National Park Service Negative Reviews

National Park Service App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2024

National Park Service app received 26 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using National Park Service? Can you share your negative thoughts about national park service?

National Park Service for Negative User Reviews

✓ A Nice BeginningI love the app layout and the picture banners for each location however, the descriptions for each park are extremely limited. For the Great Smoky Mountains park for example, it would be great to see a list of all of the majors trails, waterfalls, lookout areas and campgrounds each with their own photos, description and location on a map. Without being able to see the individual interest points within the park, all the app really does is show you where the park itself is along with amenities. Mapping the amenities would be helpful as well. Lastly, having a satellite option of the map would be even more helpful..KibfqiisVersion: v1.1.2

✓ Downloading not workingI found the app and started exploring and when I went to download the information for Yellowstone it only got to 41% and froze. It won’t continue on from there. The information I skimmed thru seemed thorough and great, wish it would download.426JanetVersion: 1.10.1

✓ Helpful/Not HelpfulThe app worked great at Black Canyon of the Gunnison, then was much less useful at Rocky Mountain. What would really be helpful is more fidelity to the information given out at the entrance stations. Trying to figure out how to find the hikes you see on the map on the brochure can be daunting and may not be possible on the app, as the names of the hikes are inconsistent. Also, what shows as an alert at one park may not show a similar issue at another park, voila! Surprise! Incorrect information is often present, as well. For example, the operating hours of Visitor Centers may be considerably incorrect. Once you have downloaded the park you’re interested in and no longer have internet access you are at the mercy of an unreliable app. We had multiple issues that wasted valuable vacation time due to these issues. You can’t use Covid as an excuse after this much time..DadkingofmunchiesHAHAVersion: v1.1.2

✓ Really poor designWhat surprises me is the high average rating this app gets. Some poor decisions include: You can see parks on a map but you cannot navigate to a park by touching on that map. Any recent graduate in computer programming can implement that in a day or two. Enter a park name while a filter is applied, for example, Wyoming state, and the list will show completion for the names matching the text you enter, even if outside that state. After you select the suggested name the app tells you there is no such park (nless you clear the filters). Check various links for more details and it will send you to Safari (why not open an in-app browser?).Reuben from LAXVersion: 1.1

✓ Poorly ExecutedI'm at Big Bend and tried finding a map of the roads, paved and rocky, but it's not there. From the Persimmon Gap entrance the guided drive apparently has NO audio. The map in the app doesn't move along as our vehicle drove through the park. In contrast, The Road to Hana, app was terrific when we were in Maui last year. It cost $19 but it worked flawlessly! I waited in line at the next ranger station to seek assistance with the app. First ranger was reading a book at the counter and claimed she never heard of the NPS app. The 2nd ranger also was unfamiliar with this app - shouldn't these employees have some training? The 3rd ranger said she knows about the app but never found it to work! Great! Just what I needed to hear..Kahr45ACPVersion: 1.15

✓ Really?There are lots of park and hiking apps that provide detailed information. This isn’t one of them. I’m standing in Jockey Hollow Park and pulled up the map looking for hiking trails which are all around me. Only one was shown. Also, despite multiple picnic areas, only one was shown. There is just so much information you can provide in an app, and this doesn’t. Maybe other parks are better, but with Jockey Hollow, you’re better off with other apps that provide a lot more information..OnlyDavidVersion: v1.1.2

✓ DisappointingDon’t waste your time with this app. Downloading doesn’t work - tried more than one park several times and it consistently got hung up at 40%. Info on what to see is alphabetical instead of geographic or by type of feature. Predictions for geyser eruptions are not as up to date as the info on the NPS website..OrderonceVersion: 1.10.1

✓ Feature Suggestions1. Enhance the ability to give app feedback feature to make it easier for users to provide feedback. 2. Notify all parks to update their profiles and improve park photos to make them more appealing. 3. Introduce the NPS app account feature, allowing users to access the NPS pass and enjoy additional features. Having an account would be beneficial. 4. Implement a feature that enables users to view all parks on the map with just one click. 5. Consider using Apple Maps instead of Map Box, as it offers a cleaner and more visually appealing look. 6. Revamp the app's user interface, making it more modern and visually appealing. 7. Explore the utilization of new iOS features to enhance the functionality and user experience of the app. These suggestions aim to improve the NPS app's usability, appearance, and overall user satisfaction..Kyle AshVersion: 1.10.1

✓ FrustratingOverall a great idea but needs lots of polish to make me trust it, dates/hours can’t be relied on. I was expecting it to be so much better, maybe in time but at the moment frustrating..HwezcoVersion: 1.2.3

✓ Maps don’t work?App looks great with heaps of information but the maps are all blank? Hope it is just a one off glitch..PmcatpwcntVersion: 1.8

✓ So close to being perfectThe content and design for the app are amazing. Sadly, map box doesn’t work (not loading at all), and offline download of parks is completely broken as well..AKontos94Version: 1.10.1

