The National Park Service was created by an act signed by President Woodrow Wilson on August 25, 1916. Yellowstone National Park was established by an act signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, as the nation’s first national park. View the National Park System.

The system includes 419 areas covering more than 85 million acres in every state, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. These areas include national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House.

You can book some park tours through Recreation.gov such as WWII Valor in the Pacific (Pearl Harbor), many Mammoth Cave National Park cave tours, Independence National Historical Park tours, and more. Not all parks participate in this reservation service. For more information on tours offered at a specific park, please see the park search.

Yes, service dogs are legally permitted anywhere in a park that visitors can go. Learn more about service animals in national parks, including the difference between service animals and emotional support animals.

Concessionaires provide park visitors with lodging, transportation, food services, shops, and other services. More than 480 NPS concession contracts in more than 100 different park units vary in size from small, family-owned businesses to national/international corporations. Learn more about commercial services in the National Park Service.

National Park Service jobs, including both permanent and seasonal positions, are listed on USAJOBs. Learn more about working for us, including opportunities for students and volunteers and tips for applying for jobs.