NPS: Unprecedented Visits 

Birthday-Celebrating Park Service Smashes Visitation Mark

Buoyed by a yearlong birthday bash, the National Park Service crushed its all-time visitation record by nearly 17.5 million.

The system’s 413 units, which includes national parks, battlefields, historic sites, monuments and other designations, attracted 324,696,417 recreational visits in 2016, according to preliminary numbers. That bests last year’s record of 307,247,252.

The agency added four units during its centennial year, but those don’t nearly account for the visitation increase. The 59 national parks themselves, for instance, had an increase just under 7 million over 2015.

Great Smoky Mountains became the first national park to top 11 million visits and Grand Canyon just missed attracting 6 million in a record-setting year. Yosemite National Park topped 5 million in attendance for the first time in its history, seeing an increase of more than 858,000 from 2015.

When the visitation reporting is certified, several of the most-visited national parks will have set attendance records. The top nine all attracted at least 3 million visits, with No. 10 Glacier National Park falling just short of that mark.

Blue Ridge National Parkway was the most visited unit in the system, drawing 15,176,689. Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the most-visited unit in 2015, finished second by a scant 21,000 visits.

See below for final preliminary visitation, as well as monthly top 20 rankings.

MORE: How Increased Visitation Stressed the Parks.

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*Top 20 National Parks, ranked monthly by cumulative attendance in 2016. With gain/loss from the same month last year.

*NOTE: December lists all parks that exceeded 1 million visits

Click a Month: December |November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January

December: Zion surged ahead of Yellowstone for No. 5, Cuyahoga Valley leaped over Joshua Tree for No. 12, Shenandoah overtook Mount Rainier for No. 17, and Death Valley jumped from No. 22 to No. 19, bumping Sequoia from the top 20. … Yosemite moved up one notch to third from last year’s final standings, Zion overtook Yellowstone for No. 5. Bryce Canyon made the biggest jump, improving from No. 14 to No. 11 with a 633,809 increase in visits. … Four hot spots — Grand Canyon (No. 2 in December visits), Hawaii Volcanoes (No. 3) and Haleakala (No. 7) — were among seven parks that drew at least 100,000 visits in December.

Source: National Park Service.

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November: Twenty parks already have seen an increase of at least 104,000 visits, the equivalent of jamming in the entire city of Richmond, Calif.. … Both Olympic and Acadia overtook Grand Teton to move into Nos. 7 and 8, respectively. … Joshua Tree left Cuyahoga Valley into No. 12.

Source: National Park Service.

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October: Twenty-one parks now have topped the million mark in attendance for 2016, including Death Valley at No. 21. … The top 20 remained intact, with Rocky Mountain overtaking Yellowstone for No. 4 and Grand Teton improving to No. 7 over Olympic. There otherwise was only minor reshuffling at the bottom: Hot Springs leapfrogged Mount Rainier to No. 16 and Shenandoah jumped over Sequoia into 18th.

Source: National Park Service.

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September: Eight parks already have topped 3 million in visitation, up two from September of last year. … Great Smoky Mountains exceeded a million visitors for the fifth straight month. … Shenandoah returned to the rankings at No. 19, while Death Valley dropped out. … The first eight units stayed in the same order as last month, with Acadia breaking the staring by rising to No. 9. … The national-park units alone are 5.2 million visitors ahead of last year’s record-breaking pace.

Source: National Park Service.

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August: Seventeen national-park units top the million mark in attendance for the year, two more than a year ago this time. … Great Smoky Mountains topped 1 million in monthly visitation for the fourth straight month. … With 841,036 in August, Yellowstone was No. 2 in monthly visitation for the third straight month and surged to No. 4 in overall attendance in 2016. … Though slightly reshuffled, the parks comprising the top 20 stayed intact for the first time this year.

Source: National Park Service.

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July: Smoky Mountains had its third straight month of at least 1 million visitors. … Yellowstone nearly became the second park with a million-visitor month, checking in at 980,702. … Thirty-two units had at least 100,000 visitors this month. … Mount Rainier entered the rankings while Capitol Reef dropped out.

Source: National Park Service.

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June: Great Smoky Mountains had its second straight month of million-plus visitation. … With 838,316 visitors, Yellowstone moved from 12th to No. 6, a week after moving from unranked (No. 23) to No. 12. …Grand Teton and Acadia also moved up six sports. … Glacier, Sequoia and Capitol Reef moved into the top 20. … Everglades and Saguaro, hot spots hitting the summer, both left the top 20, as did Shenandoah.

Source: National Park Service.

