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