We travel to units of the National Park System to see beautiful landscape, learn about history, view amazing wildlife, and to simply learn new things. We take that knowledge (and photos) back with us to impress family, friends, and coworkers. Just how much of that park knowledge stays with you? Maybe more than you realize. You can test some of your knowledge with this latest national parks quiz and trivia piece. You might even learn something new right here!

What is the name for this steaming, bubbling, boiling, acidic landscape at Porcelain Basin, Yellowstone National Park / Rebecca Latson

1. As you wander the boardwalks in Porcelain Basin, a section of the larger Norris Geyser Basin at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming/Montana/Idaho, you will come across a venting hillside of escaping sulfuric acid, gases, steam, and boiling mudpots, along with hot, crumbling, decomposing rock. This barren, steaming landscape is known as a/an ___.

              a) Fumarole field

              b) Vent vale

              c) Solfatara

              d) Hydrothermal hill

Mold? Cotton? Something else? Carlsbad Caverns National Park / NPS - D. Miller

2. True or False: While walking along the passages in Carlsbad Caverns, you might notice what looks like white, cottony patches on the rocks and walls. These cotton patches are actually mold growing in the cave.

              a) True

              b) False

Black Hills landscape, Wind Cave National Park / Rebecca Latson

3. True or False: Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota is located within the Black Hills. At one time, these hills were about 10,000 feet (3,048 m) taller than they are now.

              a) True

              b) False

Early morning light on the landscape at Lassen Volcanic National Park / Rebecca Latson

4. Situated at the southern end of the Cascade Range geologic province, Lassen Volcanic National Park in California lies at the crossroads of three great biological provinces: the Cascades range, the Sierra Nevada mountains, and the ____ .

              a) Sonoran desert

              b) Chihuahuan desert

              c) Great Basin desert

              d) Mojave desert

5. Let’s stick with Lassen Volcanic National Park a little longer. True or False: There are four plant life zones that account for the great diversity of both native and non-native species.

              a) True

              b) False

The view from Johnny Horn Trail at Virgin Islands National Park / NPS file

6. True or False: The efforts of Laurence Spelman Rockefeller provided much of the land that made Virgin Islands National Park a reality and helped to launch Caneel Bay Resort.

              a) True

              b) False

7. Walnut Canyon National Monument in Arizona takes its modern name from the ___walnut, a tree once common in the canyon bottom.

              a) English

              b) Arizona

              c) Chandler

              d) Serr

Cholla cactus and the moon, Joshua Tree National Park / NPS - Hannah Schwalbe

8. Joshua Tree National Park in California is home to a very interesting variety of vegetation, including the “jumping cactus,” more commonly known as the cholla cactus. There are several varieties of cholla found within the park, including “Teddy Bear” cholla, silver cholla, pencil cholla, matted cholla, and ___ cholla.

              a) Cushion foxtail

              b) Kingcup

              c) Hedgehog

              c) Beavertail

Dollarjoint prickly pear cactus, Joshua Tree National Park / NPS - Lian Law

9. Ok, let's stay with Joshua Tree National Park a little longer. Question 8 showed you there are several colla cactus varieties in this park. There are also several varieties of prickly pear cactus: grizzlybear, tulip, dollarjoint, and ___.

              a) Beavertail

              b) Englemann

              c) Plains

              d) Dune

Large-flowered trillium, Shenandoah National Park / NPS file

10. There are 862 species of wildflowers in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, accounting for nearly ___ of the Shenandoah National Park’s species of vascular plants (including 66 rare species).

              a) two-thirds

              b) one fourth

              c) one half

              d) three-fourths

Trivia

Feathered hitchhikers, Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park / Rebecca Latson

If you've ever visited Yellowstone National Park (WY/MT/ID) and spent any time viewing bison through your binoculars, spotting scope, or camera's telephoto lens, you may have noticed some brown birds hitching a ride on a bison's back as well as covering the ground all around the bison.

These are brown-headed cowbirds (aka "buffalo birds") and they flock around bison to get their daily meal of flies, ticks, and whatever other insect pest gets caught in the bison's thick fur. These birds also eat the insects flushed up from the grass by these lumbering behemoths as they graze the landscape.

