10 National Parks That Make the Outdoors More Accessible
10 National Parks That Make the Outdoors More Accessible
istock/117425691524KProduction
https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/experiences/news/photos/most-accessible-national-parks-in-the-u-s
These national parks in the U.S. offer thoughtful tools and adaptations for visitors with a wide variety of disabilities.
As natural treasures on public land, national parks should theoretically be available to everyone. But people with disabilities—whether those that involve mobility, vision, hearing, cognitive, or other challenges—often face significant barriers to enjoying the great outdoors. Despite the fact that all the parks are under the umbrella of the National Park Service, accessibility can vary greatly. Sometimes remote or rugged terrain makes certain parks more difficult to navigate with a disability, while other times it’s the allocation of resources or a difference in local initiatives that creates barriers.
Accessibility also means something different to each disabled visitor. That’s why the availability of detailed information is essential, allowing travelers to plan for individual needs. In that spirit, here are 10 national parks with extensive accessibility features, from wheelchair-accessible paths and American Sign Language (ASL) tours to tactile museum exhibits, sensory tools, and other ways that visitors with disabilities can explore America’s natural wonders.
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK/2399881771MUMEMORIES
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Rocky Mountain National Park
WHERE: Colorado
Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado offers spectacular high-alpine views, backcountry recreation opportunities, and the chance to see elk, bighorn sheep, and other wildlife. But high elevation and rugged mountainous terrain pose challenges to many disabled visitors. For that reason, Rocky Mountain published an Access Guide full of detailed information about conditions and accommodations in each area of the park.
Visitors can reserve all-terrain mobility devices for no cost to make mountain exploration easier; Braille and audio description guides are available for visitors with blindness or low vision, and ASL interpretation or assisted listening devices (ALD) are available upon request. Additionally, travelers don’t have to hike for mountain views. The paved Trail Ridge Road, typically open between late May and October, winds all the way into the mountains past the tree line, offering expansive views without having to venture far from the car.
INSIDER TIP
Inquire about accessible programs with Rocky Mountain National Conservancy, the organization that preserves the park. Activities include Field Institute visits via a wheelchair-accessible shuttle, adaptive fly-fishing excursions, and more.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF VISIT FLORIDA
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Everglades National Park
WHERE: Florida
Thanks to a network of flat, paved trails and boardwalks of varying lengths, many visitors with mobility issues have access to The Everglades’ wetlands. From the wheelchair-accessible Anhinga Trail through a marsh, there’s a good chance of spotting alligators, herons, and other wildlife, and visitors can soak up the atmosphere of a mangrove forest from the wheelchair-accessible West Lake Boardwalk.
Though accessibility varies among providers, many of the boats that take visitors on wildlife viewing tours from Flamingo and Gulf Coast can accommodate wheelchairs, and there are also accessible campsites with wheelchair-accessible restrooms. Films shown at visitor centers include closed captioning, and ALDs are available upon request. For those with visual limitations, there are tactile exhibits and audio description devices available.
PHOTO: KENTUCKY TOURISM
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Mammoth Cave National Park
WHERE: Kentucky
Mammoth Cave National Park exposes visitors to the longest-known cave system in the world, home to thousands of years of human history. Though the elevator for the park’s stairs-free Accessible Tour is listed as undergoing repairs at the time of writing, there are still other ways for wheelchair users to enjoy the area, like the 0.4-mile Sloan’s Crossing Pond trail around a marshy pond complete with accessible picnic tables. Those who use mobility devices can also make use of accessible campgrounds and accessible rooms at the park lodge, some of which have roll-in showers.
The park’s accessibility page outlines what to expect for those with cognitive disabilities or sensory sensitivities, to help prepare for entering a potentially claustrophobia-triggering cave. There’s also an audio-described map of the park and ASL interpretation available, among other accommodations.
Including this because the accessible tours are widely publicized, but my research shows that the elevator has been closed for a while.
PHOTO: ISTOCK/CHERI ALGUIRE
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Saguaro National Park
WHERE: Arizona
With its “Parks for All” approach, Saguaro National Park is working to expand access to its deserts and towering cacti. The park has a unique setup, split into two parts surrounding Tucson. Because of that, it’s a short drive from hotels, restaurants, and other amenities for visitors unable to withstand an extended outing.
