Top 2021 most visited US national parks in XNUMX

Last year, post-pandemic quarantine visitors flocked to U.S. national parks and other places of nature with attractions after it ended. In 2021, the National Park Service (NPS) recorded approximately 297,1 million visits, up 60 million from 2020. Where tourists most often went, the publication said CNN.

Blue Ridge Parkway. Photo: Shutterstock

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most parks closed, at least for an extended period. Since then, attraction attendance has remained below pre-pandemic levels.

However, things were different with the most famous places, because they were flooded with visitors even during the crisis. Forty-four corners of nature actually set a record for the number of visits in 2021.

There are 423 sites in the US national park system, 63 of them are national parks, the rest are regional park lands. The Park Service has compiled two visitor ratings: one among all sites and one among national parks only. Below we offer you both.

10 most visited locations

Of the 423 properties, 25 received more than half of the total number of visits, making them the most popular.

Of these, the top 10 most visited in 2021 included:

1. Blue Ridge Parkway - 15,9 million visitors
2. Great Smoky Mountains National Park - 14,1 million
3. Golden Gate National Recreation Area - 13,7 million
4. Gateway National Recreation Area - 9,1 million
5. Lake Mead National Recreation Area - 7,6 million
6. George Washington Memorial Parkway - 6,8 million
7. Natchez Trace Parkway - 6,4 million
8. Lincoln Memorial - 5,8 million
9. Gulf Islands National Seashore - 5,5 million
10. Zion National Park - 5 million

Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Photo: Shutterstock

Blue Ridge Parkway, which spans 469 miles (754 km) in the Appalachians of North Carolina and Virginia, has retained its title of most visited destination from previous years.

But Great Smoky Mountains National Park set a record attendance for 2021. The figures for the first time exceeded 14 million visits.

10 most visited national parks

Of these 400+ places, only 63 are officially designated as national parks. Therefore, the ranking of the most visited national parks will look a little different.

Most visited national parks in 2021:

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 14,16 million
2. Zion National Park: 5,03 million
3. Yellowstone National Park: 4,86 million
4. Grand Canyon National Park: 4,53 million
5. Rocky Mountain National Park: 4,43 million
6. Acadia National Park: 4,06 million
7. Grand Teton National Park: 3,88 million
8. Yosemite National Park: 3,28 million
9. Indiana Dunes National Park: 3,17 million
10. Glacier National Park: 3,08 million

Acadia National Park. Photo: Shutterstock

But if you want to avoid crowds and be alone with nature, then we recommend visiting Kobuk Valley National Park in northwest Alaska - in 2021, only 11 people visited it. Even by the standards of Alaska, this place is remote, so here you will definitely not be overtaken by the crowd.

Queues and schedule

Last year long queues and closed doors sometimes met visitors at the most popular places. This prompted the Park Service to introduce new crowd control systems. For example, Arches National Park in Utah is implementing a scheduled entry program with reservations made three months in advance.

Along with measures to regulate visitor congestion in the most popular places, the NPS tried to direct people to less frequented parks.

“It's great to see so many Americans continue to find solace and inspiration in these incredible places during the pandemic,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. "We're excited to see our guests returning to iconic parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite, but there are hundreds more that should be on everyone's wish list."

Visiting groups of parks

NPS is now heavily promoting one of its ideas - to visit a group of parks in one vacation.

For example, a family wishes to visit the extremely popular Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina and Tennessee). The NPS also recommends other relatively nearby places that are less crowded for recreation:

• Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (Georgia and Tennessee)
• Cumberland Gap National Historical Park (Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia)
• Little River Canyon National Reserve (Alabama)
• Carl Sandburg National Historic Site (North Carolina)
• Dinner Wild and Scenic (Tennessee).

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