Did you know that there are 61 national parks in the U.S. National Park System?  (As of this writing.)  I thought it would be fun to look at them alphabetically with this little rhyme…

A is for Acadia, American Samoa, and Arches.

B is for Badlands, Big Bend, Biscayne, and Bryce

Also Black Canyon of the Gunnison (which does not rhyme nice).

C is for Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Congaree,

Channel Islands, Crater Lake, all starting with “C”.

Also Carlsbad Caverns and Cuyahoga Valley.

D is for Death Valley, Dry Tortugas, Denali

E is for Everglades, home of things creepy crawly.

F is a letter with no park to claim

Though many historic sites have “Fort” in their name.

G is for parks that are all great and grand: Gates of the Arctic, Gateway Arch, Glacier, Glacier Bay,

And Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Great Basin have much to display.

Then there’s Great Smoky Mountains, Great Sand Dunes and Guadalupe.

H is for Hot Springs, Haleakala, Hawai’i Volcano,

I is for Indiana Dunes and Isle Royale where moose go.

J is simply for Joshua Tree

K for Kings Canyon, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kobuk Valley.

L is for Lake Clark and Lassen Volcanic

M is for Mount Rainier, Mesa Verde, Mammoth Cave (gigantic).

N is for North Cascades, O for Olympic

P is for Petrified Forest and a Pinnacles picnic.

Q is a letter that so far’s been forgotten,

R is for Redwood and the wild Rocky Mountain.

S is for Saguaro, Shenandoah, Sequoia

T is for Theodore Roosevelt – and park lovers owe ya.

V is for Virgin Islands and Voyageurs Parks

W is for Wind Cave and Wrangell-St. Elias landmarks.

X is for, well, let’s rename it Xaguaro,

Y for Yosemite and Yellowstone, that look to tomorrow.

Z is for Zion, the last at this time

And that’s parks A-Z, and the end of my rhyme.