323 million people visited a National Park Service site in 2025. That’s with a 43-day government shutdown, the longest ever, that left most parks running on skeleton crews through October and November.
Let that number sit for a second.
The Smokies alone drew 11.5 million folks. That’s more people than live in New York City and Chicago combined. Here’s the full breakdown of the most visited national parks, using the official 2025 calendar-year NPS data released in March 2026, plus our own take from filming in every one of these parks.
Note: We’ve included a complete table of all 63 parks at the bottom in case you want to check on your favorite.
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Top 5 Most Popular US National Parks
1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Location: Tennessee & North Carolina
2025 Visitation: 11,527,939 (#1)
2024 Visitation: 12,191,834 (#1)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 14,100
Our Favorite Resources: Map / Guidebook / Guide / Things to Do / Hikes / Where to Stay / Video / Facts
Parks Featured in This Guide
12 parks mapped — click a pin for details
Visitation Summary
Great Smoky Mountains remains the most visited national park in America with 11,527,939 visits in 2025. That’s down about 5% from 2024’s 12.2 million, and the shutdown deserves some of the blame. Even so, the Smokies drew more than double the next park on this list. Nobody else is close.
Park Description
Related: National Parks Educational Resources
One of the best national parks in America is also the most popular. By most counts, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the world. The greatest of the eastern parks, it protects a vast swath of the Appalachian Mountains.
These old mountains and forests and streams invite you to slow down and imagine a world where this was what much of the eastern United States looked like. Herds of elk roam the park, and bears, otters, deer, and foxes are commonly sighted.
Best Time to Visit
The best time to visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park is fall, when the foliage is on full display. October brings peak color. It also brings the biggest crowds of the year, so pick your weekdays carefully.
Best Things to Do
Great Smoky Mountains is a mecca for outdoor lovers. A few of our favorite things to see and do include:
- Visiting the waterfalls along wooded trails, including Grotto Falls
- Climbing Kuwohi (Clingmans Dome) or Chimney Tops
- Taking a scenic drive along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
- Exploring the historic structures from early settlers at Cades Cove, ideally at dawn before the loop opens to cars
2. Zion National Park
Location: Utah
2025 Visitation: 4,984,525 (#2)
2024 Visitation: 4,946,592 (#2)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 21,800 (the most crowded park for its size in America)
Our Favorite Resources: Guide | Things to Do | Hikes | Map | Guidebook | Where to Stay | Road Trip
Visitation Summary
Zion held the #2 spot in 2025 with 4,984,525 visits, inching up from 2024 and closing in on its all-time high of 5 million set in 2021. During the shutdown, Utah spent $336,000 of state money keeping visitor centers open at its five parks. The crowds barely noticed anything was wrong.
Description
Listen, folks, we love Zion, but the truth is this park is an absolute mess right now, with crowds regularly over-running the place. We hear a lot about our national parks being “loved to death,” and no park epitomizes the problem more than Zion. Roughly 5 million people a year squeeze into one canyon.
While the park is gorgeous and home to world-class recreation, it’s also choked with tourists on every trail and at every vista. Buses, lottery systems, permits, closures, and still the crowds swarm like moths to a flame. What’s that old proverb? If you love it, let it go.
Best Time to Visit
If you’re looking to avoid the crowds, visit Zion in winter. December through February means no shuttle requirement, empty trails, and red rock dusted with snow. Spring comes with a caveat. Snowmelt regularly swells the Virgin River and closes The Narrows for weeks at a time.
3. Yellowstone National Park
Location: Wyoming, Montana & Idaho
2025 Visitation: 4,762,988 (#3)
2024 Visitation: 4,744,353 (#4)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 1,400 (size has its advantages)
Our Favorite Resources: Map / Guidebook / Things to Do / Facts / Airports / Where to Stay
Visitation Summary
Yellowstone climbed from #4 to #3 in 2025 with 4,762,988 visits, a slight increase over 2024 and within shouting distance of its all-time high of 4.86 million set in 2021. It didn’t earn the spot so much as inherit it when Grand Canyon’s numbers cratered. More on that below.
Description
Ah, Yellowstone National Park, the national park that started it all. A landscape dotted with otherworldly thermal works, bison holdouts from a time when they ruled the prairie, a thriving wolf population, and an encapsulation of the great American West.