Both of the park’s visitor centers are wheelchair-accessible, and there are interpretive programs designed for adaptation, including vehicle caravans where rangers speak near the car. Some trails are also suitable for visitors with mobility challenges, like the Desert Ecology Trail, a paved, quarter-mile-long trail lined with exhibits about local flora and fauna, with benches for resting along the way. The park publishes trail data that includes cross-slope, surface type, width, grade, and more to help wheelchair users determine whether a trail is suitable for them. Saguaro also asks visitors to contribute to accessibility efforts by leaving suggestions, giving disabled visitors a say in how to improve their experience.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF YOSEMITE MARIPOSA COUNTY TOURISM BUREAU
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Yosemite National Park
WHERE: California
In addition to a thorough accessibility guide (with a Braille version available) that outlines everything from available adaptive features to nearby lodging with accessible rooms, Yosemite also offers an aphasia-specific guide to the park, with simplified text and bold symbols. The dedicated Deaf Services program offers ASL video introductions to the park, plus sign language interpreters and ALDs upon request. Children with disabilities can participate in adaptive Junior Ranger programs, including those that allow kids with diverse motor or communication needs to earn a badge alongside their peers.
Visitors with mobility limitations can rent manual wheelchairs, electric mobility scooters, and hand-cranked bicycles for adaptive exploration, and tandem bicycles are available for those with vision impairments. There are paved paths that allow wheelchair users to view Lower Yosemite Falls, one of the park’s most iconic viewpoints. Bring a disability parking placard for closer access to several sites, including the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.
PHOTO: RICARDOCOSTAPHOTOGRAPHY/ISTOCK
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Acadia National Park
WHERE: Maine
Acadia’s rocky shoreline and cliffside hikes are not universally accessible, but the park
offers extensive accessibility information, with descriptions of each parking lot, visitor center, and area of the park to help disabled visitors identify any potential barriers. One activity available to most wheelchair users is a horse-drawn carriage tour, made accessible thanks to a custom-built wheelchair ramp. The tour takes visitors along a network of historic carriage roads for a unique way to experience the park’s forests, mountains, and placid lakes. There are also beach wheelchairs available to rent for up-close exploration of the coastline.
Visitors with blindness or vision impairments can enjoy audio descriptive tours of Acadia’s waysides and Braille translations of park publications. Deaf or hard-of-hearing visitors can use ALDs for ranger talks and tours or arrange ASL interpretation ahead of time.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF VISIT CALIFORNIA
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Sequoia & Kings National Parks
WHERE: California
These two jointly administered national parks offer a wide range of helpful accessibility resources, starting with a film series in which disabled visitors illustrate accessibility features so travelers can plan their visit. That includes videos of wheelchair users boarding shuttle buses, deaf visitors participating in Crystal Cave ASL tours, a blind visitor exploring the Giant Tree Trail through tactile displays, and more.
Manual wheelchairs are available for rent at the Kings Canyon and Lodgepole visitor centers and the Giant Forest Museum, and Braille maps are also available at several locations. Tactile exhibits include one of Kings Canyon by the Cedar Grove Visitor Center, which is also at a reachable height for most wheelchair users. It’s also worth noting that the city of Visalia, which serves as a gateway to the parks, is a Certified Autism Destination. That means hospitality staff at participating locations have gone through extensive training on the needs of people with autism, and many local partners offer sensory kits and designated quiet areas.
PHOTO: DENNIS MACDONALD/SHUTTERSTOCK
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Yellowstone National Park
WHERE: Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
One of the greatest accessibility features of Yellowstone is that visitors can appreciate much of its wildlife and unique geology just by driving through the park, making it worth a trip for those with mobility challenges. Travelers can see waterfalls, mountain scenery, geothermal basins, and elk or bison without going on long hikes. Accessible paths and boardwalks are also available at several of the main attractions, including Upper Terrace Drive with views of Mammoth Hot Springs—though keep in mind that conditions can change with the weather. There are Braille materials and audio-described trails for visitors with blindness or low vision.
