CNN
—
Boy did Americans and other visitors make good use of US National Park Service sites in 2024 — enough to set a record.
The NPS has reached a new overall milestone, with almost 331.9 million recreation visits logged at all of its 433 units, which include famous national parks such as Yellowstone but also places such as parkways, battlefields, national seashores, memorials and historic sites.
That number beats out the previous record, which was set in 2016 with roughly 330.9 recreation visits. It’s also an increase of 6.36 million recreation visits, or 2%, from 2023, the NPS reported.
Another notable shift in the visitation numbers: Perennial No. 1 favorite Blue Ridge Parkway took a back seat to a popular area in Northern California in 2024. (However, it should be noted that the curvy, mountainous parkway had to close and reopen in stretches after the remnants of Hurricane Helene smashed the area in late September.)
Along with the record visits, the system saw four new sites open in 2024.
It was a boom year for Golden Gate National Recreation Area, a vast collection of spots that stretch from southern San Mateo County to northern Marin County.
The No. 1 most visited NPS site is home to military sites such as the Presidio in San Francisco, and it supports 19 distinct ecosystems from seashore to redwood forests. Attendance jumped almost 15% from 2023’s visitor tally of 14.95 million.
Here’s the top 10 among all NPS sites:
1. Golden Gate National Recreation Area (17.18 million visits)
2. Blue Ridge Parkway (16.73 million)
3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12.19 million)
4. Gateway National Recreation Area (8.92 million)
5. Lincoln Memorial (8.47 million)
6. Gulf Islands National Seashore (7.80 million)
7. Natchez Trace Parkway (7.36 million)
8. George Washington Memorial Parkway (6.78 million)
9. Lake Mead National Recreation Area (6.41 million)
10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial (5.29 million)
At No. 5, the Lincoln Memorial is the most-visited NPS site that doesn’t cover a large area.
In compiling a list of just those headliner national parks vs. every NPS site, a familiar name has yet again topped the list for 2024:
1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12.19 million)
2. Zion National Park (4.94 million)
3. Grand Canyon National Park (4.91 million)
4. Yellowstone National Park (4.74 million)
5. Rocky Mountain National Park (4.15 million)
6. Yosemite National Park (4.12 million)
7. Acadia National Park (3.96 million)
8. Olympic National Park (3.71 million)
9. Grand Teton National Park (3.62 million)
10. Glacier National Park (3.20 million)
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles North Carolina and Tennessee, brought in the most visitors among the headliner national parks.
Zion National Park in Utah and Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona continue their tight competition for the silver and bronze. In 2023, it was Grand Canyon that claimed the No. 2 spot while Zion placed at No. 3.
While national parks tend to get all the attention and headlines, the 63 sites with “national park” in their name accounted for just 28% of all NPS visits in 2024.
Last year, 28 sites in the system set a record for annual recreation visits.
The record numbers come as mass firings of national park staffers numbering around 1,000 have been carried out. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration does not want to draw attention to the visitation figures, according to an NPS memo. News releases were not issued, but the figures were posted online.
