The Essentials

National Parks & Accessibility

Badlands National Park

When choosing which national parks to visit, most folks consider things like seasonality or how crowded the parks might be.

But there’s another important measurement for many travelers — how accessible are national parks for people with disabilities, especially mobility issues?

The most wheelchair friendly national park is Badlands National Park in South Dakota. It has three wheelchair friendly trails, and most of its restaurants can accommodate wheelchairs.

Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park has two dozen wheelchair friendly trails — about 10% of its total trails.

And Yellowstone National Park, which touches three states, has the most number of accessible trails — 16.

But if you have a mobility issue, you might want to avoid Pinnacles National Park in California. It has no wheelchair accessible trails.