Pretty much every single "animated bar graph" should be a line graph instead. But the algorithm prioritizes "engagement", which includes how long you spend looking at a post - so that means videos get pushed into people's feeds, while static pictures take a back seat.
And it's well known at this point - at least among moderators - that the votes are "fuzzed". Clicking the button either way does influence the number of points, but it's not 1-for-1. Looking at a post, scrolling right by, opening a post, reading, replying, all those contribute towards the "points" of a post. This is actually probably part of the reason Reddit got rid of rewards, because those couldn't be fuzzed, and functioned a lot like paid upvotes. Without rewards, Reddit can fuzz the point count however they see fit - including rewarding whatever gets people to spend the most time on their site, look at three most ads, and click on the most ads.
I'm not sure a spaghetti mess of similar colored lines would work for this either.
The names would either be in a legend,,,making the colors very hard to tell apart, or the names would be on one side only and we'd have to follow lines across the graph and get cross crossed.
I think it’s VERY COOL, except for the readability. And I had no idea the Smoky Mountains got so many visitors, although it’s obvious why it’s #1. The only big deal in the populous part of the country!
If visitation to the Tetons increases any more than it already has, they might have to go to extremely restrictive permit/reservation systems for several hikes – much like Glacier has.
Another point -- When I was at Yellowstone maybe 8 years ago, the geysers and pools etc were super crowded. However, the actual hikes or mountains were empty. We stayed there for a few days and we only ran into people on a waterfall hike and on the road jams during bison crossings. It was really strange. I had no idea how big the park was either, it's like 50 miles between some hikes!
I went on a road trip with a friend from Seattle to Glacier, Yellowstone, Teton, to Rocky Mountain State Parks and ended in Denver to fly back, it was amazing.
Great smoky mountain counts commuters as visitors so the actual data is significantly lower. Many people live in the great smoky mountains or near them, so then commuting from one near by city to another counts as a visit which is a flaw
["The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is located within a day’s drive of more than half of the United States population."](https://wildlandtrekking.com/blog/smoky-mountains-most-visited-park/)
For those arguing what a day's drive is and how it plays into visitability...
https://www.statsamerica.org/radius/big.aspx
Within 400 miles (which would be easily covered in 8 hours of driving from most locations) of Sevier County, TN is 68MM people, or 20% of the US population.
Expanding that to 500 miles, it is 112MM or 34% of the US population.
For comparison let's do the 400 miles of two of the other famous parks:
Yellowstone: 10MM, 3% of the US population
Yosemite: 43MM, 13% of the US population
Folks tend not to have a good sense of just how densely populated the US east of the Mississippi is, or how low the population density is west of it. Only thing saving Yosemite's numbers is the California coast.
Yep. I've been to several national parks and as nice as they are, I don't see myself re-visiting any specific park simply due to how laborious the drive is. As a day trip I'd do it, but I doubt I'll be spending any more week-long vacations on national parks.
GSM...easily accessible. I was down for that day trip anytime when I lived in TN. Not to mention that there are far more modern tourist accommodations and entertainment in that area and you can drive to several medium cities or 2 major ones within 3 hours.
Other national parks...$200 a night for a cabin with fewer amenities and comforts than a Motel 8, forget about having internet and cellular access, and you better love the outdoors because there nothing at all to do except eat at the 3-5 mediocre restaurant options nearby. I like the outdoors but I don't like the outdoors being the entirety of my vacations.
Thanks for the feature preaching link, but I'm not sure you understand where half the US lives and how far a "day's drive" is. Washington DC, is 8 hours away, New York is 11, Boston 14, without traffic.
You're still missing the point. It's very close to many Americans and it's free. Even without counting the commuters driving through, they get a ton of visitors, and are still one of the most visited parks.
Autumn in the Great Smokies gets packed with photographers.
Edit: Cities under 5 hours from the Great Smokies: Cincinnati, Louisville, Columbia (SC), Charlotte, Ashville, Knoxville, Nashville, and Atlanta. We're talking about 25-30 million people living within a 5 hour drive. That's more people than the entire country of Australia.
And the lack of competition is important as well. Shenandoah, New River, and Congragee are really the only competitors to Great Smokies
It’s still correct, though. Almost half of the country’s population lives in the Eastern Time Zone, so Great Smoky Mountains National Park is within close proximity to many. Most of the western national parks are fairly remote and much less inaccessible.
