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Park stores have plenty of cuffed beanies with an animal patch or a park name, usually for $17 to $35. The choice gets narrower if you want wool: most of the park designs are acrylic or polyester, including hats from brands known for their wool blankets.
Our picks
Best for hiking$35
Rustek · sold by Yosemite Conservancy
Merino, $35 at Yosemite Conservancy’s store.
Best souvenir$35
Pendleton
Each park gets its own stripes, and it’s made in the US.
Under $20$16.95
Rocky Mountain Conservancy
The cheapest, and from the park’s own store.
Acrylic for camp, wool for the trail
The fiber matters once you’re wet. Olympic’s backcountry page tells hikers to wear wool, polypropylene or fleece, which stay warm when wet. Acrylic isn’t on the list, and a plain polyester knit isn’t fleece.
The American Wool Council, an industry group, says wool can soak up 30% of its weight before it feels damp.
Pack a rainproof layer and warm wool hat for every hike.
Glacier’s online store doesn’t list a wool beanie. Pendleton’s park beanie is acrylic, Landmark’s is half acrylic, and Parks Project doesn’t use wool.
Yosemite’s store sells a cotton Rustek beanie for $34. The merino version costs only a dollar more and is our preference for hiking in cold weather.
If wool itches you, merino usually doesn’t, and Rustek’s is merino. Woolmark, a wool industry group, says the itch comes from coarse fibers, and coarse synthetics itch too.
Acrylic isn’t always easier to wash. Pendleton’s is hand wash and dry flat, the same as Rustek’s wool, while Parks Project’s polyester goes in the washer and dryer.
A cuff doubles the knit over your ears
Nearly all of these are cuffed watch caps, a knit tube with the bottom folded up. The fold puts two layers over your ears and forehead.
A slouch beanie hangs off the back of your head, so less of it sits over your ears. A pom sits where a hood or a bike helmet goes, though Rocky Mountain Conservancy’s $19.99 Wildflower Mountains Beanie has one that comes off.
Most of these come in one size with no measurements, and Parks Project’s Zion beanie is one of the few with a size chart.
Where you’ll need one outside winter
Denali’s summer averages 33 to 75°F, and the park says snow has fallen in every summer month. Its gear list includes a warm winter hat.
Glacier says Logan Pass is usually 10 to 15 degrees colder than the low country, and that it can snow any month. Yellowstone in spring and fall drops into the teens at night, and it snows.
Summer at Zion or Joshua Tree calls for a sun hat, and our best national park hats guide covers those.
For hiking, get merino
Best for cold hikes, with a park on it
Wool Thick Knit Beanie
Rustek, sold by Yosemite Conservancy
- Style
- Thick rib-knit beanie with a turn-back cuff
- Design
- Cork patch engraved with Half Dome and 'Yosemite Conservancy'
- Made of
- 100% merino wool, 3.6 oz (Rustek says)
- Fit
- One size fits most; no measurements listed
- Care
- Hand wash, air dry flat
- Giving
- Sold by Yosemite Conservancy, which the park says donates revenues from sales to the park
- Made in
- USA (Rustek says)
Rustek’s merino is our first choice for cold hikes, and it costs the same $35 as Pendleton’s acrylic beanie. It also carries a Yosemite design, which is hard to find on a wool hat.
For a souvenir
Best for a park beanie for camp, the drive and town
National Park Stripe Beanie
Pendleton
- Style
- Cuffed knit beanie
- Design
- Park stripes on the turn-back cuff; seven park colorways
- Made of
- Acrylic
- Fit
- One size, pull-on
- Care
- Hand wash cold, dry flat (Pendleton says)
- Giving
- Pendleton says it supports the National Park Foundation, nearly $2.4 million so far
- Made in
- USA, of imported material (Pendleton says)
- Reviews
- 4.5 from 77 reviews on Pendleton's site
The striped cuff is a good option if you prefer a park’s colors to a landscape or animal patch. Available designs include Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Glacier, Olympic, Yellowstone and Acadia, while Zion is sold out. Yellowstone General Stores sells a Pendleton Yellowstone stripe beanie for $29.50 that appears to be the same hat.
Downsides
Some buyers say the top is boxy and doesn’t sit close to the head. Despite being acrylic, it still needs hand washing and flat drying.