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May: Yellowstone moved from unranked (No. 23) to No. 12. … Bryce Canyon (UT) moved up five spots to No. 11. … Sequoia and Virgin Islands dropped out of the top 20 from Nos. 18 and 19.

Source: National Park Service.

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April: As indicated here last month, NPS attendance seemed to be below 2015 levels, but a reporting glitch appears to account for that. Zion National Park, which last year was the poster park for overcrowding, showed negative attendance for March, 2016. This month, Zion is No. 4 among the big national park units. Joshua Tree made a large surge to more than 1 million visitors, vaulting to No. 3 overall. … Bryce Canyon had the ninth-best April with 137,698 and debuted in the rankings at No. 16.

Source: National Park Service.

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March:Yosemite climbed to its accustomed spot as the No. 3 most visited park. … Zion dropped five spots to No. 14 and is 289,315 visits behind last year’s attendance at this time. … The national-park units are about 210,000 behind last year’s visitation through March. … Yellowstone dropped out of the top 20, to No. 25.

Source: National Park Service.

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February: As might be expected with the beginning of the year under winter’s icy grip, the warm-weather parks started, well, hot. Except Great Smoky Mountains, which stayed in its usual top spot, that is. Hawaii Volcanoes at No. 3, Haleakala at No. 6 were prime early-year exceptions, as was Saguaro at No. 10, Virgin Islands at No. 15, Big Bend at No. 17, and Biscayne at No. 20. … In an interesting development, Olympic topped Rocky Mountain for seventh place by just seven visitors. … Overall, the NPS is about 700,000 behind last year’s pace.

Source: National Park Service.

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January: The NPS is more than half a million behind last year’s pace, which is surprising since this is its centennial year and the system is coming off back-to-back, record-break attendance. Is this the calm before the storm?

Source: National Park Service.

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Click here for 2015 park standings

July: Smoky Mountains had its third straight month of at least 1 million visitors. … Yellowstone nearly became the second park with a million-visitor month, checking in at 980,702. … Mount Rainier entered the rankings while Capitol Reef dropped out.

Source: National Park Service.

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June: Great Smoky Mountains had its second straight month of million-plus visitation. … With 838,316 visitors, Yellowstone moved from 12th to No. 6, a week after moving from unranked (No. 23) to No. 12. …Grand Teton and Acadia also moved up six sports. … Glacier, Sequoia and Capitol Reef moved into the top 20. … Everglades and Saguaro, hot spots hitting the summer, both left the top 20, as did Shenandoah.

Source: National Park Service.

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May: Yellowstone moved from unranked (No. 23) to No. 12. … Bryce Canyon (UT) moved up five spots to No. 11. … Sequoia and Virgin Islands dropped out of the top 20 from Nos. 18 and 19.

Source: National Park Service.

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May: Yellowstone moved from unranked (No. 23) to No. 12. … Bryce Canyon (UT) moved up five spots to No. 11. … Sequoia and Virgin Islands dropped out of the top 20 from Nos. 18 and 19.

Source: National Park Service.

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April: As indicated here last month, NPS attendance seemed to be below 2015 levels, but a reporting glitch appears to account for that. Zion National Park, which last year was the poster park for overcrowding, showed negative attendance for March, 2016. This month, Zion is No. 4 among the big national park units. Joshua Tree made a large surge to more than 1 million visitors, vaulting to No. 3 overall. … Bryce Canyon had the ninth-best April with 137,698 and debuted in the rankings at No. 16.

Source: National Park Service.

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March:Yosemite climbed to its accustomed spot as the No. 3 most visited park. … Zion dropped five spots to No. 14 and is 289,315 visits behind last year’s attendance at this time. … The national-park units are about 210,000 behind last year’s visitation through March. … Yellowstone dropped out of the top 20, to No. 25.

Source: National Park Service.

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February: As might be expected with the beginning of the year under winter’s icy grip, the warm-weather parks started, well, hot. Except Great Smoky Mountains, which stayed in its usual top spot, that is. Hawaii Volcanoes at No. 3, Haleakala at No. 6 were prime early-year exceptions, as was Saguaro at No. 10, Virgin Islands at No. 15, Big Bend at No. 17, and Biscayne at No. 20. … In an interesting development, Olympic topped Rocky Mountain for seventh place by just seven visitors. … Overall, the NPS is about 700,000 behind last year’s pace.

Source: National Park Service.

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January: The NPS is more than half a million behind last year’s pace, which is surprising since this is its centennial year and the system is coming off back-to-back, record-break attendance. Is this the calm before the storm?

Source: National Park Service.

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Click here for 2015 park standings