Yellowstone is also the Disneyland of national parks, complete with food courts, souvenir shops, and resort villages. Street traffic (and we’re not talking bison jams) has become a real issue here. Despite the park’s beauty, we recommend visiting in the off-season for the best experience.
Best Time to Visit
The best time to visit Yellowstone is the shoulder season. We like September, when crowds thin out and fall color starts popping throughout the park. Check out our guide to visiting Yellowstone in the fall.
Best Things to Do
So many things. So little time. Old Faithful, the canyon rim trails above the Lower Falls, the boardwalks of the Upper Geyser Basin, wolf watching in Lamar Valley, and endless views of mountains, geysers, rivers, and lakes. We wrote a full guide to the best hikes in Yellowstone if you want the trail-by-trail breakdown.
4. Grand Canyon National Park
Location: Arizona
2025 Visitation: 4,430,653 (#4)
2024 Visitation: 4,919,163 (#3)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 2,300
Our Favorite Resources: Map / Guidebook / Things to Do / Best Views / Closest Cities / South Rim / North Rim / Where to Stay / Winter / Facts /Bright Angel Trail / Rim to Rim
Visitation Summary
Grand Canyon had the roughest year of any park in the top 10, dropping nearly 10% and falling from #3 to #4. The Dragon Bravo Fire tore across the North Rim in July 2025, destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, and closed the North Rim for the rest of the season. Add the shutdown and you get a half-million-visit decline. Still, 4.4 million people stood on the rim of one of the world’s great wonders.
Description
We could try to describe the singular majesty of one of the great wonders of the world, or we could let Theodore Roosevelt do it.
“In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely exceptional throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is.
I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Best Time To Visit
The best time to visit Grand Canyon National Park is the off-season, like September through November, when the park cools down and so does the visitation. The South Rim stays open and surprisingly quiet all winter.
5. Yosemite National Park
Location: California
2025 Visitation: 4,278,413 (#5)
2024 Visitation: 4,121,807 (#6)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 3,700 (nearly all of it crammed into one valley)
Our Favorite Resources: Map / Guidebook / Facts / Where to Stay / Things to Do
Visitation Summary
Yosemite moved up to #5 in 2025, passing Rocky Mountain with a roughly 4% increase to 4,278,413 visits. We recommend visiting this park in the off-season or during windows when the reservation system is in place, because the overcrowding is severe. Summer means timed entry or arriving very early or late in the day.
Description
Alas, it’s the 21st century, and John Muir’s “grandest of all temples of nature” is bursting at the seams with folks in search of their latest social media trophy. But in the end, it’s still Yosemite National Park. Once there, you’ll understand why it’s one of the most popular parks in the country.
Despite the summer crowds, the valley remains one of the natural wonders of the world. The immensity of the place tends to make you feel small in the most humbling way.
Best Time To Visit
We recommend visiting in the off-season for the best experience. That means avoiding peak summer by going in spring or fall. The valley in snow is something else and nearly empty. Remember that February’s Horsetail Fall “firefall” is now so popular it requires its own reservation.
Most Visited National Parks, 6 Through 10
6. Rocky Mountain National Park
Location: Colorado
2025 Visitation: 4,171,431 (#6)
2024 Visitation: 4,154,349 (#5)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 10,100
Our Favorite Resources: Guide / Map / Guidebook / Hikes / Things to Do / Where to Stay / Video / Facts
Visitation Summary
Rocky Mountain held steady at 4,171,431 visits in 2025, a hair above 2024. The park slipped from #5 to #6 as Yosemite leapfrogged it, but it remains one of the most consistently visited parks in the system. The timed-entry permit system continues to manage peak-season access along Trail Ridge Road.
Description
In the heart of Colorado’s Front Range, Rocky Mountain National Park spans more than 400 square miles of high country. Many consider it the high point of the American Rockies, and we get why.
Rocky Mountain is home to a remarkable diversity of wildlife, including elk, moose, bighorn sheep, beaver, black bear, marmots, and mountain lions.
Best Time To Visit
We recommend late September into early October for the fall colors and the elk rut. Half the summer crowds, twice the show.
7. Acadia National Park
Location: Maine
2025 Visitation: 4,079,318 (#7)
2024 Visitation: 3,961,661 (#7)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 53,000. Read that again. It’s more than double Zion’s density.