ALDs are available to deaf or hard-of-hearing visitors, and videos at visitor centers are open captioned. Much of the park is also ideal for visitors with cognitive disabilities or sensory sensitivities. Like the famous geyser, nicknamed Old Faithful because of the predictability of its eruptions, which means visitors with cognitive disabilities or those sensitive to overstimulation can plan their visit around an eruption. Accessibility information and available services are also clearly outlined on the website, with detailed information on trail grades and surfaces as well as resources to inform backcountry exploration planning.
PHOTO: JOSHUA EDWARD QUILLO/DREAMSTIME
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Cuyahoga Valley National Park
WHERE: Ohio
Despite its location in a relatively level river valley, Cuyahoga does have some hills, stairs, and rugged terrain, but there are still many ways visitors with mobility limitations can explore. There’s a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk at Beaver Marsh for beaver, bird, and reptile viewing, and the 65-foot Brandywine Falls are visible from an accessible boardwalk overlook.
A classic park experience is to ride the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, which has an accessible train car with a wheelchair lift and an accessible restroom. There are also sensory-friendly train rides with adjusted sounds and lighting that are scheduled for specific dates. UbiDuo communication devices are available for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors, or those with speech impairments, to aid communication with park rangers. The park’s website also offers a list of autism-friendly recommendations and photo galleries of restrooms to help those in wheelchairs map out their route based on their needs. A tandem bike program allows for adventurous exploration for those with vision impairments, and there are educational audio stations so visitors with blindness or low vision can learn more about the river’s importance, local flora and fauna, and local history.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF VISIT CALIFORNIA
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Death Valley
WHERE: California
Death Valley has created helpful accessibility planning guides, including social narratives for visitors with autism, providing information on the sensory experience in each part of the park to cut down on anxiety and discomfort. The park also offers sensory kits for those who need them. These contain tools like fidget toys, noise-canceling headphones, and polarized sunglasses to allow those with sensory sensitivities to explore comfortably.
ASL interpretation and ALDs are available, as are audio-described guides and self-guided tours. For visitors whose disabilities involve dietary restrictions, a special guide to the dining experiences in the park outlines which dietary requirements are easily accommodated. Death Valley also publishes information about parking surfaces, slopes, curbs, restroom accessibility, trail conditions, and more for visitors with mobility limitations. These resources are essential in a park where the distance between services can be long, and conditions can be extreme.
The one KPI hotels don’t measure, but may mean the most
Story contributed by Kristie Goshow, chief commercial officer, Loews Hotels & Co
https://hotelsmag.com/news/the-one-kpi-hotels-dont-measure-and-how-we-can-bring-it-back/
I was recently at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., with my teenage daughter watching singer Noah Kahan play the biggest show of his life. An estimated 56,00 people were in attendance: A sea of wrist lights bouncing in the dark like scattered magic dust. Complete strangers sang their hearts out. Their joy became a physical manifestation. You could feel it.
I think about experience for a living: why people choose one brand over another and what earns the next stay. At the Rose Bowl, I had an uncomfortable thought. Many of those concertgoers were likely staying in a hotel. Has the hospitality industry done anything to nourish and foster the kind of joy Kahan was providing?
Hoteliers talk ad nauseam about the experience economy. We measure guest satisfaction against standards “we” create and congratulate “ourselves” on the score. But look closely at what surveys capture: competence, tidiness, a smooth check-in. Useful things, yes, but joy can’t be unearthed in those questions. Likelihood-to-recommend is not elation. Net Promoter Score does not measure awe.
We have not just failed to measure joy. Somewhere along the way, we began choking it.
COVID thinned out talent pipelines and org charts. Costs rose faster than revenues. We trimmed a layer of management here, a warm body at the desk there and declared it efficiency. We cut joy inside the building and then wondered why less of it reached the guest or consumer outside.
There is another truth. The World Health Organization reported last year that one in six people globally is affected by loneliness. Against every assumption, the loneliest cohort is not the elderly. It is the young. My daughter’s and son’s generation. The very people who lit up that stadium because, for one night, they were not alone.
Hospitality is one of the few industries whose actual product is human connection. A guest can be genuinely moved by someone who sees them, welcomes them and remembers them; not their room number, but their story. At the exact moment the world is starving for that connection, we are quietly automating away many of the people through whom it travels.
I am not bashing AI. I believe it can help us connect more, not less. But the real question is what we do with the time it creates. Do we reinvest it into human moments or simply strip out cost? Giving people back time does not automatically create joy. An emptier building is still an emptier building.
