Delaware National Parks. Here is the honest count up front: the First State has zero of America’s 63 official national parks. What it has is one National Park Service unit based in Delaware (First State National Historical Park) plus a pair of multi-state National Park Service trails that pass through the region. Together they make a compact, history-rich road trip in the second-smallest state in the country.
I’ve spent my adult life exploring America’s national parks and public lands destinations, and Delaware is one of those places where history and nature sit right on top of each other. The first Swedish and Finnish colonists landed on the Christina River. The state’s representatives voted for independence in a courthouse in New Castle. This guide walks the four NPS experiences you can tie together here, with every designation labeled honestly so you know exactly what you’re visiting.
To be clear, this list covers National Park Service sites and trails, not full-fledged national parks. Delaware has none of the 63.
Delaware NPS Sites At A Glance
| Site | NPS Designation | Established | Delaware Connection |
|---|---|---|---|
| First State | National Historical Park | 2013 | Delaware’s only NPS unit; seven sites across the state |
| Captain John Smith Chesapeake | National Historic Trail | 2006 | Multi-state water trail touching Delaware’s Chesapeake watershed |
| Washington-Rochambeau | National Historic Trail | 2009 | Revolutionary War march route passing through Delaware |
| Chesapeake Bay Gateways | NPS-coordinated network (not a park unit) | 1998 | Regional partnership of access sites in the watershed |
1. First State National Historical Park
Designation: National Historical Park (established 2013). This is the one to build your trip around. First State National Historical Park is Delaware’s only National Park Service unit, created to preserve and interpret the state’s colonial and revolutionary history.
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The park is not one place but seven, spread across the state. It includes the New Castle Court House Museum, the Old Swedes Historic Site, the Dover Green, the John Dickinson Plantation, Fort Christina, the Brandywine Valley, and the Ryves Holt House. Together they tell the story of Delaware as one of the original 13 colonies and the first state to ratify the Constitution.
It’s a working park for anyone interested in American history, with interpretive programs, guided tours, and educational resources at the visitor sites.
The Places To Go At First State
- Brandywine Valley: More than 1,300 acres of rolling farm fields, pastures, forested hills, and streams preserving the cultural legacy of the valley across northern Delaware and southern Pennsylvania, rooted in William Poole Bancroft’s vision of green space for everyone.
- Fort Christina: Where, over 375 years ago, the first Swedish and Finnish settlers aboard the Kalmar Nyckel and the Fogel Grip landed on the Christina River and founded the colony of New Sweden.
- Old Swedes Historic Site: A reminder of the early Swedish settlement along the Christina River, with a burial ground tracing the area’s earliest settlers.
- New Castle Court House Museum: Built in 1732, Delaware’s first courthouse and capitol. Here in 1776 the people’s representatives voted for independence from both Pennsylvania and Great Britain.
- John Dickinson Plantation: The childhood home of John Dickinson, the Penman of the Revolution, with the lesser-told stories of the enslaved and free people who worked the land. (Source: NPS)
Read next: the Rhode Island National Park sites guide
2. Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail
Designation: National Historic Trail (established 2006). This is the nation’s first all-water national historic trail, following Captain John Smith’s 1607 to 1609 exploration of the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers.
The trail runs more than 3,000 miles across Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. It tells the story of the Bay’s cultural and natural resources, including the encounters between European arrivals and the Native communities who had lived there for thousands of years. Administered by the National Park Service, it connects with national wildlife refuges and other national trails along the watershed.
You experience this one by boat, kayak, or on foot at access points along the shore. A few of the best stretches in the wider Chesapeake region:
- Billy Goat Trail (Potomac, Maryland): A rugged scramble with views of the Potomac River near the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
- Scott’s Run (Virginia): A wooded trail with a waterfall, a mix of inclines and flats, good for a half-day walk.
- Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Trail: Leads to an overlook of Great Falls with views of the water and rock formations.
Nearby: the Massachusetts National Park sites
3. Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail
Designation: National Historic Trail (established 2009). George Washington’s victory over the British was made possible by his alliance with France, and this trail traces the proof.
On July 11, 1780, General Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau arrived with 450 officers and 5,300 men in Narragansett Bay off Newport, Rhode Island. That landing began a military partnership that ended 15 months later in victory at Yorktown and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis.
From Rhode Island to Virginia, the route is a series of roads used in 1781 during the 14-week march from Newport to Yorktown. It connects state and national parks, historic and scenic trails, and countless other sites, with several segments crossing Delaware.
Go deeper: the 10 best Revolutionary War sites in America
4. The Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network
Designation: NPS-coordinated network, not a national park unit (established 1998). This one deserves an honest label. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed itself is not a National Park Service unit. It is a region the Park Service supports through the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, a partnership of parks, refuges, museums, and water-access sites across the watershed.
The Bay has a history reaching back to the Susquehannock and Algonquian peoples, became a center of trade, agriculture, and fishing under European colonization, and played a role in both the Revolution and the Civil War. It has also been the site of major environmental challenges, including overfishing, pollution, and habitat loss, and decades of restoration work bringing together federal, state, local, and private partners.
For a traveler, the Gateways Network is the easiest way to find boating, fishing, and wildlife-viewing access in the Delaware portion of the watershed. Just know you’re visiting a partnership region, not a park.
Also worth a visit: the New Hampshire National Park sites
Planning Your Delaware Trip
- Start in Wilmington and New Castle for the northern First State sites (Fort Christina, Old Swedes, New Castle Court House, Brandywine Valley). They sit close together near the Pennsylvania line.
- Drive south to Dover for the Dover Green and the John Dickinson Plantation. Delaware is small, so the full north-to-south run is well under two hours.
- Best seasons are spring and fall. Check visitor-center hours on the NPS First State pages before you go, since several sites have limited winter hours.
- Fees are free or minimal across the First State sites, which makes this an affordable history weekend.
If you want a local read before you go, the book Greater Than a Tourist – Delaware USA: 50 Travel Tips from a Local by George Wieber is a useful, low-cost primer.
Watch Our Film: National Parks A Love Story
Will and Jim made this film at the request of the NPS and the Department of the Interior to capture the feeling of our family’s love story with America’s national parks. For us, they are more than sacred places. They are a hallowed ideal that represents the very best our country has to offer its people: the notion that we can hand the legacy of our most treasured landscapes from one generation to the next.
No. Delaware has none of the 63 official national parks. Its only stand-alone National Park Service unit is First State National Historical Park. Two NPS national historic trails (Captain John Smith Chesapeake and Washington-Rochambeau) also pass through the state.
First State National Historical Park, established in 2013, is Delaware’s only National Park Service unit. It is made up of seven sites across the state, including the New Castle Court House, Old Swedes Historic Site, the Dover Green, and the John Dickinson Plantation.
See our full list of historic sites in Delaware.
First State National Historical Park
Fort Delaware
The Kalmar Nyckel
Hagley Museum
Historic New Castle
John Dickinson Plantation
You should probably know that this guide does not come out of thin air. More Than Just Parks is a family operation. My sons Will and Jim have spent their entire adult lives exploring and filming America’s national parks and public lands destinations, working with the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the USDA, and the U.S. Forest Service on films about important places and issues. I taught American history for 25 years, and I write our history and travel guides.
The 4 Delaware NPS Experiences Recap
- First State National Historical Park
- Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail
- Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail
- The Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network
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