Our Favorite Resources: Guide / Map / Hikes / Guidebook / Where to Stay / Video / Facts / Things to Do / Summer / Winter / Road Trip
Visitation Summary
Acadia crossed the 4 million mark in 2025 with 4,079,318 visits, up about 3% from 2024 and its first time over that line since 2021. For a park of 49,000 acres, that’s an astonishing amount of humanity, and summer traffic on Mount Desert Island shows it.
Description
Along the rocky shores of Maine’s coast, you’ll find this easternmost national park. Once the exclusive domain of the Gilded Age elite, Acadia became available to all Americans when a few civic-minded residents donated the land, and boy, are we glad they did.
With rounded mountains, shimmering lakes (called ponds here), rugged coastline, and forests laced with old carriage roads and trails, this New England park is a real treasure.
Best Time to Visit
The best time to visit Acadia is fall, when one of the most brilliant foliage displays in the world takes place. Mid to late October is best for peak color. And don’t sleep on Acadia in winter. Snow-covered carriage roads and empty trails are their own reward.
8. Grand Teton National Park
Location: Wyoming
2025 Visitation: 3,800,648 (#8)
2024 Visitation: 3,628,222 (#9)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 7,800
Our Favorite Resources: Guide / Maps / Guidebook / Hikes / Things to Do / Where to Stay / Video / Facts
Visitation Summary
Grand Teton jumped nearly 5% to 3,800,648 visits in 2025, passing Olympic to claim #8. The Yellowstone-Grand Teton corridor remains one of the most popular road trip combinations in the system, and as Yellowstone’s crowds grow, more folks are discovering its quieter neighbor to the south.
Description
Grand Teton National Park is truly iconic and, thanks to strong management and foresight, has avoided the worst of the crowding that defines its neighbor to the north. Here you’ll find the Teton range rising a vertical mile off the valley floor, the winding Snake River, and some of the best wildlife viewing in the entire park system.
Best Time To Visit
The best time to visit Grand Teton National Park is early July, when wildlife is on the move and wildflowers are on full display. Want it quieter? Late September pairs fall color with the elk rut at a fraction of the summer crowds.
9. Olympic National Park
Location: Washington
2025 Visitation: 3,584,187 (#9)
2024 Visitation: 3,717,267 (#8)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 2,500
Our Favorite Resources: Guide / Map / Guidebook / Things to Do / Hikes / Where to Stay / Video
Visitation Summary
Olympic National Park slipped about 4% to 3,584,187 visits in 2025, trading places with Grand Teton to land at #9. We’re fine with that. We still stand by our ranking of Olympic as the best national park in America, and slightly fewer people on the Hoh River Trail only strengthens the case.
Description
Olympic National Park is the most diverse national park in America, hands down. Lowland forests, striking mountain ranges, pristine alpine lakes, temperate rainforests (the largest in North America), and over 50 miles of wild coastline.
Oh, and it’s a stone’s throw from Seattle. Olympic has it all without the crowd density that has become so insidious in other parks, which is why we rank this Pacific Northwest park as the best in America.
Best Time To Visit
The best time to visit Olympic is summer, when precipitation is low, trails are melted out, and days are long. July and August are ideal. August is the busiest month, June the quietest of the summer. Check for fires in the region before booking if you can.
10. Glacier National Park
Location: Montana
2025 Visitation: 3,136,557 (#10)
2024 Visitation: 3,208,755 (#10)
Visitors Per Square Mile: About 2,000
Our Favorite Resources: Guide / Things to Do / Hikes / Facts
Visitation Summary
Glacier National Park held the #10 spot with 3,136,557 visits in 2025, down slightly from 2024. The vehicle reservation era on Going-to-the-Sun Road hasn’t dented demand. As the park’s namesake glaciers continue to shrink, more folks seem determined to see them before they’re gone.
Description
Glacier National Park is one of the most spectacular places on the planet. The Crown of the Continent features over 700 miles of trails threading through the most dramatic mountain scenery in the lower 48. Turquoise lakes, ancient ice, and the legendary Going-to-the-Sun Road earn this park its reputation.
Best Time To Visit
The best time to visit Glacier National Park is mid-July through mid-September, when Going-to-the-Sun Road is fully open. September offers fewer crowds and fall color creeping into the alpine valleys.
