5 Offbeat National Parks No One Told You About

5 Offbeat National Parks No One Told You About (Image: Canva)

Many well-known parks receive millions of visitors, whereas other, equally beautiful, but less known national parks remain a secret. These are the less-travelled places with untouched and unique landscapes, endangered wildlife and fewer tourists, so they suit travellers who want something more than the beaten track.

Great Basin National Park, USA
Isolated in the eastern end of Nevada, the Great Basin is a startling blend of antique bristlecone pines, marble caves and high alpine mountains. It has the most amazing night skies without lots of people, and is the universe of stargazers and hikers.

Namdapha National Park, India
Namdapha is the easternmost and third-largest national park of India and is located in the far south-east of Arunachal Pradesh. It has thick tropical forests, endangered red pandas, and snow leopards and is a haven to wildlife enthusiasts who want to experience pure wilderness and untainted views.

Lencois Maranhenses National Park, Brazil
Lencois Maranhenses is not like any other park: it is a surreal landscape of white dunes covered with seasonal rainwater lagoons. The combination of blue pools and desert-like sand creates an impression of a living painting.

Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Fiordland may be familiar to local visitors, but it is still quite a draw among the global tourists. It is a dramatic area of fjords, waterfalls and glacial valleys. Tourists can go kayaking around the Milford Sound, hike along the rocky paths and be amazed by the size of things with minimal disturbance.

Kafue National Park, Zambia
Kafue is one of the most spacious yet less densely populated parks in Africa, occupying an enormous area of savannah, rivers and wetlands. It has the wildlife of elephants, leopards and rare antelope. The wide area and wild nature generate a real safari environment.

Why Visit These Parks

These minor national parks are isolated, yet beautiful at the same time. They enable tourists to experience nature more deeply and see rare species of wildlife without the presence of huge masses of tourists, and explore landscapes that seem to be unexplored frontiers well outside the range of mainstream tourism.