Manhattan Project National Historical Park
Tennessee, New Mexico, Washington
Tonight
🌗 46% moon
7 h fully dark
Hikes
Easy–Strenuous
🟢 🟡 🔴
Crowds
low
Open today
Open
Entrance
Free entry
The Manhattan Project is one of the most transformative events of the 20th century. It ushered in the nuclear age with the development of the world’s first atomic bombs. Most of this development took place in three secret communities located in Hanford, WA, Los Alamos, NM and Oak Ridge, TN. Today, you can visit these three sites that make up Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
Topics
No entrance fee.
Hours & seasons
Access to the Hanford B Reactor is by tour only. Separate tours of the Historic Sites are also offered. For more information about tours of the B Reactor, visit http://manhattanprojectbreactor.hanford.gov/. For more information about tours of the historic sites, visit http://tours.hanford.gov/HistoricTours/.
Generally open:
winterspringsummerfallHours are reported by the park — verify before you go.
📞 Hanford: 509.376.1647
✉ mapr_information@nps.govConditions
Quietest months (fewer crowds): Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
Typical crowds: low
Weather now: ☀️ Clear, 87°F
☁️ 91°/65°
☁️ 90°/63°
☁️ 91°/65°
Typical monthly recreation visits · NPS avg 2023–2025 — orange months are the quietest by crowds.
Quietest months
Relative crowds by month — lighter is quieter; ringed months are the calmest by crowds.
Jan
20%
Feb
29%
Mar
61%
Apr
70%
May
80%
Jun
87%
Jul
100%
Aug
77%
Sep
70%
Oct
62%
Nov
37%
Dec
29%
Log a sky reading
Measured the sky with an SQM meter or app? Add your reading (16 = city glow … 22 = pristine). Opt in under “Travelers like you” to share it on the community leaderboard.
Things to do
Hanford: Attend a B Reactor Tour · 45-minute bus ride each way with 2 hours touring the B Reactor
Los Alamos: Tour Behind the Fence
Oak Ridge: Join a Ranger Program
Oak Ridge: Experience a Guided Tour Behind the Fence
Hanford: Visit the Museum at Keewaydin
Hanford: Visit LIGO · 2.5 mi
Oak Ridge: Visit the Oak Ridge History Museum
Hanford: Visit Nez Perce National Historical Park
Visitor centers
Hanford Visitor Center
Los Alamos Visitor Center
Oak Ridge Visitor Center
Tri-Cities Visitor Center
Accessibility
102 audio-described place(s)
Reported by the park — verify before you go.
Not an official safety source — always defer to NPS.gov and rangers for life-safety decisions.
By the numbers
A visual read on Manhattan Project National Historical Park — its character, trails, sky, and weather.
Park fingerprint
How this park scores across the dimensions travelers care about.
Trail difficulty
Difficulty mix across this park's trails.
Trail profile
Each dot is a trail — distance vs. elevation gain, by difficulty.
3-day forecast
Daily high and low temperatures (°F).
People & stories
Figures tied to Manhattan Project National Historical Park — each spans a cross-park journey.
Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu
Dr. J. Ernest Wilkins Jr.
— Mathematicians, Nuclear Scientists, NuclearManhattan Project Leaders: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
— Leader, People, Leaders And The Manhattan ProjectManhattan Project Leaders: Franklin Thompson Matthias
— Leader, People, People Of HanfordManhattan Project Leaders: Harry S. Truman
— Leader, People, Leaders And The Manhattan ProjectManhattan Project Leaders: Henry L. Stimson
— Leaders And The Manhattan Project, People Of Oak RidgeManhattan Project Leaders: Kenneth David Nichols
— Leader, People, Leaders And The Manhattan ProjectManhattan Project Leaders: Leslie Richard Groves, Jr.
— Leader, People, People Of Los AlamosPassport stamps
Mark the stamps you've collected — they show in your memory and along your routes.
🎫 Hanford Visitor Center
🎫 Los Alamos Visitor Center
🎫 Oak Ridge Visitor Center
🎫 Tri-Cities Visitor Center
Places to see
300 Area Fuel Fabrication Site
African American Houses of Worship
African American Hutments
audio
Allard Pumphouse
audio
American Museum of Science & Energy
Ancestral Pueblo Site
audio
Ashley Pond
audio
B Reactor
audio
B Reactor Overlook
Bathtub Row
Battleship Bunker - Creutz Test
audio
Battleship Bunker - Magnetic Method
audioAudio & media
Learn more
This lesson plan explores the history of African American life in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a major site of the Manhattan Project. It is part of a series about Oak Ridge, designated an American World War II Heritage City in 2022 by the Secretary of the Interior.
This lesson plan explores the history of World War II-era innovation and employment in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a major site of the Manhattan Project. It is part of a series about Oak Ridge, designated an American World War II Heritage City in 2022 by the Secretary of the Interior.
This lesson plan explores the impact of the atomic bomb on Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a major site of the Manhattan Project. It is part of a series about Oak Ridge, designated an American World War II Heritage City in 2022 by the Secretary of the Interior.
This lesson is part of a series teaching about the World War II home front. Oak Ridge, Tennessee is an American WWII Heritage City. It combines lesson themes from the three other lessons in the collection to summarize the city’s contributions and encourage connections to the overall US home front efforts.
On March 26, 1943, Dorothy McKibbin reported to work at 109 East Palace in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and learned that their employer was the secret Los Alamos Laboratory in the nearby mountains, part of the covert Manhattan Project. From her modest office, Dorothy became “gatekeeper” to Los Alamos since all civilian employees and many of the military personnel checked in through her office.
The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, an organization of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
This lesson series helps students explore the importance of Oak Ridge, Tennessee as an American World War II Heritage City. These lessons highlight the workers of Oak Ridge, with specific focus on contributions of women and African American workers, and the short- and long-term effects of the area having produced material for the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
The Ames Project, located in Ames, Iowa produced purified uranium metal for the Manhattan Project, first on an experimental and then on a mass scale. Learn more about the role Ames played during and after the project.
Ranger School
Park-grounded courses you can learn with the Ranger.
Cleanup at Hanford, Washington
Open →
Science of the B Reactor at Hanford, Washington
Open →
Stories From the Clinch River Valley Lesson One: Change
Open →
Stories From the Clinch River Valley Lesson Three: Community
Open →
Stories From the Clinch River Valley Lesson Two: Displacement
Open →
Transportation and the Manhattan Project at Hanford, Washington
Open →
Women and the Manhattan Project
Open →
How Manhattan Project National Historical Park connects
This park's activities, topics, location, and on-the-ground places — one hop in the graph. Drag to explore; click an activity, topic, or related park to follow it.
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