These visitors enjoying a boat tour of Crater Lake last summer were among a record 292.8 million visitors to the National Park System in 2014/Kurt Repanshek
2014 was a record-setting year for attendance in the National Park System, where nearly 293 million visitors spent time, a jump of more than 5 million from the record year of 1999, according to official figures. While most of the "name brand" parks were packed, there were still some sites in the system where you could find some solitude.
For instance, while more than 15 million visited Golden Gate National Recreation Area and nearly 14 million spent time along the Blue Ridge Parkway, places such as Bering Land Bridge National Preserve in Alaska, the Rio Grand Wild and Scenic River in Texas, and the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Monument in California were among the 10 least-visited units of the system.
'As the National Park Service strives to share a more inclusive and well-rounded version of the American story through the places we care for, it is gratifying to see more people than ever coming to their national parks to enjoy nature, learn about history, and spend time with their families,' said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis in a prepared statement. 'As we look ahead to our centennial in 2016, I am looking forward to announcing a new record-breaking number of visitors coming to experience national parks next year and beyond.'
The official number of recreational visits to national parks in 2014 was 292,800,082 -- an increase of 19 million, or seven percent, from 2013 visitation of 273,630,895. Visitation in 2014 rebounded from a 2013 decline that resulted, in part, from a 16-day government shutdown and many park closures for repairs after Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast in late 2012.
'Visitor spending in the communities near national parks supports hundreds of thousands of mostly local jobs in America year after year,' Director Jarvis said. 'With this record visitation we should see something on the order of $15 billion in visitor spending, 250,000 or more jobs and a $28 billion effect on the U.S. economy when our annual economics of national parks report comes out in April.'
Several national parks saw record-breaking visitation in 2014, including Joshua Tree, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton and Glacier national parks. The re-opening of the Washington Monument, some 21 months after it was rocked by an earthquake and repaired, also added to 2014 visitation numbers.
Of the 405 parks in the national park system, 369 of them track visitors, and the top 28 most-visited parks accounted for half of 2014 visitation and half of the increase in visits between 2013 and 2014.
Grand Canyon National Park bumped Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area out of the top 10 most visited areas in the national park system. The list of top ten national parks remains unchanged, although Rocky Mountain and Olympic national parks switched places.
Here are the top 10 most-visited places in the National Park System for 2014:
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
15,004,420
13,941,749
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
10,099,276
George Washington Memorial Parkway
7,472,150
7,139,072
Lake Mead National Recreation Area
6,942,873
Gateway National Recreation Area
6,021,713
5,846,474
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park
5,066,219
4,756,771
The top 10 most-visited national parks in 2014:
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
10,099,276
4,756,771
3,882,642
3,513,484
3,434,751
3,243,872
3,189,696
2,791,392
2,563,129
2,338,528
For people who want to share their park experience with fewer fellow visitors, the 10 parks with the lowest number of visitors last year are:
Salt River Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve, Virgin Islands
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas
Nicodemus National Historic Site, Kansas
Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, California
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska
Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania
Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Monument, California
Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, Texas
Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Alaska
The National Park Service has been counting visitors since 1916. Including the 2014 figures, the all-time visitation at National Park Service sites exceeds 13.2 billion. The complete list of park visitation and other visitor-related statistics are available on the National Park Service's web site https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/
Comments
I can testify to the fact that all 293 million visitors to our parks were in Zion the weekend I was there just before New Years.
It's subjective, isn't it, Lee? All too soon, for five months all one million visitors to KLGO will be on the boardwalk simultaneously between me and my getting to the post office.
Owen, you are correct about there being a formula to reduce numbers for "commuters" in parks where that is a factor.
The NPS has a small statistical unit that tries hard to make visitation estimates as realistic as possible. It's a complex task, more so in some parks that others. Those folks came to two parks while I was working there, and in both cases, their updated formulas resulted in less visitation that before.
Park visits are reported in two categories: "recreational" and "non-recreational" – the "non" category includes travel into the park by employees, vendors such as the UPS driver, and commuters. Those percentages vary from park to park, and can only be an estimate, but they are based on surveys and an effort to make them realistic.
Stories about increased visits such as the one above are based only on the "recreational" visits reported by parks, and in my opinion, those figures seriously underestimate the workload for park staffs in some areas. One example: At Colonial NHP for 2014, that park reported about 5.45 million total visits, but only 3.4 million are deemed "recreational." Those other 2.1 million visits are often "invisible" when it comes to figuring out how much money and staff are needed for that park, but that missing 38% of traffic represents a big factor in the real world.
For example, the vast majority of the substantial law enforcement workload at that park, and virtually all of the after-hours callouts, were the result of commuter traffic and other "local" users. Those 2 million + "hidden" visitors also put considerable pressure on the park staff about getting roads cleared quickly after winter storms, hurricanes, etc. and the result is extra overtime. Finally, I'd suggest that in that park, those 700,000 or so vehicles each year on park roads added to maintenance costs.
Just one example, and like most anything else, there's more to visitation stats than meet the eye.
You can find data on visitation reports, by park, going back for deades at this link. That site also explains the rationale for how visits are calculated at each park. No hidden secrets here.
Illuminating, Jim.
Some great insights Jim. Like most statistics, they are only as good as the people putting them together. It is easy to second guess because all of us have seem them manipulated to suit a particular agenda. Unfortunately we seem to have become a country suseptable to marketing, twisted statistics and political agendas. We were once a country focused on a singular vision of opportunity, hard work, ethics and honesty. At least that is how I was raised. Now we seem to have become a country of what can we get the other person to pay for and how can we get what I want at the expense of everyone else. I apologize for my rant and lowering the comment sections by getting off topic but I am so tired of the idea that one political party is more just than the other while both are made out to be fools by the special interests.
Yeah, but most of us tend to side with the one that we agree with more. Everyone weighs different issues differently, whether social, economic, appealing to our baser instincts, idealism, or whatever. Plus, ask me today and I'll give you a different answer than I did 25 years ago. Doesn't make for any simple answers that satisfy everyone.
I got curious about Owen's question about Golden Gate NRA; it does not appear from the Visitation Stats website that traffic over the Golden Gate Bridge is counted by the park :-)
As to the George Washington Memorial Parkway, 84% of their visitation is "written off" as non-recreational. That park does report visits for at least a dozen sites along or near the parkway, including Great Falls Park, Glen Echo Park, and the U. S. Marine Corps. Those account for the 16% of "recreational" visits to that park.