{"id":24775,"date":"2026-02-12T00:30:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T00:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/this-is-the-most-disappointing-us-national-park-according-to-96000-reviews\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T00:30:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T00:30:55","slug":"this-is-the-most-disappointing-us-national-park-according-to-96000-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/this-is-the-most-disappointing-us-national-park-according-to-96000-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is the Most Disappointing US National Park, According to 96,000 Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The study, commissioned by outdoor retailer K\u00fchl, analyzed 95,763 Google and TripAdvisor reviews across all 63 national parks. Researchers capped the samples at 1,000 of the most recent reviews per park, categorizing the overall sentiment as positive, neutral, or negative based on specific keywords. That produced a percentage for each park that reflects how often reviews contain feedback on frustration or disappointment.<\/p>\n<p>However, national park fans need not be offended: in nearly all cases, disappointment stemmed from crowds, pricing, and infrastructure frustrations, not the scenery itself. <em>Usually.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<h2>The most disappointing national park<\/h2>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_885859\" style=\"width: 1610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-885859\" class=\"size-full wp-image-885859 wow-me lazy\" alt=\"hikers under a natural bridge in death valle np\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1018\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.matadornetwork.com\/blogs\/1\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-11-at-1.22.49-PM.jpg\"\/><noscript><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-885859\" class=\"size-full wp-image-885859\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.matadornetwork.com\/blogs\/1\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-11-at-1.22.49-PM.jpg\" alt=\"hikers under a natural bridge in death valle np\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1018\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-885859\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: NPS\/Kurt Moses<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>According to the analysis, Death Valley National Park recorded the highest negative sentiment rate at 12.3 percent. Common complaints included \u201cpacked,\u201d \u201coverpriced,\u201d and \u201cdisappointed.\u201d That may seem counterintuitive for a park known for dramatic desert scenery and the lowest elevation in North America, but Death Valley visitation has surged in recent years, especially during cooler months. The park reported 1,440,484 visitors in 2024, jumping by 31 percent from 2023\u2019s 1,099,632 visitors. That\u2019s high for a park with limited shade, far-apart services, and rough infrastructure in some regions.<\/p>\n<p>However, the report does note that the park\u2019s sometimes Martian-looking landscapes may not be for everyone. \u201cThe rock formation is not that great, quite dusty, hot, etc. Feels like an open pit mine,\u201d wrote one recent Google review, while a recent TripAdvisor reviewer didn\u2019t mince words: \u201cThis was the most disappointing national park of all of them we\u2019ve been [to]. Hot and barren  with little to no beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<h2>The runners up<\/h2>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_885864\" style=\"width: 1610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-885864\" class=\"size-full wp-image-885864 wow-me lazy\" alt=\"disappointing national parks  - campers at petrified forest\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.matadornetwork.com\/blogs\/1\/2026\/02\/a6af15b0-9b91-4b7e-9636-52948ab9e808Original.jpg\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-885864\" class=\"size-full wp-image-885864\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.matadornetwork.com\/blogs\/1\/2026\/02\/a6af15b0-9b91-4b7e-9636-52948ab9e808Original.jpg\" alt=\"disappointing national parks  - campers at petrified forest\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-885864\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Petrified Forest National Park\/Jacob Holgerson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The next most disappointing park, according to reviews, was Arizona\u2019s Petrified Forest National Park, with 9.2 percent of reviews expressing disappointment, followed by Zion National Park in Utah (7.8 percent), Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota (7.7 percent), and Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky (7.3 percent). Across these parks, recurring descriptors included \u201cunderwhelming,\u201d \u201ctoo crowded,\u201d and \u201cpacked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Depending on where the visitor went in the park, some of those descriptions could be correct. So many of Zion\u2019s roughly five million visitors per year stick to the park\u2019s Zion Canyon that it has a mandatory shuttle system, unable to accommodate the number of drivers that would otherwise crowd the area\u2019s one road. It\u2019s also understandable why someone may think Wind Cave and Mammoth Cave are crowded \u2014 as the parks\u2019 caves are their main attractions, nearly all visitors opt for guided cave tours, with some tours able to accommodate between 40 and 110 guests at a time.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<h2>Should you prioritize other parks instead?<\/h2>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_885865\" style=\"width: 1610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-885865\" class=\"size-full wp-image-885865 wow-me lazy\" alt=\"disappointing national parks - kolob canyons zion\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1083\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.matadornetwork.com\/blogs\/1\/2026\/02\/2501FA4C-155D-451F-67856E3144F8CB36Original.jpg\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-885865\" class=\"size-full wp-image-885865\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.matadornetwork.com\/blogs\/1\/2026\/02\/2501FA4C-155D-451F-67856E3144F8CB36Original.jpg\" alt=\"disappointing national parks - kolob canyons zion\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1083\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-885865\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors can find solace even in \u201cdisappointing\u201d parks like Zion by visiting less-trafficked areas, such as Kolob Canyons Road. Photo: Zion National Park<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In a word: no. In multiple words: definitely not. Even many of the reviews expressing disappointment with some parts of the experience are overall positive. Death Valley has an average rating of 4.87 out of five stars, while Petrified Forest is 4.79 out of five. Zion scores an impressive 4.52, while Wind Cave and Mammoth Cave are 4.44 and 4.55, respectively. Most reviewers across all sites report positive, often moving experiences, with reviewers calling Petrified Forest National Park \u201ctoo beautiful and fascinating to capture,\u201d \u201creally nothing like it in the world,\u201d and full of \u201cepic desert colors and timeless landscapes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Researchers on the K\u00fchl study suggests that crowding is the main annoyance for visitors to the most disappointing national parks. \u201cCrowding takes center stage, especially in the most popular parks where narrow canyons, limited parking, or funneling to iconic viewpoints amplify the crush,\u201d it writes. Fortunately, visiting many of these parks in the off season, or visiting the less crowded areas of the parks, can help set visitors up for a better experience. <\/p>\n<p>However, if you have to visit during the crowded periods, adjusting your mindset may make a huge difference. A 2023 study in the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism found that social media posts can make visitors feel as though parks should be nearly empty, and that their opinion can be skewed by whether the park feels crowded relative to that, even when the crowd numbers are actually relatively low. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"post-ender wow-me lazy\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" style=\"width:15px;height:15px;\" src=\"https:\/\/d36tnp772eyphs.cloudfront.net\/assets\/images\/matador-logo-small-2017-bw@3.png\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"post-ender\" src=\"https:\/\/d36tnp772eyphs.cloudfront.net\/assets\/images\/matador-logo-small-2017-bw@3.png\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" style=\"width:15px;height:15px;\"\/><\/noscript> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The study, commissioned by outdoor retailer K\u00fchl, analyzed 95,763 Google and TripAdvisor reviews across all 63 national parks. Researchers capped the samples at 1,000 of the most recent reviews per park, categorizing the overall sentiment as positive, neutral, or negative based on specific keywords. That produced a percentage for each park that reflects how often [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/shutterstock_2540343507-1200x900.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}