Most of the park is within North Yorkshire, with a sizeable area in Cumbria and a small part in Lancashire.

This means that the area has "low levels of light pollution with good conditions for astronomy".

Parts of the dales to the south and east of the national park are located in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Following the Local Government Act 1972 most of the area of the national park was transferred in 1974 to the new county of North Yorkshire.

Later in 2021, the volume of visits was expected to increase as a result of the 2020 TV series All Creatures Great and Small, largely filmed within the Dales.

One source stated that visits to Yorkshire websites had increased significantly by late September 2020.

[19] The Dales Countryside Museum is housed in the converted Hawes railway station in Wensleydale in the north of the area.