These are my thoughts, my concert, my daughter, and my three-in-the-morning conviction that somewhere along the way, we’ve mislaid something important. But I sharpened these ideas over several late nights with Claude, batting them back and forth like a girls’ night with a good bottle of wine. And that’s the point: Claude didn’t have the thought; it wasn’t at the Rose Bowl; it simply helped me find the words faster. It’s not a substitute for human spark, but a way to fan it.
Think of joy like VO2 max: as a measure of capacity. Joy has a capacity, too: The most happiness a person, team or organization can release, exchange and receive. It runs on people who feel valued enough to give it away. The HSMAI Foundation’s forthcoming “State of Talent” report points to emotional wellness and engagement as growing casualties. That is not a soft finding. It is the joy engine losing momentum.
I’m eight months into a new chapter at Loews Hotels & Co, a genuinely happy move where I’ve seen that joy can still be real and alive. Not perfect, but present. Which is exactly why I know this is a choice, not a fate. If it can be protected in one house, it can be rebuilt across an industry.
A stadium without a performance is just seats. A hotel without a story, without people who care because joy is flowing through their teams, tools and incentives, is just a building with rooms.
We used to be the reason people traveled. Lately, at best, we’re the side show to the fiddle and the banjo. We did this to ourselves. Which means we can undo it, too.
As Noah Kahan closed his show and my daughter turned to me, still glowing, I felt both the joy and the gap. This is what her generation is quietly desperate for. The question that will define our industry is not whether AI makes us faster; it is whether we use everything we’re building to once again be a place where a traveler is truly seen and to put joy back.
Hyatt is bringing this luxury brand to Portugal
https://hotelsmag.com/news/hyatt-is-brining-this-luxury-brand-to-portugal/?
Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Portuguese real estate developer Coporgest are partnering on the development of Park Hyatt Comporta and Park Hyatt Comporta Residences in Portugal, both expected to open in 2029.
The project marks the introduction of the Park Hyatt brand to Portugal. Comporta is a coastal destination in the Alentejo region within an hour of Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon.
Park Hyatt Comporta is currently proposed to include 58 guestrooms and suites, six two-bedroom private villas and 22 residences serviced with access to hotel amenities. Plans include swimming pools, a wellness space, a fitness center, a padel court, a kids’ club and several restaurants. The hotel will sit adjacent to the Troia Golf Course, a six-hectare, 18-hole, par-72 course designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., and a 20-minute ride from four other courses.
“This location for a Park Hyatt hotel feels like a perfect match. Comporta has a rare combination of relaxed beach living, protected nature and creative spirit, with a sense of calm that has remained wonderfully intact. It’s a natural home for the understated, highly personal approach to luxury Park Hyatt hotels have been shaping for nearly half a century,” said Tamara Lohan MBE, global brand leader – Luxury, Hyatt.
“Bringing the Park Hyatt brand to Comporta reflects the shared ambition between Coporgest and Hyatt to create a landmark luxury destination. We have really valued Hyatt’s collaboration in bringing this project to life and can’t wait to open in this exceptional coastal enclave,” said Sérgio Ferreira, CEO of Coporgest. “Park Hyatt Comporta will combine a beautiful beachfront location, distinctive architecture and outstanding quality, reinforcing Portugal’s and Comporta’s ability to attract the world’s leading luxury hospitality brands.”
The Residences will comprise six villas and 22 apartments. A further 31 luxury villas and 49 apartments will form the Luxury Beach Residences by Coporgest within the wider Comporta Beach Resort complex.
“The Park Hyatt Comporta Residences will act as a natural extension of the surrounding coastline, serving as a tranquil, luxury retreat just south of Lisbon,” said Tina Necrason, Global Head of Branded Residential, Hyatt. “The Residences will be imbued with the Park Hyatt brand’s signature design and personalized service and enhanced by Hyatt’s differentiated approach to branded residences, focused on consistency and connection. Discerning homeowners will have access to thoughtfully designed villas and spaces at the center of the burgeoning, sought-after destination of Comporta.”
Park Hyatt also plans openings in Phu Quoc and Riviera Maya in 2026, followed by Mexico City, Vancouver and Taormina in 2027.
DUHC&S | Strategic Hospitality Consulting & Advisory
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