Which national parks get the most visitors?
Great Smoky Mountains had 11.5 million recreation visits in 2025, more than twice any other of the 63 national parks. Zion (5.0 million), Yellowstone (4.8 million), Grand Canyon (4.4 million) and Yosemite (4.3 million) came next, while Alaska's remote Kobuk Valley had fewer than 8,000. A visit is one person entering a park for recreation on one day, estimated by each park from traffic counters and sampling.
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Measure: Recreation visits in the year. Written from the data below.
- Great Smoky Mountains has the highest figure, 11.5M, followed by Zion (4.98M) and Yellowstone (4.76M).
- Kobuk Valley has the lowest figure, 7,786, followed by Gates of the Arctic (14,923) and Lake Clark (19,778).
- The highest is 1,481 times the lowest.
Source and date
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Chartly. “Which national parks get the most visitors?” Chart. Data: National Park Service, Visitor Use Statistics, https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/ (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/most-visited-national-parks (accessed October 15, 2026).
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The data
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| National park | Recreation visits in the year |
|---|---|
| Great Smoky Mountains | 11,527,939 |
| Zion | 4,984,525 |
| Yellowstone | 4,762,988 |
| Grand Canyon | 4,430,653 |
| Yosemite | 4,278,413 |
| Rocky Mountain | 4,171,431 |
| Acadia | 4,079,318 |
| Grand Teton | 3,800,648 |
| Olympic | 3,584,187 |
| Glacier | 3,136,557 |
| Cuyahoga Valley | 3,025,325 |
| Joshua Tree | 2,932,644 |
| Indiana Dunes | 2,629,497 |
| Hot Springs | 2,494,611 |
| Gateway Arch | 2,209,028 |
| Bryce Canyon | 1,967,367 |
| New River Gorge | 1,958,440 |
| Hawaii Volcanoes | 1,877,854 |
| Shenandoah | 1,682,152 |
| Mount Rainier | 1,635,342 |
| Arches | 1,511,740 |
| Capitol Reef | 1,388,476 |
| Sequoia | 1,378,337 |
| Death Valley | 1,320,134 |
| Redwood | 1,202,480 |
| Badlands | 1,139,361 |
| Haleakala | 853,711 |
| Saguaro | 847,749 |
| Canyonlands | 796,057 |
| Kings Canyon | 779,791 |
| Everglades | 778,198 |
| Glacier Bay | 740,044 |
| Theodore Roosevelt | 729,893 |
| Mammoth Cave | 660,734 |
| White Sands | 659,742 |
| Crater Lake | 632,242 |
| Wind Cave | 606,258 |
| Big Bend | 568,104 |
| Denali | 543,300 |
| Lassen Volcanic | 504,777 |
| Biscayne | 486,567 |
| Virgin Islands | 471,074 |
| Mesa Verde | 463,130 |
| Great Sand Dunes | 432,498 |
| Kenai Fjords | 425,369 |
| Carlsbad Caverns | 410,778 |
| Pinnacles | 343,208 |
| Petrified Forest | 315,951 |
| Congaree | 287,833 |
| Black Canyon of the Gunnison | 250,086 |
| Channel Islands | 227,186 |
| Guadalupe Mountains | 206,423 |
| Voyageurs | 206,326 |
| Great Basin | 161,210 |
| Wrangell-St. Elias | 108,840 |
| Dry Tortugas | 89,355 |
| North Cascades | 46,925 |
| American Samoa | 43,258 |
| Katmai | 34,479 |
| Isle Royale | 29,091 |
| Lake Clark | 19,778 |
| Gates of the Arctic | 14,923 |
| Kobuk Valley | 7,786 |
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