✓ When It’s Good, It’s GreatToday is Feb 22nd, when you open the app, it says the Fort Pickens Visitor Center is open. When you go to the website, there is an alert saying the Fort Pickens Visitor Center has been closed since Jan 25th. We love the National Parks and use this app a lot for historic information, park trails etc. Do NOT rely on any realtime info on the app or the website. If it’s critical… say you want to do something specific in a short period of time, a guided tour or a movie… contact the Park by phone. If the person doesn’t sound informed, politely ask for someone else to speak with. Even calling is risky- we received very faulty info 3x this past year requiring change of plans and disappointment..JillannbatyVersion: 1.14

✓ Offline Content Stuck at 40%The app is really great but when I download offline content it gets stuck at 41%. This is a must when you have no phone signal!.Pagey21Version: 1.10.1

✓ Offline mode doesn’t workNice enough App but the download for offline use consistently fails at 41% for Yosemite and around 25% for Death Valley. As a European visitor the app is fairly useless whilst we’re in the US without this ability..SnapperTWiselyVersion: 1.10

✓ Great idea! Needs improvement!Loving the concept behind this app. It makes a lot of our hopes and dreams of visiting all these places seem within our reach. But there are some serious quality of life issues with this app, some previously mentioned in other reviews. The BIGGEST problem is users cannot add locations to their favorites/visited places directly from the map. We are forced to scroll through 500 line items to find our places, when simply clicking it from the map view would be really easy and more fun. Please consider making the map more interactive. People interested in this stuff ARE MAP NERDS and we need to be able to click on things in the map, and play with filters to find what we want a little easier. GREAT EFFORT SO FAR! God bless America!.Fish Not PhonesVersion: 1.0

✓ FinickyIt seems not to actually like working off line even when a park is downloaded. Specific information can be hard to find.Artemis2010Version: 1.6

✓ Not too useful in offline modeEven when a park is downloaded for offline use, the app still takes several moments to try connecting before giving up, then opening a park takes several more moments before the option to use offline data is offered. Why not load the offline data first and then add anything else if available? There is very little connectivity on Southern Utah in the Mighty Five and so far this has not been very useful..Ms401Version: 1.2.1

✓ Drops outLooks great initially, but when I zoomed in (to Old Faithful, Yellowstone for example), and touched the gemstone it blinked and took me back to the Home Screen on iPhone XS. And did exactly the same when I went to Arches National Park, looked at Delicate Arch, and touché one of the ‘info’ buttons..ThisNickNameIsTakenAsWell!Version: 1.10.1

✓ Offline content not downloadingThis app has been recommended. It’s also been made very clear not to expect internet coverage in the park we’re planning to visit but the offline content will only download to 40% and then it stops. Hopefully a fix is on the way as the app is great with internet connection!.Bristol SarahVersion: 1.10.1

✓ Fantastic App- except the maps won’t showWhat a fantastic app to browse info on the National Parks & use for planning a trip. Only (major) issue - the maps aren’t showing - just a black screen🙁.Leah HEL-GIRLVersion: 1.10.1

✓ UselessNearly useless app Does not have hiking trails in glacier national park haha.Abcdedghi1Version: 1.10.1

✓ Stuck downloading and exhausted iPhone batteryApp looks full of promise. But when I went to do download for Shenandoah NP the progress bar stuck at 40% and stayed there, fairly swiftly gobbling up the iPhone’s battery and heating up the phone, even though the phone was concurrently charging on the regulation Apple magnetic charger. Tried restarting the app and the download process to come to a similar outcome of the download getting stuck at 40 percent. The first 40 percent downloaded quite promptly..Randy HearstVersion: 1.10.1

✓ Paper Maps Still BetterAt this point I’d prefer you pay cartographers to draw decent trail maps and then distribute those on a stripped down website. At least then I could save them to my phone a use them when I’m out of cell service range. Downloading the Data option doesn’t seem to work. Maps are poorly drawn and labeled (just the trails I mean - the background contour maps are fine). Sometimes there are waypoints but they aren’t labeled or don’t carry useful metadata. Just slapping geo data into a map is not good mapping practice..MRG-DCVersion: 1.5

✓ Stuck at 40%Have tried to down app on iPad and iPhone and restart, delete app and re-download and nothing works. Stuck at 40%.PomoevaVersion: 1.10.1

✓ Latest version doesn’t startI like the app but since the last update it doesn’t start. It loads a NPS logo on a splash screen then it crashes.Le bijouVersion: 1.16

✓ Only partial offline data?I installed this app before a trip to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. I had the app save the park’s info for offline use because of it’s remoteness. However, I was disappointed to discover it only downloads parts rather than all the content. For example, under self-guided tours you get the McKittrick Canyon Trailhead, but if you click on the links to trails that start there (such as The Grotto or Permian Reef Trail) you are presented with “No Internet Connection.” As a result, it ended up being useless for our McKittrick hikes..A2SquareVersion: 1.12

National Park Service works most of the time. If it is not working for you, we recommend you excersise some patience and retry later or contact National Park Service.