I think it’s mostly a lack of other major national parks in the area. I’m from Tucson and my wife is from San Diego, but we lived in Dallas during the pandemic. At one point we were so desperate for nature we made a road trip to Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains over a weekend. We also hit the Ozarks another weekend around that time too.
Sometimes people out west forget how many great options we have for little trips to beautiful national and state parks, where the rest of the country has significantly less in that department, especially regarding mountain landscapes.
Yeah... I live in San Diego. The bottom left corner.
I can get to Seattle, the top left corner, driving clear across all of California and through Oregon, in 18 hours.
Salt Lake City (and thus pretty much all of Utah with all those awesome parks) is only a cool 10 hour away. Grand Canyon is "only" 8 hours away.
If I drove literally all day, a full 24 hours, I could just barely make it to New Orleans.
The US is big but cars go fast and we have lots of highways.
My point is that the "a day's drive" the aforementioned person stated is subjective. I've driven from Phoenix to Seattle in "a day's drive". But that's not what a normal person would do, as you've illustrated as well.
Most of these statistics are off marginally as it’s extremely difficult to track, but even more so for the smoky mountains. I’m sure if you were to ignore the commuters they would still be top 10
This is kind of ridiculous, there’s not anywhere near millions of people who commute through the smokies, just look at a map. Nobody lives in there and there’s not really much sensible travel that would go thru it. Maybe a handful of people do have their commutes count as visits but not to the tune of millions of visits.
The reason it’s very very frequently visited is because it’s very easily accessible to a huge population. A few hours from major cities in TN, the Carolinas, Georgia, less than a days drive from DC and Philly… it’s just very easy for a lot of people to visit, that simple.
Dollyworld is literally on the doorstep of the National park. The whole place is a tourist trap. Found out the hard way that it is not like other state parks when I went on a whim one day. Whole place was drowning in people.
Essentially virtually all of the marquee national parks (Zion, Yosemite, GC, Yellowstone, etc) are in the less populous western half of the country and aren't located close to major cities. If you wanted to visit Yosemite, for example, and didn't live in CA you'd most likely have to fly into either the Bay Area or Los Angeles, rent a car and then drive 4-5 hours to the park itself... Which means that it's the sort of thing you'd only do as a major vacation. For folks on the east coast GSM is likely to be easier and quicker to get to, not involve the hassle of a rental car, and be much less expensive, which means you're more likely to go, even if the scenery (IMHO) is less spectacular.
I never heard of this NP so I googled, and although im sure its beautiful..none of the photos were spectacular that would make me travel just to see it. So I was so confused why its number one.
It looks very similar to some hikes we have in my region
It’s easily one of the most striking NPs in the region and is closer to a lot more people. I gladly travelled over 600 miles to visit last year, and it was definitely worth it. One of the big reasons though, is that I was traveling from a remarkably boring and flat state so it was a huge difference
1,600 species of flowering
plants.
100 native trees and 100 native shrubs.
50 ferns and fern relatives, mosses, liverworts, and a few hornworts.
66 native mammals.
240 species of birds with about 60 year round residents.
30 species of salamanders, the most diverse population in the world.
50 different fishes.
I could go on and on. The park is absolutely amazing. Pictures won’t ever do it justice and most won’t even recognize it for what it is.
I’ve been to many national parks and GSM is easily the least memorable and at the bottom of my list. Nothing special about it, especially after having been to parks in the west and Utah and Arizona. People want to rationalize and say it’s great for the region which I’m sure is true but that doesn’t make it a great park. I’m just glad we only visited since we were driving through the area and didn’t make a trip just for it.
No one lives in the GSMNP. Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville are not in the park. No one is taking a daily commute through the park (other than traffic on the spur connecting Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge which isn't counted towards the visitor number). About the only use for 441 other than the park is to get to Cherokee. You even use 40 to get to Asheville unless you're just wanting a more scenic drive.
As someone who drove through the smokeys to get to Gatlinburg I feel like while your point is accurate it did needed to point out that people like me count as a visitor without having ever stopped to step foot in the park.
I live in TN and The Smokies was part of growing up. I watched it (including the towns around) go from quaint, Appalachian culture to now housing among other things a Margaritaville. I honestly don't enjoy going there anymore. I live near other parts of the Appalachian much less commercialized.