When to Visit to Avoid Crowds
Every park on this list has a peak season that can turn even the most spectacular scenery into a traffic jam. Here’s our quick reference for timing your visit to skip the worst of it.
| Park | Peak Season | Best Time to Avoid Crowds | Pro Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Smoky Mountains | Jun-Oct | Jan-Feb, weekdays | Cades Cove at dawn before the loop opens to cars |
| Zion | Mar-Nov | Dec-Feb | Winter means no shuttle required and empty trails |
| Yellowstone | Jun-Aug | Sep-Oct | Lamar Valley in fall for wolf watching without crowds |
| Grand Canyon | Jun-Aug | Nov-Feb | South Rim is quiet in winter; check North Rim status after the 2025 fire |
| Yosemite | Jun-Sep | Nov-Apr | The valley is a different world in snow and almost empty |
| Rocky Mountain | Jun-Sep | Oct, May | Trail Ridge Road opens late May, before the summer rush |
| Acadia | Jul-Aug | Oct, May | October foliage is peak beauty with manageable crowds |
| Grand Teton | Jul-Aug | Sep-Oct | Fall colors plus elk rut with half the summer visitors |
| Olympic | Jul-Aug | Apr-May, Oct | Shoulder seasons bring wildflowers or fall color |
| Glacier | Jul-Aug | Sep | Going-to-the-Sun Road open, summer crowds gone |
Key Takeaways from the 2025 National Park Visitation Statistics
The 2025 data tells a clear story. Despite a 43-day government shutdown that left most parks without staff, Americans still showed up in force. The 323 million total visits represent just a 2.7% dip from 2024’s all-time record of 331.9 million, and 26 individual parks set visitation records.
The biggest shakeup in the Top 10 was Grand Canyon falling from #3 to #4 after the Dragon Bravo Fire destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge and closed the North Rim for the season. Yellowstone inherited the #3 spot, Yosemite passed Rocky Mountain for #5, and Grand Teton edged past Olympic for #8.
The membership of the Top 10 didn’t change at all. The same ten parks, slightly reshuffled. Meanwhile the big percentage moves happened further down the list, where North Cascades jumped 185% after its wildfire-wrecked 2024 and Redwood nearly doubled to 1.2 million visits.
National Parks that Broke Records in 2025
A total of 26 park sites set new all-time visitation records in 2025. Among the national parks, the standout was New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, which hit 1,958,440 visits and continues its climb since gaining national park status in 2020. Hawaii Volcanoes also surged 13% to 1.88 million as eruption viewing drew crowds.
One footnote worth knowing. The most visited NPS site overall isn’t a national park at all. The Blue Ridge Parkway logged 16,533,753 visits in 2025, more than the Smokies and Zion combined.
Top 10 Most Visited National Parks (2025)
| 1 | Great Smoky Mountains NP | 11,527,939 |
| 2 | Zion NP | 4,984,525 |
| 3 | Yellowstone NP | 4,762,988 |
| 4 | Grand Canyon NP | 4,430,653 |
| 5 | Yosemite NP | 4,278,413 |
| 6 | Rocky Mountain NP | 4,171,431 |
| 7 | Acadia NP | 4,079,318 |
| 8 | Grand Teton NP | 3,800,648 |
| 9 | Olympic NP | 3,584,187 |
| 10 | Glacier NP | 3,136,557 |
And the 10 Least Visited National Parks (2025)
| 54 | Great Basin NP | 161,210 |
| 55 | Wrangell-St. Elias NP & PRES | 108,840 |
| 56 | Dry Tortugas NP | 89,355 |
| 57 | North Cascades NP | 46,925 |
| 58 | National Park of American Samoa | 43,258 |
| 59 | Katmai NP & PRES | 34,479 |
| 60 | Isle Royale NP | 29,091 |
| 61 | Lake Clark NP & PRES | 19,778 |
| 62 | Gates of the Arctic NP & PRES | 14,923 |
| 63 | Kobuk Valley NP | 7,786 |
List of Top 10 Least Visited National Parks in the Lower 48
The least visited national parks generally have two things in common. First, no roads in or around the park. Gates of the Arctic will sit at the bottom forever unless Americans suddenly develop a taste for parks with no roads or trails, where hiking means following paths made by caribou.
Second, islands. Boats and seaplanes cost money, and limited seats hold numbers down no matter how much demand exists. We can guarantee the ferries to Dry Tortugas National Park aren’t running half-empty. They’re packed and booked months in advance.
