National Park Service Reports More Than 323M Visits in 2025

According to the March 13 dataset, the U.S. national park system welcomed 323 million visitors in 2025, about 8.8 million fewer than in 2024. Despite this drop in visitors, 26 of the 433 sites in the NPS system—which includes national parks, monuments, historic sites, battlefields, recreation areas, preserves, and seashores—broke all-time records for visitation.

“America’s national parks continue to be places where people come to experience our country’s history, landscapes, and shared heritage,” said Jessica Bowron, whose title with the NPS is comptroller, exercising the delegated authority of the director, in a recent press release. “We are committed to keeping parks open, accessible, and well-managed so visitors can safely enjoy these extraordinary places today and for generations to come.”

The 43-day partial government shutdown in October and November 2025 likely impacted the year’s visitation numbers, as many sites were forced to partially or fully close to visitors as staff were furloughed.

The Top Ten National Park by Visitors

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina (11.5 million visitors)
2. Zion National Park, Utah (4.9 million)
3. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (4.7 million)
4. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona (4.4 million)
5. Yosemite National Park, California (4.2 million)
6. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado (4.1 million)
7. Acadia National Park, Maine (4 million)
8. Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (3.8 million)
9. Olympic National Park, Washington (3.5 million)
10. Glacier National Park, Montana (3.1 million)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, four of the five least-visited parks in the U.S. are in Alaska. Topping that list was Kobuk Valley National Park, sitting 25 miles north of the Arctic Circle in northwestern Alaska. Kobuk saw just 7,786 visits in 2025, a dramatic drop from its already scant 2024 visitation (17,233).

Closer to the Midwest, Isle Royale National Park is the fourth least-visited national park in 2025, and the least-visited in the Lower 48, was Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park. The park logged 29,091 visits last year.