If being connected is important to you on your next hike, certain U.S. national parks are decidedly friendlier to your phone than others. Here is a fresh look from Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence, which collects data on actual network quality results from visitors like you: Places where you will really find strong service for maps, messages and even those mountain-top uploads.
The speediest-connected parks, by the numbers:
The five fastest parks for median download speed are Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Grand Teton, Cuyahoga Valley and Hot Springs, according to Ookla. Sequoia opens the pack with a speedy 163.28 Mbps median download, while Hot Springs brings up the rear of the top five at 117.33 Mbps. In the practical sense, that’s more than sufficient for some HD video calls and speedy photo backups from a trailhead or lodge.
Uploads — imperative for live sharing, cloud shots and work documents — further confirm the same picture. Mount Rainier has the quickest median upload speed at 21.04 Mbps, with Grand Teton and Sequoia hovering nearby. Hawaii Volcanoes and Big Bend also make the cut for uploads, where Big Bend’s 6.12 Mbps median is enough to post reliably to social media while sending through a batch of images without waiting around for too long.
Where speeds trickle to a crawl
Connectivity is not the same across protected landscapes. Those that download on these parks the slowest in Ookla’s dataset are Mammoth Cave, Yellowstone, Redwood, Kings Canyon and Death Valley. Death Valley, a huge park covered in topographic highs and lows, has a median download of just 7.56 Mbps — fine for basic messaging but not reliable for rich media. Uploads are an even more grueling experience: The median for Mammoth Cave checks in at 0.93 Mbps, and sending photos can be a test of patience.
Why parks get better signal
The largest differences are location and infrastructure. The proximity to population centres that means park networks there are denser than in more remote areas – and so is the backhaul: either direct to fibre or via a radio link. Sequoia is about 85 miles from Fresno, a regional hub; Cuyahoga Valley is about 20 miles from Cleveland — proximity that often means stronger mid-band 5G and more capacity at gateways and towns just on the other side of park borders.
Terrain matters, too. High frequency signals are blocked by granite walls, narrow canyons and thick forests that make line-of-site difficult. Redwood and Death Valley are textbook cases of topography thwarting coverage. Add National Park Service stewardship — restrictions regarding towers, strict visual-impact rules, careful siting — and you understand why some places remain quiet in more than one sense.
Carriers also are using different spectrum mixes. Mid-band 5G (favored by T-Mobile and AT&T) combines speed and coverage, while low-band 5G and LTE are at their best in wide-open coverage but with slower speeds. In park entrances popular with crowds, traffic may be the swing factor: even when all looks good on the signal bar front, a mid-day crowd can weigh down speeds.
Satellite is the upload game-changer
Ookla adds that satellite internet service — specifically Starlink — is now a viable option for connectivity in and around national parks. In the parks that I tested, Starlink typically delivered the fastest uploads and kept up with the pack on downloads. Of the 10 most-visited parks, Starlink had the fastest upload speed in eight of them and was fastest or second-fastest on downloads in six, a good enough performance for creators and remote workers who have to push data into the cloud.
And then there’s Joshua Tree — the astrophotography mecca. Satellite can be about three times quicker for uploading a night’s shoot than traditional mobile networks, using Ookla’s comparisons. It’s a sit mustering the requisite power supply, and dependent on an open sky — and environment, always following park rules — tripods and telescopes welcome in many areas; generators, noise and equipment footprint are governed by the National Park Service.
Plotting coverage without killing the moment
Before you go, cross-reference what you’ve found with Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence maps for real-world results, the coverage maps that the carriers and others offer, such as Verizon’s or AT&T’s or T-Mobile’s; the FCC National Broadband Map for context about infrastructure. Park pages and visitor centers may mention Wi-Fi coverage or dead cellular zones around popular trailheads.
Even in “fast” parks, coverage gets spotty once you get off roads and developed areas. Download offline maps, cache playlists and set your camera app to back up over Wi-Fi only — they’ll save on battery life as well as frustration. A better band-supported phone, or a separate hotspot, can be a big help at gateway towns for groups too, and aggressive uploaders who travel with others (really though: everyone please use the internet responsibly and keep Leave No Trace principles in mind).
The takeaway
For solid internet out in the wild, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Grand Teton, Cuyahoga Valley and Hot Springs are your best bets right now; remote and rugged parks like Death Valley and Mammoth Cave are still relatively short on connectivity. Filling in the gap, though not so much that it disappears completely, is improved mid-band 5G and satellite connections; but as always in the backcountry, your mantra should be to plan for success yet prepare for failure — let the land — not bars on your phone — dictate the pace.