47 years of National Park Service visitor-use data, read by month, by park, and by the shoulder weeks that actually thin the trails.
Photo · NPS/Jim Peaco · NPS source
National Sites Guide is an independent almanac of America's National Park Service sites: the 63 official National Parks plus other NPS units where the agency publishes monthly visitation data. We turn the NPS's own 1979–2025 Visitor Use Statistics into crowd timing, seasonality, and shoulder-window guidance you can plan a trip around.
Monthly averages smooth across the five most recent reporting years. Crowd intensity is percentile against each park's own twelve-month distribution, not against other parks. A "low" month at Yellowstone is 5% of its own peak, not Yellowstone vs. Great Smokies.
Every claim is either derivable from the NPS visits dataset, the NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals, or a current NPS-published operating page. Specific times, road dates, fees, and wildlife windows are sourced or hedged. Counter-claims are removed rather than guessed.
Start with a park you have in mind, a month you've already booked, or the cross-park indexes below for system-wide comparison. Independent site, not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service.
The parks with full month-by-month write-ups today. Each card reads against its own twelve-month curve. Rust marks the peak. Ochre marks the quietest month.
YELL
National Park
Photo · NPS/Jim Peaco · NPS source
Mid-September after Labor Day
YOSE
National Park
Photo · NPS / Cindy Jacoby · NPS source
Mid-September after Labor Day
GRCA
National Park
Photo · NPS/M.Quinn · NPS source
April-May or September-October
The ten most-visited National Parks, read against their own twelve-month curves. Each sparkline is the park's average monthly visits; rust marks its peak, ochre its quietest stretch.
| Rank | Park | Peak | Quietest | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GRSM | Great Smoky Mountains ↗ | Oct · 1607K | Jan · 416K | 12.82M5-yr mean |
| 2ZION | Zion ↗ | Jun · 602K | Jan · 139K | 4.86M5-yr mean |
| 3GRCA | Grand Canyon | Jul · 531K | Jan · 169K | 4.67M5-yr mean |
| 4YELL | Yellowstone | Jul · 923K | Nov · 24K | 4.43M5-yr mean |
| 5ROMO | Rocky Mountain ↗ | Jul · 795K | Feb · 112K | 4.24M5-yr mean |
| 6ACAD | Acadia ↗ | Aug · 799K | Feb · 14K | 3.99M5-yr mean |
| 7YOSE | Yosemite | Aug · 537K | Jan · 115K | 3.85M5-yr mean |
| 8GRTE | Grand Teton ↗ | Jul · 732K | Dec · 49K | 3.51M5-yr mean |
| 9OLYM | Olympic ↗ | Aug · 626K | Jan · 82K | 3.08M5-yr mean |
| 10JOTR | Joshua Tree ↗ | Mar · 411K | Jul · 137K | 3.06M5-yr mean |
Twelve month pages. Each one ranks the parks that read best for that month against NPS visit data and the operations calendar.
Ten parks, twelve months. Each cell is shaded against that park's own peak month, not against other parks, so a "lowest" cell at Yellowstone and a "lowest" cell at Grand Canyon both mean "the year's emptiest stretch for this park."
| Park | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Smoky Mountains ↗ National Park · NC,TN | 26% | 30% | 55% | 64% | 77% | 91% | 96% | 76% | 74% | 100% | 62% | 47% |
| Zion ↗ National Park · UT | 23% | 25% | 68% | 81% | 94% | 100% | 92% | 77% | 79% | 82% | 50% | 36% |
| Grand Canyon National Park · AZ | 32% | 34% | 67% | 85% | 95% | 94% | 100% | 90% | 81% | 83% | 62% | 56% |
| Yellowstone National Park · ID,MT,WY | 5% | 5% | 4% | 8% | 55% | 90% | 100% | 89% | 86% | 33% | 3% | 4% |
| Rocky Mountain ↗ National Park · CO | 15% | 14% | 19% | 21% | 40% | 79% | 100% | 85% | 75% | 50% | 19% | 16% |
| Acadia ↗ National Park · ME | 2% | 2% | 4% | 13% | 41% | 77% | 98% | 100% | 83% | 70% | 9% | 2% |
| Yosemite National Park · CA | 21% | 24% | 25% | 48% | 71% | 95% | 100% | 100% | 88% | 77% | 40% | 28% |
| Grand Teton ↗ National Park · WY | 8% | 8% | 9% | 10% | 42% | 86% | 100% | 92% | 77% | 34% | 7% | 7% |
| Olympic ↗ National Park · WA | 13% | 15% | 21% | 21% | 40% | 48% | 80% | 100% | 67% | 42% | 28% | 16% |
| Joshua Tree ↗ National Park · CA | 64% | 72% | 100% | 89% | 62% | 43% | 33% | 34% | 39% | 51% | 76% | 83% |
For the questions that don't belong to one park. Which parks are quietest? Which are most lopsided across the calendar? Which carry the headline visitor counts?
Ranked against five-year recreation-visit totals. The lower the rank, the easier the trail.
Open the list →Which parks bunch their visits into the tightest stretch of the year; and how lopsided the curve really is.
Open the list →Total recreation visits per year, ranked. The headline number behind every "America's most-visited park" headline.
Open the list →Network-wide monthly recreation visits. The shoulder months hide where the bargains are.
Open the list →Most travel sites tell you to visit Yellowstone in summer. The data tells you when summer breaks. We turn the National Park Service's own 47-year visitor-use record into crowd timing, seasonality, and shoulder weeks worth knowing.
Every page here is built on the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025. Monthly averages smooth across five reporting years. Crowd reads are percentile against each park's own twelve-month distribution, not against other parks.
We use "NPS sites" or "National Park Service sites" when covering all unit types, and "National Parks" only for units that carry that designation. We don't use the NPS Arrowhead. We're not official. We're just people who read the data so you don't have to. Read more about the project →
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