By state
National parks in Indiana
Every national park and public-land unit in Indiana, scored and ranked by our Experience Score.
Indiana's National Park Service sites offer a mix of natural beauty and historical depth. The two main destinations are in different parts of the state. Indiana Dunes National Park, in the northwest, features lakefront dunes and dark night skies. Hoosier National Forest, in the south, provides extensive options for hiking, camping, and water activities across its rolling hills. Also in southern Indiana, Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial and George Rogers Clark National Historical Park tell important stories. These sites highlight Abraham Lincoln's early life and a key frontier campaign that helped open the American interior. The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail also passes through Indiana, linking it to that famous expedition. Overall, Indiana is a good choice for those seeking accessible wilderness, family-oriented history, and exploration without the crowds.
93DOES IT ALL
Share the Experience, Raymond Lee
National Forest · IN
Hoosier National Forest
Hoosier National Forest, a 204,000-acre working public land in south-central Indiana's hill country, offers substantial recreational breadth.
90DOES IT ALL
NPS Photo
National Park · IN
Indiana Dunes National Park
Indiana Dunes National Park offers surprising breadth for its Midwest location.
76WIDE RANGE
NPS Photo
National Historical Park · IN
George Rogers Clark National Historical Park
George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Vincennes, Indiana commemorates a pivotal, lesser-known military victory of the American Revolution: Clark's February 1779 capture of Fort Sackville.
74WIDE RANGE
NPS Photo / Alex Wiles
National Historic Trail · IA
Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail
The Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail presents a formidable undertaking.
73WIDE RANGE
NPS Photo/Paula Alexander
National Memorial · IN
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial delivers a contemplative experience on the Indiana land where Abraham Lincoln lived from age 7 to 21.
Reading the Indiana rankings
Order here is the Experience Score, the same measure we run on every unit in the country: a public-data read of how much a place documents and how easy it is to reach, capped so no single input dominates. It is not a beauty contest and it is not about crowds. Across the 5 Indiana units below, that is why Hoosier National Forest sits on top.
One honest limit. The number knows breadth and access, nothing about weather, crowds, trail shape, or the feel of a place. So do not read a lower rank as a worse day out, and note 4 of these Indiana units are free to enter. Compare the scores for what each place documents; lean on the individual verdicts for the human read.