Glacier National Park, located on the border with Canada, takes third place. Glacier National Park covers over a million acres containing parts of two mountain ranges, over 130 lakes, more than 1,000 different plant species, and hundreds of different species of animals. Despite this, Glacier National Park has just 5,748 visitors last year, despite 88.8% of those visitors naming it as “excellent”.
With the top three highest-rated yet least popular US national parks being located in glacial climates, it is clear that the USA’s hidden gems are located in icy locations, as opposed to the more popular parks in the heat of the likes of California and Utah!
With that being said, the research also reveals the most overrated national parks in the USA:
| Rank | National park | Total visitors (2020) | % of “excellent” reviews |
| 1 | Indiana Dunes, Indiana | 2,293,106 | 51.0% |
| 2 | Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio | 2,755,628 | 54.8% |
| 3 | Hot Springs, Arkansas | 1,348,215 | 62.2% |
| 4 | Yosemite, California | 2,268,313 | 80.1% |
| 5 | Zion, Utah | 3,591,254 | 81.3% |
The Indiana Dunes are among the most visited national parks in the country, with 2.3 million visitors in 2020, yet it seems that not as many people were blown away by the lakefront park, with just 51% of people rating it as excellent.
The Dunes only became a national park in 2019 and many argue that they don’t really stand out too much from similar attractions around Lake Michigan which are likely to have much smaller crowds too.
