Most visited National Park Sites

Today we are sharing the most visited National Park Sites in the United States. We started this list by looking at all of the parks that have over 1 million visitors. We honestly thought there might be 25 or 30 parks with this many visitors.

Most Visited US National Park Sites

You can imagine our surprise when we realized the list is at 80 parks with over a million visitors in 2019!  This list is actually 3 more than there were in 2018. A few parks saw big changes in their visitation numbers.

Some of the parks honestly surprised us with their visitation numbers. We have been to many of these parks and a lot of them never felt that busy but it could have been the time of year that we visited. There are other parks that we never would have imagined having over a million visitors. Are there any parks on this list that surprised you?

Top Ten Most Visited National Parks

Great Smoky Mountains National Park - 12.5 million
Grand Canyon National Park - 5.97 million
Rocky Mountain National Park - 4.7 million
Zion National Park - 4.5 million
Yosemite National Park - 4.4 million
Yellowstone National Park - 4 million
Acadia National Park - 3.4 million
Grand Teton National Park - 3.4 million
Olympic National Park - 3.2 million
Glacier National Park - 3 million

2019 Most Visited US National Park Sites

Visitation in 2019 surpassed 2018 by more than 9 million recreation visits, a 2.9 percent increase!  Visitation to national parks in 2019 exceeded 300 million recreation visits for the fifth consecutive year.

In the past five years, there have been nearly two billion recreation visits to national parks. 

Thirty-three parks set a new recreation visitation record in 2019. 

There were two longstanding records broken in 2019: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, with 432,818 recreation visits, broke a record they set in 1976 and Capulin Volcano National Monument broke a 1968 record with 81,617 recreational visits in 2019.

Last year national park visitor spending contributed more than $40 billion to the U.S. economy.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area
State - California
2019 visitation - 15,002,227

Blue Ridge Parkway
State - North Carolina, Virginia
2019 visitation - 14,976,085

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
State - North Carolina, Tennessee
2019 visitation - 12,547,743

Gateway National Recreation Area
State - New Jersey/New York
2019 visitation - 9,405,622

Lincoln Memorial
State - Washington DC
2019 visitation - 7,808,182

Lake Mead National Recreation Area
State - Nevada
2019 visitation - 7,499,049

George Washington Memorial Parkway
State - DC
2019 visitation - 7,487,265

Natchez Trace Parkway
State - Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee
2019 visitation - 6,296,041

Grand Canyon National Park
State - Arizona
2019 visitation - 5,974,411

Gulf Islands National Seashore
State - Mississippi, Florida
2019 visitation - 5,600,240

Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park
State -Washington DC, Maryland, West Virginia
2019 visitation - 5,116,787

World War II Memorial
State - Washington DC
2019 visitation - 4,831,327

Rocky Mountain National Park
State - Colorado
2019 visitation - 4,670,053

Vietnam Veterans Memorial
State - Washington DC
2019 visitation - 4,580,587

Independence National Historical Park
State - Pennsylvania
2018 visitation - 4,532,459

Zion National Park
State - Utah
2019 visitation - 4,488,268

Yosemite National Park
State - California
2019 visitation - 4,422,861

Castle Clinton National Monument
State - New York
2019 visitation - 4,361,034

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
State - Arizona, Utah
2019 visitation - 4,330,563

Statue of Liberty National Monument
State - New York
2019 visitation - 4,240,461

Cape Cod National Seashore
State - Massachusetts
2019 visitation - 4,096,104

Yellowstone National Park
State - Wyoming, Idaho, Montana
2019 visitation - 4,020,288

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
State - California
2019 visitation - 4,016,598

Korean War Veterans Memorial
State - Washington DC
2019 visitation - 3,841,633

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
State - Washington DC
2019 visitation - 3,667,562

Acadia National Park
State - Maine
2019 visitation - 3,437,286

Grand Teton National Park
State - Wyoming
2019 visitation 3,405,614

Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
State - Georgia
2019 visitation - 3,393,133

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
State - New Jersey, Pennsylvania
2019 visitation - 3,374,865

Colonial National Historical Park
State - Virginia
2019 visitation - 3,327,268

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
State - Washington DC
2019 visitation - 3,303,573

Olympic National Park
State - Washington
2019 visitation 3,245,806

Boston National Historical Park
State - Massachusetts
2019 visitation - 3,201,834

