Colorado Politics

National parks saw 327.5 million visits in 2019

There were 327.5 million visits to the country’s national park system in 2019, and Rocky Mountain National Park received the third-highest number of visits among all parks at 4.7 million.

“The numbers once again affirm that Americans and visitors from around the world love the natural, cultural and historic experience provided by our nation’s national parks,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt.

For the fifth consecutive year, park visitations topped 300 million, and 2019’s visitations represented a 2.9% increase over 2018. Thirty-three of the 419 parks set visitation records in 2019.

The most popular park was Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, with 12.5 million visits, followed by Grand Canyon National Park with nearly six million. Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, while not a park, is operated by the National Park Service and saw 15 million visitors.

The agency reported in 2018 that visitors to all of Colorado’s national park sites spent an estimated $484.5 million in the state. One-third of spending went toward lodging and camping activities, one-quarter was for food and beverages, and the remainder went generally toward transportation, fees and souvenirs.

Hikers in Rocky Mountain National Park.
MargaretW / iStock
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