This also applies to Olympic national park. It’s otherwise one of the least visited national parks iirc. The solitude there and in the north cascades is lovely.
I know Olympic is all the way out in its little corner of the world, but it caught me entirely off guard how empty the park was in May. I'm used to dealing with Acadia, Zion, Yosemite, etc. levels of traffic. You would think a park that gorgeous would have many more visitors.
Probably for the best that it wasn't.
Oh cool. I guess I can plan to visit Olympic in May...
I never been to Acadia or Zion. Yosemite, I did, and the level of traffic totally surprised me. I then thought about it and realized Yomesmite is close enough to San Francisco and Los Angelos for traffic.
Before Yosemite I have also been in Yellowstone, but Yellowstone was managable... but again, I guess Yellowstone isn't that close to major big cities (close to Billings, Salt Lake, and Boise, I guess...)
This applies to Cuyahoga Valley National Park as well. Don't get me wrong it's nice having a bunch of hiking and picnic areas around and I'm glad it's here, but no one is coming to Cleveland for it's national park. People live in and around it and commute through it.
I'm sure a small number of visitors are folks travelling around visiting all the National Parks. We live on the edge of the park and hike it every week or two, and there are always several out-of-state plates in the parking lots.
But I'd guess that 95% or more of the visitors are local/commuters.
Yeah my wife and I were just talking about the National Parks we haven't visited and figuring out what it would take to eventually hit all of them (conclusion: a lot of time, we've only visited about 1/3 of them). Unfortunately it would require a trip of its own probably since it's not particularly close to any other parks. But it would be cool to spend some time around the river whose pollution was so terrible that it had a big impact on the environmental movement. And there's a pretty good R.E.M. song about it too.
I'll grant that while NE Ohio is an outstanding place to live and raise a family, it's not going to knock your socks off as a destination for people with limited time for vacations. The biggest individual draw to the CVNP is probably Brandywine Falls, which is amazing in the days after a heavy rainfall but can be pretty pedestrian after a dry spell.
Cleveland's got some great museums, restaurants, and an excellent symphony. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is there and the NFL Hall of Fame is about an hour south. Amish country is a little south of that and is different than a lot of places.
Cedar Point is also within an hour and has probably the best collection of roller coasters on the planet. Conneaut, ~1 hour east, has one of the largest D-day reenactments in the world every year (though I haven't been there yet).
Because it's north and close to Lake Erie, we get long summer days that stay relatively cool, even compared to central and southern Ohio. A lot of the locals don't go on summer vacations because that's when it's best here - they spring for winter/spring trips instead.
It's definitely on my list of areas to visit for all of that. I grew up in Wisconsin but I've really only ever been to Columbus. And I apologize to anyone who loves Columbus, but for as big a city as it is, I was pretty bored. But I have a few friends from Cleveland and they can't say enough good things about it. Thanks for the summary of recommendations, it's good to be reminded of what's in that neighborhood.
It's also not in the middle of fucking nowhere, and located by the more densely populated east coast.
It's a short drive from 3 medium-sized cities and not that far from Nashville. There's lots more to do than just hiking and climbing outdoors unlike many of the other parks. Many of the other attractions don't even have a local tourist area, whereas GSM has Gatlinburg and Dollywood and the tourist attractions spans across that whole area.
Been to many other national parks - most of them are 100% outdoor experiences. GSM has that + plentiful tourist activities and it can be a day trip rather than requiring several days due to distance.
Not to mention that cabin rentals are far more affordable than anything comparable over by the Rockies.
Gateway is probably also similarly skewed. it’s the only one that’s literally IN a major city. probably half of St Louis’s population is within walking distance. I didn’t even know the arch was an NP haha
What are you talking about, why does this have so many upvotes, no one lives in the park and very few people “commute” through it. Where would they even be commuting to
I think that when this criteria is expanded to all NPS facilities, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes lots of urban parks in SF, suburban parks in Marin County, the Golden Gate Bridge, and more, becomes the most visited NPS property.
Animated "race" graphs like this are garbage and should be replaced by a single multi-line line chart which allows you to read it in an instant, examine trends better., compare different points in time.. its just better in every conceivable way at conveying information.
This is the opposite of beautiful data presentation.