All that remains of the Zuni Well, Petrified Forest National Park / NPS file

What you see in the photo above is what remains of the Zuni Well, located in the backcountry of Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. According to park staff, “The well was made by the Zuni Oil Company in their search for oil during the 1920s. The efforts were curtailed and failed when they hit a large piece of petrified wood and then water. The well was later developed as a water source by the National Park Service, providing water to the Pained Desert area as early as 1939, and discontinued in the 1960s when the pumphouse was razed.” If you happen to see any historic or archaeological sites during your backcountry hikes, please remember to look, but leave in place for the next visitor to look at. It is illegal to take anything from a national park.

Salmonberries found along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail / NPS file

If you happen to travel along the Pacific Coast portion of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, depending upon the time of season, you might come across a bright yellow, or bright red berry that looks a lot like a raspberry. You are looking at a salmonberry (yes, both colors are for the salmonberry).

This berry was a new discovery for Captains Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery, who first saw them near the Cowlitz River at what is now Longview, Washington. Lewis collected a specimen to send back along with other items discovered during their trek to the Pacific Ocean.

According to park staff, “The salmonberry is a member of the rose family and is very similar to a raspberry in size and shape, but its fruit is usually yellow, orange, or red. The shrub ranges in height between 3 to 12 feet [0.9 – 3.66 m], with woody stems covered with fine prickles. Fruit is normally available between mid-June and late July. Mature fruits are tender and sweet and are often used in jams, jellies, and baked goods. Salmonberry is also used to flavor beer and wine.”

Area tribes used the berries in teas and to treat diarrhea or dysentery. They also made a poultice of leaves and bark for dressing burns and open sores.

Quiz Answers

1c

A solfatara is a fumarole emitting sulfurous gases. A solfatara’s high concentration of sulfuric acid breaks down the surrounding rock, which in turn makes the escaping steam constant, but less dramatic than the steam emerging from a geyser or some of the other hydrothermal features you see out in the midst of Porcelain Basin.

2b False

Thenardite is not mold, but rather a sodium sulfate mineral that grows in caves. When the humidity of a cave reaches a certain point, it starts to grow like mold would in a damp area. During the winter, thenardite grows in many areas within Carlsbad Caverns. The mineral is fibrous and fragile, so look, but please don’t touch.

3b False

The rolling Black Hills in which Wind Cave sits are the result of crustal uplift and formed about 65 million years ago in the most recent of at least three mountain building episodes in the region where the park sits. If you were to fly over the exposed rocks of the entirety of the Black Hills, you would notice a “bullseye” pattern around the center of the hills, with granites (igneous rocks) and gneisses (metamorphic rocks) forming the core. Moving outward from that core, you would to see younger sedimentary rocks (limestones, shales, sandstones). Since their formation, there has been quite a bit of erosion. Had there been no erosion, the Black Hills would be 7,500 feet higher (2,286 m) than they are today. To read more about Wind Cave geology, click here.

4c

Situated at the southern end of the Cascade Range geologic province, Lassen Volcanic National Park in California lies at the crossroads of three great biological provinces: the Cascades range to the north, the Sierra Nevada mountains to the south and the Great Basin desert to the east. Because of this, over 700 flowering plant species, 300 species of vertebrates, and 350 species of invertebrates. 

5b False

There are three plant life zones accounting for the great diversity of vegetation within Lassen Volcanic National Park: Mixed Conifer (below 6,500 feet), Red Fir Forest (6,500-8,500 feet), and Subalpine (8,000 to 10,000 feet). To read more about these life zones and the plants of Lassen, click here.

6a True

The efforts of Laurence Spelman Rockefeller provided much of the land that made Virgin Islands National Park a reality and helped to launch Caneel Bay Resort. You can read more about this national park’s history here.

7b

There are over 20 species of walnut found all over the world. Walnut Canyon National Monument in Arizona takes its modern name from the Arizona walnut, a tree once common in the canyon bottom.

8a

There are several varieties of cholla found within the park, including “Teddy Bear” cholla, silver cholla, pencil cholla, and cushion foxtail cholla. You can read more about Joshua Tree’s desert vegetation here.

9a

There are several varieties of prickly pear cactus found in Joshua Tree National Park: grizzly bear, tulip, dollarjoint, and beavertail.

10a

There are 862 species of wildflowers in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the Shenandoah National Park’s 1,376 species of vascular plants (including 66 rare species). You can read more “by the numbers” for this national park here.