By visitation · National Parks

The most visited National Parks.

By Nicholas Major · Last updated

The same handful of National Parks have dominated the most-visited list every year of the modern dataset. Great Smoky Mountains National Park sits at the top with more than 12 million recreation visits a year, more than two and a half times the next park. Zion, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, Acadia, Yosemite, Grand Teton, Olympic, and Joshua Tree round out the typical top 10. The five-year average smooths out single-year disruptions (pandemic closures, wildfire seasons, road reconstructions) so the ordering reflects each park's structural pull rather than its 2025 weather. Rankings near the top change only on the margins year to year; rankings below position 15 shift more, often driven by access changes, Bryce Canyon and Joshua Tree have moved up multiple slots over the last decade.

Ranked by five-year average.

These twenty-five parks carry the bulk of the National Park system's foot traffic. Recreation Visits is the official NPS visitor count and excludes other categories (Recreation Visit Hours, Tent Campers, Backcountry Campers) that some units also report. Sorting by the 2021-2025 average rather than a single year reduces the influence of one-off events: the 2020 pandemic closures, the 2022 Glacier road washouts, the 2025 Dragon Bravo fire at Grand Canyon's North Rim. The ordering you see is the network's structural ranking.

#Park5-yr avg visitsLatest year
1 Great Smoky Mountains National ParkNational Park · NC,TN 12,823,320 11,527,939
2 Zion National ParkNational Park · UT 4,857,321 4,984,525
3 Grand Canyon National ParkNational Park · AZ 4,669,660 4,430,653
4 Yellowstone National ParkNational Park · ID,MT,WY 4,431,841 4,762,988
5 Rocky Mountain National ParkNational Park · CO 4,235,378 4,171,431
6 Acadia National ParkNational Park · ME 3,992,045 4,079,318
7 Yosemite National ParkNational Park · CA 3,850,487 4,278,413
8 Grand Teton National ParkNational Park · WY 3,507,486 3,800,648
9 Olympic National ParkNational Park · WA 3,080,171 3,584,187
10 Joshua Tree National ParkNational Park · CA 3,063,523 2,932,644
11 Glacier National ParkNational Park · MT 3,053,808 3,136,557
12 Cuyahoga Valley National ParkNational Park · OH 2,857,285 3,025,325
13 Indiana Dunes National ParkNational Park · IN 2,822,398 2,629,497
14 Hot Springs National ParkNational Park · AR 2,453,681 2,494,611
15 Bryce Canyon National ParkNational Park · UT 2,277,194 1,967,367
16 Gateway Arch National ParkNational Park · MO 1,991,754 2,209,028
17 Mount Rainier National ParkNational Park · WA 1,644,420 1,635,342
18 Shenandoah National ParkNational Park · VA 1,603,997 1,682,152
19 Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National ParkNational Park · HI 1,555,090 1,877,854
20 Arches National ParkNational Park · UT 1,545,566 1,511,740
21 Capitol Reef National ParkNational Park · UT 1,342,558 1,388,476
22 Death Valley National ParkNational Park · CA,NV 1,227,133 1,320,134
23 Sequoia National ParkNational Park · CA 1,176,245 1,378,337
24 Badlands National ParkNational Park · SD 1,102,208 1,139,361
25 Saguaro National ParkNational Park · AZ 958,601 847,749

What this ranking does and doesn't tell you

An annual total is the right number for "which park is most popular"; but it can be misleading for trip planning. Two parks can have the same annual total but radically different crowd intensity. Grand Canyon and Rocky Mountain National Park land within a few hundred thousand visits of each other most years, but Rocky Mountain's traffic is compressed into a much shorter summer window (because Trail Ridge Road is open less than half the year), so its peak-month intensity is far higher than its annual rank suggests.

For peak-month intensity, see the busiest-by-peak ranking. For the inverse (parks that stay quiet even at peak) see least crowded. For the network's seasonal shape, see visitation by month.

Methodology

Visit counts are official "Recreation Visits" from the NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025. The five-year average column averages 2021-2025 to reduce single-year noise; the latest-year column shows the most recent complete calendar year. Some NPS units publish other statistic types (Tent Campers, Recreation Visit Hours) that are not used here. Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service. National Parks ranked here are only official units with the 'National Park' designation; National Monuments, National Recreation Areas, National Seashores, and other NPS unit types are not included in this list. The full network of 400+ NPS units is covered separately.

Common questions.

What is the #1 most visited national park?

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most-visited official National Park, averaging about 12.82M recreation visits a year across 2021-2025. It has held the top spot in every year of the modern dataset.

What are the five most visited national parks?

By five-year-average recreation visits the top five are Great Smoky Mountains, Zion, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Rocky Mountain. Each draws several million visits a year.

Is this ranking based on one year or an average?

It ranks by each park's five-year-average recreation visits (2021-2025), so a single closure, fire season, or road project does not distort the order. The latest-year column shows the most recent complete year alongside the average.

Adjacent reading

Independence

Independent site. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service. Data comes from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; editorial analysis is ours. The NPS Arrowhead and other NPS marks are not used.

Last updated · 2026-05-19