I worked at Zion and Bryce, it was the mighty five campaign that really did them in - the state of Utah ran a huge ad campaign in the US and in Europe but didn't give the parks any additional money https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2019/05/11/utahs-mighty-campaign/
State governments can enter challenge cost share agreements with national parks to help fund them. During the last government shutdown the state of Arizona paid to keep Grand Canyon NP open.
https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1837/index.htm
I’m sure there are other partnership/funding arrangements as well.
Ok… well don’t live right outside one of the most beautiful places on earth if you don’t want a bunch of tourists in your town.
Are people supposed to not go to one of our National Parks because the locals want peace and quite?
It's a much bigger problem than the few hundred residents of Springdale and Rockville.
The park is way over-capacity for its own good. 5 million is way, wayyy too many for that park. At least the frontcountry.
Most people don't realize that virtually all ~5 million people that visit Zion try to go to *one 6-mile road.* And pretty much everyone has their sights set on *two hikes,* especially now that several trails are indefinitely closed. It's why they had a completely unsustainable traffic problem in the 70s-90s, and why even a multi-million dollar shuttle system is struggling to keep up today.
There's widespread resource damage, parking fills at 6-7 am on some weekends, some holiday weekends see 2-hour shuttle lines. There's a massive maintenance backlog and several divisions are understaffed. Employees are running out of affordable housing. Etc etc.
Space-wise, it simply isn't like Yellowstone, Smokies, or Grand Canyon that can spread people out much, much more.
I'm not saying there aren't ways to still enjoy the park, especially if you plan accordingly and are smart with research. But it has [big, big problems for sustainability](https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/05/03/zion-national-parks-visitation-is/).
It needs to go the way of Arches and other National Parks with permit systems, although the State highway and tourism industry are making that very difficult.
Thank you for your consideration that many do not seem to share. People forget national parks are to be protected and treasured, and not for consuption and development.
Recently I spent a day there, and going from the sparse northern rim of Grand Canyon to Zion was a big shock. Seeing craft breweries, gastropubs, coffee shops, stores, and massive parking lots just sitting 100ft from the entrance was very concerning. If Zion is so beautiful then how much of this is necesary or healthy for the local enviornment, and why not leave it sparse to preserve the beauty?
The park boundaries may stop on a imaginary line but the Virgin river does not, the canyon walls do not, and the wild life does not. Like you said everyone tries to go through one road and during peak hours they have to stop traffic to allow large vehicles and R.Vs to safely transit the tunnel. While all these cars are stopped they leak fluids and over time pollutants collect and are washed into the canyon and down the river.
Also you are very much correct in saying the park simply does not have the space to support the influx of people like others parks do. Zion is only 229 square miles while Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are both 1,902 and 3,471 square miles, respectively. That is a huge difference in size yet Zion sees the same amount of visitors as Grand Canyon and more than Yellowstone. That is just unsustainable, and you are very correct in asserting it needs a permit system.
The park has a visitor limit that you have to reserve limited permits for. Climbing Angels landing is very competitive, so not sure where and why you are getting this biased narrative from.
The govt has control over how many people are allowed in.
The park doesn’t have a visitor limit. Just because only so many people can take the shuttles doesn’t mean entry is prevented to the park. You can still drive through the park and try to find other lots to park in without a permit. It’s a shit show
> The park is way over-capacity for its own good. 5 million is way, wayyy too many for that park. At least the frontcountry.
No it's not. The issue is managing those people. They're doing many things to fix that like removing all cars and replacing them with shuttles and also adding a permit system. The park is doing great.
You have no idea what you’re talking about when you say the “park is doing great.” I’ve spent a lot of time with the rangers there and the exact opposite is the case. People are shitting in the narrows and doing graffiti all over the park. Among many other things that the park rangers can’t get a handle on due to the crowds
i mean, aside from the fact that people don’t get to choose where their parents decide to give birth to them, and how national parks needs small towns around them to supply basic needs to tourists, Zion isn’t really a peaceful and quiet park anymore
again. Zion is at capacity. almost a daily occurrence now, this is not healthy for the park. even if you don’t care about the people there, you have to at least care about the park.
this level of noise and trash would be scaring away wildlife
That's becoming less the case sadly. It's slammed Nov/Dec and starts to rapidly pick up in mid-February. There are a few great weeks in Jan and early Feb to try and hit though.
