Every National Park is unique and it’s quite a project to visit them all. These popular and scenic destinations make for affordable vacations and are ideal places for people of all ages.
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In 2017, the NPS recorred 330,882,751 recreational visitors to the National Parks. That’s significantly more than back in 1904 when there were only 120,690 visitors. In total, since 1904, 13,918,617,696 people have visited the National Parks! Now that’s some fun National Park trivia.
In this post, we look at the most and least visited National Parks in the United States in 2017. The information only includes numbers for the 60 National Parks, not the other unique sites managed by the National Park Service. The following numbers are based on data compiled by the National Park Service from the 2017 calendar year.
Now let’s look at the most and least visited National Parks in 2017 based on recreational visitor count:
The 10 Most Visited National Parks In 2017
1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park – 11,338,893
2. Grand Canyon National Park – 6,254,238
3. Zion National Park – 4,504,812
4. Rocky Mountain National Park – 4,437,215
5. Yosemite National Park – 4,336,890
6. Yellowstone National Park – 4,116,524
7. Acadia National Park – 3,509,271
8. Olympic National Park – 3,401,996
9. Grand Teton National Park – 3,317,000
10. Glacier National Park – 3,305,512
The 10 Least Visited National Parks In 2017
51. Congaree National Park – 159,595
52. National Park Of American Samoa – 69,468
53. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve – 68,292
54. Dry Tortugas National Park – 54,281
55. Katmai National Park & Preserve – 37,818
56. North Cascades National Park – 30,326
57. Isle Royale National Park – 28,196
58. Lake Clark National Park & Preserve – 22,755
59. Kobuk Valley National Park – 15,500
60. Gates Of The Arctic National Park & Preserve – 11,177
Here’s one last fun fact for National Park Service enthusiasts. Out of all of the 417 NPS sites, the busiest site is the Blue Ridge Parkway with 16,093,765 visitors and the least visited National Parks Service site was the Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve with only 100 visitors.
We strongly encourage you to buy your Parks Pass so that you can fully explore all of the amazing sites managed by the NPS. These incredible destinations will change the way that you see the world.
To read more about the National Park Service visitation data, please visit IRMA.NPS.gov and NPS.gov. For more detailed data on specific parks, please visit IRMA.nps.gov.
Enjoy your National Parks!
See Also:
- 12 Oldest National Parks In The US
- What Is The Largest National Park In The World?
- 12 Largest National Parks In The United States