Best for a Zion beanie you can throw in the washer
Zion Views Beanie
Parks Project
- Style
- Knit beanie with a rolled cuff
- Design
- Jacquard knit of Zion's sandstone cliffs and canyons in purple-red and beige
- Made of
- 100% recycled polyester
- Fit
- One size; chart lists 9 to 10 in wide, 8.5 in tall, 2.75 in cuff
- Care
- Machine wash cold, tumble dry low
- Giving
- Parks Project says it has given over $60,000 to Zion Forever Project
The whole front is a knit picture of the canyon. It goes in the washer and dryer, and it’s one of the few with a size chart. Parks Project’s $30 Sequoia Tree Ring Toque is the same recycled polyester with a fleece band inside over the ears.
Our Zion page has the caps, and the Parks Project page has more on the brand.
Downsides
It’s polyester, so it’s a camp hat, and shipping is free only over $125.
Best for Zion spelled out, with a pom
Zion National Park Beanie
The Landmark Project
- Style
- Cuffed knit beanie with a pom
- Design
- Jacquard-knit 'Zion Natl Park' on the cuff, with a canyon above
- Made of
- 50% recycled polyester, 50% acrylic
- Fit
- One size; no measurements listed
- Giving
- Landmark says it supports the National Parks Conservation Association
- Reviews
- 5.0 from 1 review on The Landmark Project's site
Landmark knits Zion Natl Park into the cuff, with a canyon above it and a pom on top. The lettering makes the park easy to recognize, which is useful for a gift. The same beanie comes for Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree.
Shipping is free over $65, and returns are free for 45 days.
Downsides
It’s half acrylic and half polyester, so it’s a town and camp hat.
For the Smokies, Parks Apparel sells a $29.95 embroidered acrylic beanie, and our Great Smoky Mountains page has the caps.
From the park’s own store
Best for a Glacier souvenir
Going-to-the-Sun Patch Beanie
Glacier National Park Conservancy
- Style
- Cuffed knit beanie, mustard with flecks
- Design
- Going-to-the-Sun Road patch with 'Glacier National Park'
- Made of
- 92% acrylic, 8% polyester
- Fit
- One size; no measurements listed
- Giving
- Sold by Glacier National Park Conservancy; the park says store profits help support it
The Going-to-the-Sun patch gives this cuffed beanie a connection to Glacier’s best-known road. It’s sold by the Conservancy that runs the park’s stores, at a price typical of a park-store beanie.
Downsides
It’s acrylic, so keep it for the lodge and the car.
Best for the lowest price, from a park nonprofit
Elk Patch Beanie
Rocky Mountain Conservancy
- Style
- Black roll-up cuffed beanie
- Design
- Bugling-elk patch with 'Rocky Mountain National Park'
- Made of
- 100% acrylic
- Fit
- One size fits most; no measurements listed
- Giving
- Sold by Rocky Mountain Conservancy, the park's nonprofit partner; $14.41 for members
It’s the cheapest park-store beanie we found, and members pay $14.41.
Best for Yellowstone in spring or fall
Yellowstone Cuffed Beanie
Carhartt, sold by Yellowstone General Stores
- Style
- Cuffed rib-knit beanie
- Design
- Embroidered Yellowstone buffalo logo; Carhartt label
- Made of
- 100% acrylic
- Fit
- Pull-on with a cuff; one size
- Giving
- Sold by a for-profit park concessioner; part of its franchise fee goes to the park
It’s fine for the boardwalks and the car in April or October. Yellowstone General Stores is run by Delaware North, a concession company, so this isn’t a nonprofit park store. The same store has Parks Project’s $39.99 bison beanie and a $19.88 Landmark Project one.
Yellowstone Forever, the park’s nonprofit, doesn’t sell a beanie in its online store, and our Yellowstone page has the caps.
Alaska Geographic runs Denali’s park stores, and its Recycled Beanie with a leather Denali patch costs about $27. The listing doesn’t say what’s in it, so don’t count on it for a cold hike.
Grand Canyon Conservancy’s beanies are all acrylic and cost $18 to $20, including a ribbed one with a faux leather patch.
The National Park Foundation’s store has one hat, a $22 acrylic tag beanie made in the US.
If you knit
Nancy Bates’s book Knitting the National Parks has a beanie pattern for all 63 parks and costs $35 on her site. Single patterns like Glacier are $5 PDFs.
Her Glacier sample was knit in merino, and knitting your own is the only way we found to get a wool beanie with Glacier, Denali or Yellowstone on it.