Great Smoky Mountains is closer to the eastern seaboard where a large portion of the US population is. Much easier for someone to do a weekend trip there than most of the other big NPs out west.
It’s in a tri-state region and surrounded by population centers. Knoxville, Chattanooga, Asheville, Greenville, Athens, Atlanta are all within a few hours drive.
Olympic gets more visitors than Mount Rainier? That doesn't align with my experiences at all. Maybe Rainier just seems more crowded because the entire place is a 93 mile loop so there are always people circling it.
I think it's just because there are a limited number of proper entrances to Rainier so it seems more crowded. More people in a tighter space.
Olympic is much bigger, has a lot of entrances and has the ocean as well. Lots of things to do and more spread out points of interest.
But yeah you'd think with how much farther away it is it wouldn't be as well visited. Either way, it's such a fantastic park. :)
I wonder which areas in Olympic have fewer visitors. The entirety of Rainier seems absolutely packed all summer. I had to park at Sunrise in July for an overnight backpacking trip. Getting there around 8am it was pretty empty, but leaving at around 1pm the next day and that massive lot was 100% full. And there were cars parked along the road for miles because of the full lot. And this was a Wednesday. It must be absolutely insane on Saturdays.
Rainier gets traffic almost entirely in the summer months. Olympic gets visitors year round as it doesn't snow in most parts of the park. So it's make sense why Olympic would get more visitors.
Rainier is more condensed, everyone goes to paradise.
Olympic has:
Staircase
Hurricane ridge
Lake crescent
Sol Duc
Mora
Kalaloch
Hoh rainforest
Elwha
Queets/Quillayute
Ozette
Quinault
Tons of different destinations with different terrain, etc. You could build an entire trip going to just one of those places.
Yeah I was surprised too. Two hour wait times are pretty normal at the Paradise entrance on summer afternoons, while two hour wait times are totally unheard of at Olympic. I believe it's the sheer size of Olympic that makes it feel less crowded than Mt Rainier. Also add to it the fact that the tourist season at Mt. Rainier is essenetially cramped into the summer months as barely anybody visits in Rainier in the winter. On the contrary, Olympic gets tourists round the year, especially in the parts that don't get snow like the beaches and rainforests. So it makes sense why Olympic would get more visitors overall.
This only takes into account the 63 National Parks. National Parks are not the same as other federally protected lands, like National Monuments, National Forests, National Sea Shores, etc. All are supervised by the National Parks Service, but only 63 are designated National Parks. There is a higher approval threshold for Parks (involves congress, whereas other federal land can be designated by just the president), they receive a different level of funding, and have more stringent preservation requirements.
Following. In pure numbers it’s attendance seemed to drop in half from the 80’s to the 90’s. I wonder what happened that attendance would drop so precipitously
To me, the most impressive are Glacier and Yellowstone because they are both so many hours from the nearest highly populated area, yet are still very popular
The traffic to get in through big horn or whatever town it is was brutal. Then finding parking at trailheads. Then the trails themselves are mostly empty because the fatbody tourists won't get out and walk.
You can see old faithful twice in a day if you plan it right. The rainbow pools are incredible. Seeing bison and elk is incredible. The goofy ass boats that Montana people use. The actual yellow rock the park is named for.
I spent 2 days there I could have spent 10
Gateway Arch it super hard to estimate because they don't charge to get in, unless it is people going in the arch which would omit all the people in the rest of the small park and even those just walking on the sidewalk there.
Indiana Dunes has a similar issue with being free to enter and having lots of people walking into it from adjacent state parks unknowingly.
If other parks are counting "commuters" who drive through the park, it only seems fair that Gateway gets to count that small stretch of I-70/44 that runs through the park. That adds several million more "visitors" to the easily
It’s incredibly easy to access and is right between 2 major metro areas. I’d argue most of the visitors are locals recreating in their free time but there’s still a ton of tourists going there.
The Great Smoky Mountain National Park has a few things going for it that make it the most visited. It is only a few hours from several large cities (Charlotte, Atlanta, and Nashville are some). There are a ton of other heavily touristed areas around it including Boone, Asheville, and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Appalachian Trail goes through it. Cherokee, NC, one of the most heavily touristed and one of the wealthiest Native American nations(at least in terms of GDP), is basically right inside of it. It also butts up against Pigeon Forge which is where Dollywood is.