Thomas Jefferson Memorial
State - Washington DC
2019 visitation - 3,096,895

Glacier National Park
State - Montana
2019 visitation - 3,049,839

Joshua Tree National Park
State - California
2019 visitation - 2,988,547

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
State - Georgia
2019 visitation - 2,621,050

Cape Hatteras National Seashore
State - North Carolina
2019 visitation - 2,606,632

Bryce Canyon National Park
State - Utah
2019 visitation - 2,594,904

Rock Creek Park
State - Washington DC
2019 visitation - 2,416,232

Assateague Island National Seashore
State - Maryland, Virginia
2019 visitation - 2,344,536

Point Reyes National Seashore
State - California
2019 visitation - 2,265,301

Valley Forge National Historical Park
State - Pennsylvania
2019 visitation - 2,259,944

Cuyahoga Valley National Park
State - Ohio
2019 visitation - 2,237,997

Indiana Dunes National Park
State - Indiana
2019 visitation - 2,134,285

Stonewall National Monument
State - New York
2019 visitation - 2,088,929

Gateway Arch National Park
State - Missouri
2019 visitation - 2,055,309

Mount Rushmore National Memorial
State - South Dakota
2019 visitation - 1,963,540

Canaveral National Seashore
State - Florida
2019 visitation - 1,884,122

National Capital Parks-Central
State - Washington DC
2019 visitation - 1,770,794

Death Valley National Park
State - California, Nevada
2019 visitation - 1,740,945

Pearl Harbor National Memorial
State - Hawaii
2019 visitation - 1,716,535

Arches National Park
State - Utah
2019 visitation - 1,659,702

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
State - Michigan
2019 visitation - 1,570,001

Mount Rainier National Park
State - Washington
2019 visitation - 1,501,621

Hot Springs National Park
State - Arkansas
2019 visitation - 1,467,153

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway
State - Wyoming
2019 visitation - 1,426,666

Shenandoah National Park
State - Virginia
2019 visitation - 1,425,507

Chickasaw National Recreation Area
State - Oklahoma
2019 visitation - 1,422,612

Fort Point National Historic Site
State - California
2019 visitation - 1,421,349

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
State - Hawaii
2019 visitation - 1,368,376

Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area
State - Washington
2019 visitation - 1,358,818

Lake Meredith National Recreation Area
State - Texas
2019 visitation - 1,328,340

Buffalo National River
State - Arkansas
2019 visitation - 1,326,282

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
State - Texas
2019 visitation - 1,281,121

Amistad National Recreation Area
State - Texas
2019 visitation - 1,267,900

Sequoia National Park
State - California
2019 visitation - 1,246,053

Capitol Reef National Park
State - Utah
2019 visitation - 1,226,519

Ozark National Scenic Riverways
State - Missouri
2019 visitation - 1,221,489

National Capital Parks-East
State - Washington DC
2019 Visitation - 1,210,641

Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
State - Florida
2019 visitation - 1,205,065

San Juan National Historic Site
State - Puerto Rico
2019 visitation - 1,197,345

New River Gorge National River
State - West Virginia
2019 visitation - 1,195,721

Everglades National Park
State - Florida
2019 visitation - 1,118,300

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park - Skagway
State - Alaska
2019 visitation - 1,116,161

Ross Lake National Recreation Area
State - Washington
2019 visitation - 1,088,528

Saguaro National Park 
State - Arizona
2019 visitation - 1,020,226

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
State - Oregon, Washington
2019 visitation - 1,018,214

Minute Man National Historical Park
State - Pennsylvania
2019 visitation - 1,017,326

Big Cyrpres National Preserve
State - Florida
2019 visitation - 1,007,471

These parks fell just under 1 million visitors in 2019. 

Haleakala National Park
State - Hawaii
2019 visitation - 994,394

Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Historical Park
State - Tennessee + Georgia
2019 visitation - 977,158

Badlands National Park
State - South Dakota
2019 visitation - 970,998

Did this list surprise you? There are a few parks here that we did not realize had such huge visitation numbers. There are also a few that we can't wait to visit and see why so many people go to them each year.

Make sure to check out the least visited National Parks to see how they compare. 

Most Visited US National Park Visitation numbers are from the NPS Statistic Page