Checklist of World Heritage Sites visited in the United States. This is a dynamic list, with plans for checking off more sites in the future. ✔︎ means “visited,” and ✖︎ means “need to visit.”
Mesa Verde National Park – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1978, this 6th to 12th century pueblo is in Colorado. We tried to reach it, but a blizzard did a good job of closing the road.
Yellowstone National Park – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1978, this was the first National Park in the United States, established by President Ulysses S Grant in 1872. Yellowstone National Park covers 9,000 square kilometers spread out over Idaho, Montana, and (mostly) Wyoming. Half of the world’s active geysers are within the Yellowstone Caldera.
Kluane-Wrangell-St. Elias-Glacier Bay-Tatshenshini-Alsek – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1979, this vast region stretches across southeastern Alaska and into Canada’s Yukon and British Columbia provinces. It has the largest non-polar ice field in the world, with many massive glaciers, and habitat ranging from sea-level fisheries and rookeries to alpine forests.
Grand Canyon National Park – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1979, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is 446 kilometers long, cutting across northern Arizona and providing spectacular views of nearly two billion years of geological history.
Everglades National Park – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1979, the park is the largest tropical wilderness in North America, a vast expanse of marshy grasslands, tropical rainforests, and estuarine habitat. Due to commercialization around the park, water diversion for irrigation, and polluted runoff from industry and agriculture, the park, located in southern Florida, is listed as in danger.
Independence Hall – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1979, the hall was completed in Philadelphia in 1753 to house the assembly for the Province of Pennsylvania. The Second Continental Congress met there in 1776, signing the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. In 1787, the hall hosted the Constitutional Convention which resulted in the adoption of the United States Constitution.
Redwood National and State Parks – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1980, the Northern California parks are home to coastal redwoods, the tallest trees on Earth and one of the most massive living organisms. The trees also anchor a rich ecosystem that is home to countless birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and, along the shoreline, various salt water creatures.
Mammoth Cave National Park – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1981, the 630 kilometer long cave system is the longest such cave system in the world. Located in Kentucky, the cave system is also home to more than 130 different species of plants and animal life.
Olympic National Park – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1981, the park ranges from Pacific coastline to towering mountains, and is home to the largest temperate rainforest in the world. The park is in the northwestern corner of Washington State.
Cahokia – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1982, this is the largest urban settlement of Mississipian culture, occupied from roughly the 7th to the 15th centuries. The settlement, located in Illinois, covered 1,600 hectares and includes 120 mounds.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1983, the park straddles the Tennessee and North Carolina border. The name comes from the frequent mists and fogs that cover the area, providing ideal habitat for the largest variety of salamanders on Earth. The park, one of the most visited in the Eastern United States, is considered endangered, mostly from industrial air pollution and runoff.
La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1983, the site includes several fortifications built by Spain between the 15th and 18th centuries. The classic European military architecture makes it one of the most visited sites in Puerto Rico.
Statue of Liberty – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1984, the towering statue of “Liberty Enlightening the World” (La Liberté éclairant le mode) consists of Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty, holding a torch aloft, and a Roman tablet inscribed with “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI” (July 4, 1776). Erected on Bedloe’s Island (now Liberty Island) in New York harbor, the statue’s completion in 1886 prompted New York’s first ticker-tape parade.
Yosemite National Park – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1984, the park is centered on Yosemite Valley, with spectacular cliffs, waterfalls, and giant Sequoia (a cousin to the coastal Redwoods). The California park is so popular that visits require reservations.
Chaco Culture National Historic Park – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1987, the New Mexico park contains an extraordinary range of pueblo dwellings and ruins, dating back to the 10th century.
Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1987, the park is home Mauna Loa and Kilauea, two of the five volcanos that form the island of Hawaii. Mauna Loa is considered the most massive volcano in the world, and when measured from the surrounding submerged plain, the tallest mountain in the world.
Monticello and the University of Virginia – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1987, Monticello was designed by Thomas Jefferson, who also designed several of the earliest buildings of the University of Virginia. The architecture is considered to be exceptional examples of classic Roman themes adapted as physical examples of American ideals.
Taos Pueblo – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1992, the pueblo was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. It is located in northern New Mexico.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1995, the park has over 100 caves, including the Carlsbad Caverns and Lechuguilla Cave. Located in New Mexico, the cave system is one of the most heavily studied due to unique geological and biological features.
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 1995, the park spans the border between Montana and Alberta. In addition to glaciers (almost all of them threatened by climate change), the park has beautiful mountain vistas, mountain meadows, and watersheds that drain into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans.
Papahanaumokuakea – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 2010, this 360,000 square kilometer preserve is the largest marine protected area on Earth. Stretching from the main islands of Hawaii to Midway, it is home to over 7,000 species, a quarter of which are found nowhere else on earth. The area is closed to most visitors.
Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point – ✖︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 2014, the site contains vast earthworks constructed around 2,700 years ago. Located in Louisiana, the earthworks required moving roughly 750,000 cubic meters of material, some of it from more than a thousand miles away.
San Antonio Missions – ✔︎
Recognized by UNESCO in 2015, the five Catholic missions are jointly maintained by the U.S. Park Service and the Roman Catholic Church. Located around San Antonio, Texas, the missions were built in the 18th and 19th centuries, and became centers for agriculture and commerce, spreading the Catholic faith, and expanding Spain’s influence in North America.
