[3] Three ski fields operate from the slopes of Mount Ruapehu, and the park is also a popular recreation area for hiking, fishing, hunting and other outdoor pursuits.

[11] In 2017, the Department of Conservation issued a notice advising visitors not to climb to the summits of the mountains in Tongariro National Park because they are sacred to local iwi.

In July 2018, the Crown met representatives of some iwi and it was agreed that negotiations would be delayed until all groups with interests in the park had had their settlements progressed, at which time cultural redress would be developed.

[18] The cultural redress process seeks to protect spiritually significant sites, recognise the traditional relationships of iwi with the environment and give claimants greater power to participate in managing the places involved.

[20] According to Māori oral history, Ngāti Tuwharetoa ancestor Ngātoro-i-rangi climbed the volcanoes 30 generations ago, naming Tongariro and other landscape features and claiming the area for his descendants.

[27] Henry Dyson made an ascent of Ngauruhoe[28] in March 1851, defying Mananui's tapu but with the support of Te Herekiekie of Tokaanu.

[35] In 1908, a scientific party consisting of botanist Leonard Cockayne, forester and surveyor Edward Phillips Turner and geologist Robert Speight spent several months exploring and surveying the park.

The government's nomination stated that the park was valuable under the 'Natural Property' category for its chain of volcanoes aligned along a tectonic plate boundary, showing Earth's evolutionary history; its ongoing geological processes and associated plant environments; and its outstanding natural phenomena and beauty.

[51] This was the first national park in the world to have its spiritual significance recognised as a "cultural landscape", an initiative supported by Tumu Te Heuheu of Ngati Tuwharetoa.

Apart from Mount Taranaki, the volcanoes of Tongariro National Park are the first significant elevations that these westerly winds encounter across the central North Island.

The east–west rainfall differences are not as great as in the Southern Alps, because the three volcanoes do not belong to a greater mountain range, but there is still a noticeable rain shadow effect.

This magma, being less dense, rises to the surface and goes through the weak parts of the Earth's crust (the faults) resulting in volcanic processes in the area.

[75] Vegetation patterns are generally determined by altitude,[75] for example the mountain beech is generally found above 1000 m,[76] but also depend on other factors: existing forests have developed since the Taupō pumice eruption which destroyed the park’s northern and eastern forests; tussock and shrubland are the result of burning except those above the treeline which are related to climate and soil conditions; poor soil drainage resulted in bracken fernlands, sedgeland and rushlands around Hauhungatahi.

[75] In the north of the park, south of SH47, is a podocarp-broadleaf rain forest where there are Hall's totara (Podocarpus laetus), kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides), rimu (Dacrydium cuppressinum), northern rātā (Metrosideros robusta), kāmahi (Pterophylla racemosa) and kaikawaka (Libocedrus bidwillii).

West of Tongariro exotic heather (Calluna vulgaris), with its distinctive pink and mauve flowers, grows on better drained sites competing with red tussock, mountain inaka and other native species.

[75][78] The gravel and stone fields support mountain inaka, bristle tussock (Rhytidosperma setifolium), snow totara (Podocarpus nivalus) and snowberry (Gaultheria colensoi) at an altitude of about 1100–1550m.

Also present in the park, as well as the whole of New Zealand, are animals introduced by Europeans, such as black rats, stoats, cats, rabbits, hare, possums and red deer.

The New Zealand Defence Force no longer needs to spray herbicide on large parts of its training ground next to the national park.

Volunteers and the government have been working since the 1960s[89] to eradicate wilding pines on Mount Ruapehu, since they shut out native plants, consume water and degrade the environment.

[90][91] By 2023 the Conifer Control Programme had stopped the spread of wilding pines in the Tongariro area including the national park and removed most sources of seeds.

The population is managed by the Department of Conservation to ensure the horses' current range does not extend back into Tongariro National Park.

[107] In addition to the difficulties of managing greater numbers of vehicles, rubbish disposal and toilet facilities, the environment becomes degraded and park staff face more callouts for visitors needing rescue.

[108] In an attempt to manage the situation, in 2023 the Department of Conservation put in place a booking system for those wishing to walk the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

With this track net, three camp sites, two emergency shelters, nine public and four private huts and the facilities in Whakapapa, the park is well developed for tourism.

The base of the ski field is at Iwikau Village, at the top of the Bruce Road, 6 km (3.7 mi) from the Tongariro National Park Visitor Centre.

The iwi Ngāti Rangi, the Department of Conservation and Ruapehu District Council collaborated to build the 11.4 km loop track which is expected to bring tourists to the area.

[130] In 2017, a report produced by the Mountain Safety Council showed that out of all public conservation areas in New Zealand, Tongariro National Park had the most tramping-related search and rescue incidents.

In 1990, six soldiers on a training exercise on Mount Ruapehu died when their group of 13 was stuck in a blizzard with inadequate supplies and insufficient shelter.

[135][136] In 2007, a small eruption on Mount Ruapehu caused lahars, and one climber had a leg amputated after a boulder crashed through the alpine hut that he was in, trapping him.

[150] Peter Jackson shot scenes on Ruapehu for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy including Mt Doom, Ithilien and Mordor.