Data centers are quietly becoming neighbours of some of America's most beloved wild places, and now you can see exactly how close they're getting. Will Pattiz, cofounder of the public lands publication More Than Just Parks, has built an interactive map that plots every data center and proposal in the United States — and the picture near the national parks is striking.
Type in a zip code and the tool shows the nearest facility or proposed site, plus its likely effect on local utility bills and which groups back it. The numbers as of publication: 2,086 data centers tracked nationwide, 741 of them still proposals. At least 14 projects sit within ten miles of a national park boundary, 38 within 25 miles, and 131 within 50. Counting all protected land — wildlife refuges, wilderness and conservation areas — 77 proposals fall within ten miles, roughly half of them in the American West.
Some of the closest encounters with iconic parks are eye-opening. In Page, Arizona, the city sold about 500 acres — land previously earmarked for outdoor recreation — to developers planning a $10 billion data center beside Horseshoe Bend, the famous Colorado River viewpoint. The site would also sit roughly five miles from the northeastern edge of Grand Canyon National Park near Lees Ferry. Arizona has 26 active proposals in total. A planning and zoning meeting on the Page project was scheduled for November 17, and it's still in public review.
Utah is shaping up as a hotspot. Near Price, Valar Atomics has applied for more than 9,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land for what's dubbed Project Beehive — data centers powered by hundreds of small nuclear reactors, a fuel plant and nuclear waste storage, producing around 9.6 gigawatts. NPR reports that's more than double what the entire state currently generates. The land is about two hours from Arches and Canyonlands. Another project, the Antelope Data Center in Iron County, sits about 40 miles from Zion and got a conditional use permit in June 2026 — a 640-acre, 1.5-gigawatt build with its own natural gas plant.
Elsewhere, Virginia has 97 proposed centers, 12 of them within 25 miles of Shenandoah National Park, and eight of Indiana's 25 proposals fall within 25 miles of Indiana Dunes.
Why should holiday-goers care? These facilities consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, and their construction can reshape the views, night skies and quiet that draw people to parks in the first place. Pattiz argues many deals move forward with little public scrutiny and no clear public benefit, and he wants travellers and locals alike to check what's being built nearby — then decide for themselves whether to support it. The map updates automatically as new proposals surface, making it a handy watchdog for anyone planning trips around America's public lands.