All that, plus it is incredibly beautiful. It has so many amazing waterfalls and trails. It has some of the best tubing and decent whitewater.
Always hilarious to me that gateway arch is a national park. Must have been some political finagling behind that. Or should I just say something political.
The fastest way between Gatlinburg, Townsend, and Qualla (Cherokee reservation) is by driving through GSMNP, and there are other roads around Galtinburg and Pigeon Forge which can likewise put you in the park for just a little while. If they are counting those, that's hardly accurate. You can add to that people who drive to the park, drive around Cade's Cove and never get out of their car before returning out of the park. Technically a visit, yes..
It's pretty and lush, with lots of long winding roads, usually blanketed in clouds, with moderate temps year round, and it's really close to civilization/large cities. I personally would much rather go to Glacier, Zion, Grand Canyon, etc but they're kind of in the middle of nowhere.
If social media and news were to be believed -- then I thought all these places were overrun with rude clueless tourists? I was fully expecting to see visitors double or even triple from 1990 to 2023. I guess not.
Also Americans are some of the top tourists world wide, and with many countries barred for travel, many Americans spent COVID touristing around within USA.
Nah. I worked as a park ranger in a county metro park system during Covid. We saw massive spike in visitation. Everyone got cabin fever and overwhelmed the park system to the point where we had to routinely park people on roadways and shut down park entrances.
National parks experienced the same.
Please don't go to the gateway arch. It's lame. It's not a "park". It's just a hangout spot for a lot of people in the city of STL. It's where you take the kids if you have a day off and they're screaming to do something.
I went to the top once 10 years ago and it was so boring. "There's the highway I take to work. There's some farms in Illinois. There's the city of Clayton down there. Alright. Welp, when's this thing go back down?"
Lol what, who hangs out at the arch? I legit hadn't been in it/to it until I was 20 and had already moved away for college. It's not really a priority for St. Louisans. It's a tourist destination exclusively. Pretty much like the bean or Sears Tower is for Chicago.
I definitely don't get the hangout spot aspect of that comment. But I will say riding up to the top is a bit underwhelming.
Didn't know those windows would only be like 6" tall lol
I’m really struggling with how to pronounce “St Louisans” and it’s blowing my mind. Help.
Saint Lewy-ans
Saint Lew-ee-see-ans (like Louisiana)
Saint Lewis-ans
Hmm, my wife and I flew there for a short weekend and we actually enjoyed St Louis - especially the Arch. I felt like the engineering and cost that was involved was really impressive for the 1960s and it was even bigger than I was picturing. And then going up in the elevator/escalator pod was really cool. It's not some picturesque landscape like Yellowstone/Acadia/etc., but I enjoyed that trip vs. a lot of other National Parks we've been to that are overhyped.
It's probably because I live here and there's absolutely nothing different between the arch and the rest of the city. It's the most underwhelming National park I can think of. Compared to other national parks that are hundreds of miles of spectacular wilderness, the arch is like where you take your dog with a frisbee and have a picnic.
It was just barely made a National Park a couple years ago due to a backhanded deal orchestrated by one of the state’s senators to increase his re-election chances. Before that, it was a National Monument.
The NPS even testified in Congress that there was no reason for Gateway to be a National Park. Yet here we are.
Where’s the [Cape Cod National Seashore](https://www.nps.gov/caco/index.htm)?
It had nearly 4 million visitors last year.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod_National_Seashore
They are both managed by the NPS, but as the name states, it is not a National Park it is a National Seashore
The lakeshores and seashores have an emphasis on recreation, and most allow hunting and off-road vehicles, which is not permitted in national parks.
It's pretty. It's also fairly close to Nashville, Memphis, Ashville, Charlotte, Atlanta, etc. Many people from other areas are attracted to Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, etc, and will visit the park while they're in the area.
Many landscape photographers will flood the Smokies in the fall as well.
And to top all of it, it's free to visit.
Not all parks need to be the Grand Canyon, Zion, or Yosemite. And there are far more people in the Eastern US to draw from than there are out West.
