S.?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Lake Clark (Alaska)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Crater Lake (Oregon)",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Grand Teton (Wyoming)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Shenandoah (Virginia)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Crater Lake, at 1,943 feet deep, is the deepest lake in the U.S. and one of the 10 deepest lakes in the world. It was formed by the collapse of a volcano more than 7,000 years ago.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "What causes the blue haze for which Great Smoky Mountains National Park is named?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Cars",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Fires",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Plants",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Animals",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "The haze is the result of transpiration: the evaporation of water from plant leaves. However, air pollution — mostly caused by power plants, industry and cars outside the park — is shrinking scenic views.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Which president signed the National Park Service into being in 1916?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Theodore Roosevelt",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Woodrow Wilson",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Franklin Roosevelt",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "William Taft",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Wilson signed the act creating the service, a federal bureau in the Department of the Interior.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "What is the highest number of visits Yellowstone has recorded in a single year — and when was it?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "About 5.2 million in 2019",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "About 4.86 million in 2021",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "About 2.74 million in 2020",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Almost 3 million in 2019",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "In 2021, Yellowstone had its busiest year on record, hosting 4,860,537 recreation visits.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch hid out in the canyons of which national park?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Grand Canyon (Arizona)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Canyonlands (Utah)",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Rocky Mountain (Colorado)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Great Basin (Nevada)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "After robbing trains at the turn of the 20th century, Cassidy and his gang hid in the confusing web of canyons in southwest Utah. The area became Canyonlands National Park in 1964.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "An early 20th-century newspaper described which national park as offering “all the adversity of hell without the inconveniences.”\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Arches (Utah)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Death Valley (California and Nevada)",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Joshua Tree (California)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Mojave National Preserve (California)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Death Valley is the driest and hottest place in North America, with less than two inches of rainfall each year and a record high temperature of 134°F (the highest recorded atmospheric temperature ever recorded on Earth).\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Carbon Glacier in this national park has the greatest thickness and volume of any glacier in the continental U.S.\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Glacier (Montana)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Denali (Alaska)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Mount Rainier (Washington)",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Zion (Utah)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "The 25 major glaciers on the mountain constitute the largest collection of permanent ice on a single U.S. peak south of Alaska.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Which national park includes the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi River?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Acadia (Maine)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Isle Royale (Michigan)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Cuyahoga Valley (Ohio)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Everglades (Florida)",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "The park is considered a swamp, but it was once a river 50 miles wide and six inches deep. South Florida is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live together.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "The most massive single mountain on Earth is located in which national park?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Rocky Mountain (Colorado)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Hawaii Volcanoes (Hawaii)",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Yosemite (California)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Guadalupe Mountains (Texas)",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "The volume of Mauna Loa, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, is some 20,000 cubic miles; it exceeds Mount Everest in height and mass. It is also one of the world’s largest and most active volcanoes.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Which of the following national parks is the newest?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado ",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, West Virginia",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Gateway Arch National Park, Missouri",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "New River Gorge became America's 63rd national park (and West Virginia’s first) in December 2020.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
} ]

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