So in the spirit of full transparency, here are the least visited national parks in the lower 48 that don’t require a boat.
| 1 | North Cascades NP | 46,925 |
| 2 | Great Basin NP | 161,210 |
| 3 | Voyageurs NP | 206,326 |
| 4 | Guadalupe Mountains NP | 206,423 |
| 5 | Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP | 250,086 |
| 6 | Congaree NP | 287,833 |
| 7 | Petrified Forest NP | 315,951 |
| 8 | Pinnacles NP | 343,208 |
| 9 | Carlsbad Caverns NP | 410,778 |
| 10 | Great Sand Dunes NP & PRES | 432,498 |
Complete List of All 63 National Parks by 2025 Visitation
| 1 | Great Smoky Mountains NP | 11,527,939 |
| 2 | Zion NP | 4,984,525 |
| 3 | Yellowstone NP | 4,762,988 |
| 4 | Grand Canyon NP | 4,430,653 |
| 5 | Yosemite NP | 4,278,413 |
| 6 | Rocky Mountain NP | 4,171,431 |
| 7 | Acadia NP | 4,079,318 |
| 8 | Grand Teton NP | 3,800,648 |
| 9 | Olympic NP | 3,584,187 |
| 10 | Glacier NP | 3,136,557 |
| 11 | Cuyahoga Valley NP | 3,025,325 |
| 12 | Joshua Tree NP | 2,932,644 |
| 13 | Indiana Dunes NP | 2,629,497 |
| 14 | Hot Springs NP | 2,494,611 |
| 15 | Gateway Arch NP | 2,209,028 |
| 16 | Bryce Canyon NP | 1,967,367 |
| 17 | New River Gorge NP & PRES | 1,958,440 |
| 18 | Hawaii Volcanoes NP | 1,877,854 |
| 19 | Shenandoah NP | 1,682,152 |
| 20 | Mount Rainier NP | 1,635,342 |
| 21 | Arches NP | 1,511,740 |
| 22 | Capitol Reef NP | 1,388,476 |
| 23 | Sequoia NP | 1,378,337 |
| 24 | Death Valley NP | 1,320,134 |
| 25 | Redwood NP | 1,202,480 |
| 26 | Badlands NP | 1,139,361 |
| 27 | Haleakala NP | 853,711 |
| 28 | Saguaro NP | 847,749 |
| 29 | Canyonlands NP | 796,057 |
| 30 | Kings Canyon NP | 779,791 |
| 31 | Everglades NP | 778,198 |
| 32 | Glacier Bay NP & PRES | 740,044 |
| 33 | Theodore Roosevelt NP | 729,893 |
| 34 | Mammoth Cave NP | 660,734 |
| 35 | White Sands NP | 659,742 |
| 36 | Crater Lake NP | 632,242 |
| 37 | Wind Cave NP | 606,258 |
| 38 | Big Bend NP | 568,104 |
| 39 | Denali NP & PRES | 543,300 |
| 40 | Lassen Volcanic NP | 504,777 |
| 41 | Biscayne NP | 486,567 |
| 42 | Virgin Islands NP | 471,074 |
| 43 | Mesa Verde NP | 463,130 |
| 44 | Great Sand Dunes NP & PRES | 432,498 |
| 45 | Kenai Fjords NP | 425,369 |
| 46 | Carlsbad Caverns NP | 410,778 |
| 47 | Pinnacles NP | 343,208 |
| 48 | Petrified Forest NP | 315,951 |
| 49 | Congaree NP | 287,833 |
| 50 | Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP | 250,086 |
| 51 | Channel Islands NP | 227,186 |
| 52 | Guadalupe Mountains NP | 206,423 |
| 53 | Voyageurs NP | 206,326 |
| 54 | Great Basin NP | 161,210 |
| 55 | Wrangell-St. Elias NP & PRES | 108,840 |
| 56 | Dry Tortugas NP | 89,355 |
| 57 | North Cascades NP | 46,925 |
| 58 | National Park of American Samoa | 43,258 |
| 59 | Katmai NP & PRES | 34,479 |
| 60 | Isle Royale NP | 29,091 |
| 61 | Lake Clark NP & PRES | 19,778 |
| 62 | Gates of the Arctic NP & PRES | 14,923 |
| 63 | Kobuk Valley NP | 7,786 |
More Than Just “Most Visited” Parks
Now, this is where some context comes in as you review these numbers, and we want to show the math so it doesn’t look like we’re doing voodoo or favoring any particular spot.
(Calling Dry Tortugas a “least visited park” without context makes our heads explode. Just try to get a campsite there for next week. We’ll wait.)