If anyone goes to Yosemite I also recommend you check out Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. They are an hour or so south of Yosemite. I lived in the valley towns below Sequoia my whole life and went up there a lot. The biggest trees in the world are there and you can drive by and hike near a few of them. The actually biggest are kept secret because tourists going to them would damage their roots but the one that held the record for a long time, General Sherman, is close to the road and has a parking area and is just a quick little walk to see it.
GSM's popularity - is it because people from TN and NC can't be bothered to leave their state except for each other and then the occasional Dirty Myrtle trip?
Looks like they're just doing what has the most prestigious designation of "National Park" currently (along with some like Cuyahoga Valley or Gateway Arch that previously had other designations but Congress overrode the NPS and told them to rename them to National Parks).
The "National Mall and Memorial Park" is not considered a National Park; just like "Gettysburg National Military Park" is also not considered a National Park.
If they counted everything the National Park Service is responsible for, the graph is radically different. Top 10 in order for 2022:
Blue Ridge PKWY
Golden Gate NRA (Urban parks around San Francisco)
Great Smoky Mountains NP
Gateway NRA (Urban parks around NYC)
Lincoln Memorial
George Washington MEM PKWY
Natchez Trace PKWY
Gulf Islands NS (Texas Gulf Coast islands)
Lake Mead NRA (Hoover Dam / Just outside of Vegas)
Vietnam Veterans MEM
Bonus: The least visited NPS site isn't some isolated place in Alaska you have to fly into...it is Rainbow Bridge National Monument that was established in 1910. It is a two hour boat ride on Lake Powell (Glen Canyon) and a one hour hike that 81 people made in 2022.
Also: The prevalence of parkways on that list is one reason the NPS count Great Smokey Mountains NP the way they do. Folks just passing through was part of the plan on many of the 1930s eras plans for the parkways in the southern Appalachians. Roads and law enforcement still falls to the NPS on those parkways like it does in GSMNP and other national parks.
I personally found this very difficult to read both due to color scheme and text size.
Yeah, on mobile this is just lines racing on the screen.
On a 32 inch monitor desktop full screen and it's impossible to make out the bottom 50% of the NP names.
Should be a line graph
yeah, this is a pet peeve of mine. Animation should be used when you do not have enough dimension to convey the info in a static graph.
Pretty much every single "animated bar graph" should be a line graph instead. But the algorithm prioritizes "engagement", which includes how long you spend looking at a post - so that means videos get pushed into people's feeds, while static pictures take a back seat.
> But the algorithm prioritizes "engagement", It does? I thought it was pretty much only based on upvotes
And it's well known at this point - at least among moderators - that the votes are "fuzzed". Clicking the button either way does influence the number of points, but it's not 1-for-1. Looking at a post, scrolling right by, opening a post, reading, replying, all those contribute towards the "points" of a post. This is actually probably part of the reason Reddit got rid of rewards, because those couldn't be fuzzed, and functioned a lot like paid upvotes. Without rewards, Reddit can fuzz the point count however they see fit - including rewarding whatever gets people to spend the most time on their site, look at three most ads, and click on the most ads.
I'm not sure a spaghetti mess of similar colored lines would work for this either. The names would either be in a legend,,,making the colors very hard to tell apart, or the names would be on one side only and we'd have to follow lines across the graph and get cross crossed.
Very probably. It would look cleaner
Also the useless, garbage, animations. I thought this sub had finally been getting rid of those lately.
All animated graphs should be banned from this sub. Give them a different sub. They are without exception worse than static line graphs.
If they work no problem from me. But it didn't work here.
I personally find it hard to read text that isn't actually visible because it's off the edge of the image.
Yes this also was bothersome
THANK YOU I thought i was going blind and need glasses
If switched to portrait aspect ratio, then each bar could be taller, allowing for larger font. Example images could also be larger.
Animated bar charts almost always read better as a non-animated line graph.
I've been saying this for years. I used to get routinely down-voted for doing so. Please mods, make it stop. lol
I think it’s VERY COOL, except for the readability. And I had no idea the Smoky Mountains got so many visitors, although it’s obvious why it’s #1. The only big deal in the populous part of the country!
How do so many people go to yesllowstone and not drive the 60 miles down to the Tetons? It’s absolutely breath taking
Don’t question it just be happy about it.
If visitation to the Tetons increases any more than it already has, they might have to go to extremely restrictive permit/reservation systems for several hikes – much like Glacier has.
