(Nexstar) – The National Park Service made a record number of visits in 2024, which may seem like an incredible feat, but your favorite park may not talk much about it.
Traditionally, individual parks and the National Park Service have been promoting how successful the previous year was. That's especially true since Spike attended during the Covid pandemic.
Last year was a special special, with over 331.8 million visits reported across the National Park service site. This exceeds the previous record of 330 million in 2016.
You can find the data at NPS Websitethe agency and its park probably don't share much of the good news.
Park staff told them not to actively share data.
A national park service memo said the agency would not actively release information about the number. According to the New York Times. The park is instructed not to issue press releases or other active communications unless it is a “standard process.” sfgate.
It's a break from years past where Parks proudly shares the amount of attendance they've attracted.
It is also reported that the Trump administration has fired about 1,000 National Park Service employees, and more than 700 have resigned as part of Elon Musk's “Fork in the Road Offer.” However, hundreds of seasonal job openings have returned. Plans have also been announced to close national park centres, museums and other facilities, according to nonpartisans. National Park Conservation Association (NPCA).
Those changes are threatening to disrupt visitors this summer, experts warn.
Which parks were most visited, and which parks broke records?
NPS was the Golden Gate National Recreation Area with the highest number of visits in 2024, taking into account the use of “parks” to describe non-parks such as monuments, historic sites, beaches and other property types. It was the most visited park in recent years, Partially closed by Hurricane Helen.
Especially when it comes to national parks, the Great Smoky Mountains had the most visits at 12.2 million, followed by Zion (4.9 million), Grand Canyon (4.9 million), Yellowstone (4.7 million), and Rocky Mountain (4.2 million).
Over 75 NPS sites recorded over 1 million recreational visits in 2024. The data will be displayed.
In 2024, two dozen NPS sites saw record-breaking visits.
| Alanjac Wild River National Wild & Scenic River | Capitol Reef National Park | Cesar E. Chavez National Monument | Coronado National Monument |
| Crater of the Moon National Monument & Preserve | Drytogas National Park | First State National Historical Park | Girly River National Recreation Area |
| Glacier Bay National Park and Reserve | Hagerman Fossil Bed National Monument | Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park | Karokohonokohau National Historical Park |
| Kenai Fjolls National Park | Keepow National Historical Park | Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park | Korean War Veterans Memorial |
| Lincoln Memorial | Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park | Medgar and Mealy Evers Home Monument | Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument |
| Mini Doka National Historical Site | New River Gorge National Park & Preserve | Piscataway Park | Pullman National Historical Park |
| Sequoia National Park | Stones River National Battlefield | Stonewall National Monument | Tule Lake National Monument |
| Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument | Valles Caldera National Preserve | Waco Mammoth National Monument | Wilson Creek National Battlefield |
The fossil beds at Alagnak Wild River and Tule Springs began a record-breaking visit in 2021, with First State, Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad, Mill Springs, Pullman and Tule Lake beginning in 2023. Genevieve tracked the visit.
How national park personnel delivery will affect your next visit
National parks were able to hire seasonal staff, but other cuts made this year “will have devastating consequences for the park and the community,” said Teresa Pierno, president and CEO Teresa Pierno. National Park Conservation Association (NPCA), I said last month.
Without proper staffing, parks will struggle to provide “the kind of services and protection we need,” Phil Francis, executive director of the United States National Parks, previously told Nexter.
Francis I warned That staffing could lead to a closing of visitor centers, lengthening lines and reducing regular maintenance such as toilet cleaning.
Guides, trail maintenance workers, and those who “do the bold search and rescue” could also be affected by the work of Kristen Brengel, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Park Conservation Association. I said.
Some national parks were already detained after a freeze in which they were hired by the federal sector in January.
Yosemite National Park announced Many campsites are not available The peak season of one of the most visited NPS sites in the weeks of June and July.
Shion National Park also feels the impact of limited staffing. The long-standing park could spiral into “chaos” without ample rangers, Springdale mayor, just outside the park's south entrance, according to local governments. He told local outlet KSTU.
In 2023, visitors to the NPS site spent about $26.4 billion in the gateway community around the national park. NPS data will be displayed. This supported 415,000,000 jobs, “labor income of $19.4 billion, value added $32 billion, and economic outcomes of $55.6 billion in the national economy.”