Visitors Per Square Mile
This metric levels the playing field a bit while also showing the logic behind timed entry and reservations. Raw visitation tells you how popular a park is. Density tells you how crowded it actually feels.
Across all 63 designated national parks, 2025 saw roughly 118 million visits spread over about 82,000 square miles, or around 1,400 visits per square mile. That’s the benchmark. Zion runs about 21,800. Acadia runs about 53,000. Yellowstone, for all its fame, runs about 1,400, right at the average, because the place is enormous.
Camping, backcountry, and lodging breakdowns are all available on the NPS website. Leave a comment below if there’s a category you want us to dig into.
The “most visited” and “least visited” headlines get all the press while the parks in the middle get ignored. The lack of context in most of those stories drives us a little crazy. Here are a few examples of what the raw numbers hide.
Isle Royale National Park
This island wilderness off Michigan’s Upper Peninsula holds moose, wolves, shipwrecks, lighthouses, and some of the best paddling in America. It’s also the only national park that closes entirely for winter, from November 1 through April 15. Ferries run an even narrower window, roughly mid-May into September.
At the same time, Isle Royale is famous for having one of the highest repeat-visit rates in the system. People keep coming back. Why?
- Considering just the main island, 2025’s 29,091 visits work out to about 140 people per square mile across an entire season.
- Count the park’s full footprint including its waters and it drops to roughly 34 per square mile. Remember, Zion runs about 21,800.
- Worried you’ll get bored on an island? Stays here run days, not hours. Most folks camp or book the lodge and stay multiple nights.
Would you call that an unpopular park? For Isle Royale to match Zion’s crowd density, it would need more than 4.5 million visits a year. The ferries couldn’t accommodate that, and the wilderness wouldn’t survive it.
Channel Islands National Park
California’s least visited national park logged 227,186 visits in 2025. Even that number flatters the islands themselves.
The count includes everyone who walks into the mainland visitor centers in Ventura and Santa Barbara. Only a fraction of those folks actually board a boat and set foot on an island. Pick one of the outer islands like Santa Rosa or San Miguel and you can have miles of coastline essentially to yourself, a few dozen miles off the coast of 18 million people.
Alaska National Parks and Least Visited Status
The Alaska national parks collect the “least visited” label over and over, and it’s almost entirely about roads, or the lack of them.
Glacier Bay National Park breaks the mold with 740,044 visits in 2025, good for #32 overall. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of its visitors arrive on cruise ships and never need a road at all.
Denali came in at 543,300 visits. It has the tallest mountain in North America and an actual road, though private vehicles can only drive the first stretch of it. The park’s famous green buses do the rest, and the ongoing Pretty Rocks landslide repair has kept the far end of the road project list long. Yet over half a million people still made the trip.
Final Thoughts About the Most Visited Parks
We hope this puts some context around the national park visitation data. Asking “why” is the critical step in planning a park trip that matches your preferences instead of just following the crowds to whichever park tops the list.
And if you’re wondering how the rest of the world compares, Canada’s Banff National Park draws around 4 million visitors a year. Impressive, and it still wouldn’t crack the American top 5.
Leave us a comment below!
Which of these parks do you think is the most overcrowded for its size? Acadia squeezes 4 million visits into 49,000 acres. Zion packs nearly 5 million into 147,000, almost all of it funneled into one canyon. The math says Acadia. Our gut says Zion. Fight us in the comments.
See Our Full National Park Rankings
We ranked ALL 63 national parks from best to worst. Curious how the most visited parks stack up against the ones nobody talks about? Check out our full rankings.
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More Helpful Information on the National Parks
List of National Monuments: Full List of National Monuments (Alphabetical + By State)
Best National Parks Ranked: ALL 63 US National Parks RANKED By Experts
Free Downloadable National Parks Map & List: LIST & MAP of National Parks By State (+ Printable Checklist)
Best National Parks to Visit: 20 Best National Parks to Visit
Largest National Parks: 15 Largest National Parks in the United States (+ Full List)
Best National Monuments: All 128 US National Monuments Ranked (Best to Worst)
Least Visited National Parks: Top 10 Least Visited National Parks
Best East Coast National Parks: Top 10 Best East Coast National Parks Ranked
Utah National Parks Road Trips: 5 Best Utah National Park Road Trips
Best National Park Road Trips: 10 Best National Park Road Trips
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