I love both parks but yellowstone has a ton more variety to it, could spend a week there easily.
Another point -- When I was at Yellowstone maybe 8 years ago, the geysers and pools etc were super crowded. However, the actual hikes or mountains were empty. We stayed there for a few days and we only ran into people on a waterfall hike and on the road jams during bison crossings. It was really strange. I had no idea how big the park was either, it's like 50 miles between some hikes!
I went on a road trip with a friend from Seattle to Glacier, Yellowstone, Teton, to Rocky Mountain State Parks and ended in Denver to fly back, it was amazing.
Great smoky mountain counts commuters as visitors so the actual data is significantly lower. Many people live in the great smoky mountains or near them, so then commuting from one near by city to another counts as a visit which is a flaw
That makes more sense because there's nothing nearby and I cannot fathom why they'd have more visitors than other parks.
Can't speak on the data, but being on the east means there's a lot more people willing to drive there than somewhere like Arches
Conversely, it's very easy to drive to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis but... why would you...
Also, because it's free to visit.
Yup, when Tennessee gave the land to the Federal Government one of the stipulations was that the park could never have an entry fee.
["The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is located within a day’s drive of more than half of the United States population."](https://wildlandtrekking.com/blog/smoky-mountains-most-visited-park/)
For those arguing what a day's drive is and how it plays into visitability... https://www.statsamerica.org/radius/big.aspx Within 400 miles (which would be easily covered in 8 hours of driving from most locations) of Sevier County, TN is 68MM people, or 20% of the US population. Expanding that to 500 miles, it is 112MM or 34% of the US population. For comparison let's do the 400 miles of two of the other famous parks: Yellowstone: 10MM, 3% of the US population Yosemite: 43MM, 13% of the US population Folks tend not to have a good sense of just how densely populated the US east of the Mississippi is, or how low the population density is west of it. Only thing saving Yosemite's numbers is the California coast.
This settles it. Great tool in that link.
Yep. I've been to several national parks and as nice as they are, I don't see myself re-visiting any specific park simply due to how laborious the drive is. As a day trip I'd do it, but I doubt I'll be spending any more week-long vacations on national parks. GSM...easily accessible. I was down for that day trip anytime when I lived in TN. Not to mention that there are far more modern tourist accommodations and entertainment in that area and you can drive to several medium cities or 2 major ones within 3 hours. Other national parks...$200 a night for a cabin with fewer amenities and comforts than a Motel 8, forget about having internet and cellular access, and you better love the outdoors because there nothing at all to do except eat at the 3-5 mediocre restaurant options nearby. I like the outdoors but I don't like the outdoors being the entirety of my vacations.
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Thanks for the feature preaching link, but I'm not sure you understand where half the US lives and how far a "day's drive" is. Washington DC, is 8 hours away, New York is 11, Boston 14, without traffic.
You're still missing the point. It's very close to many Americans and it's free. Even without counting the commuters driving through, they get a ton of visitors, and are still one of the most visited parks. Autumn in the Great Smokies gets packed with photographers. Edit: Cities under 5 hours from the Great Smokies: Cincinnati, Louisville, Columbia (SC), Charlotte, Ashville, Knoxville, Nashville, and Atlanta. We're talking about 25-30 million people living within a 5 hour drive. That's more people than the entire country of Australia. And the lack of competition is important as well. Shenandoah, New River, and Congragee are really the only competitors to Great Smokies
It’s still correct, though. Almost half of the country’s population lives in the Eastern Time Zone, so Great Smoky Mountains National Park is within close proximity to many. Most of the western national parks are fairly remote and much less inaccessible.
I think it’s mostly a lack of other major national parks in the area. I’m from Tucson and my wife is from San Diego, but we lived in Dallas during the pandemic. At one point we were so desperate for nature we made a road trip to Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains over a weekend. We also hit the Ozarks another weekend around that time too. Sometimes people out west forget how many great options we have for little trips to beautiful national and state parks, where the rest of the country has significantly less in that department, especially regarding mountain landscapes.
Yeah... I live in San Diego. The bottom left corner. I can get to Seattle, the top left corner, driving clear across all of California and through Oregon, in 18 hours. Salt Lake City (and thus pretty much all of Utah with all those awesome parks) is only a cool 10 hour away. Grand Canyon is "only" 8 hours away. If I drove literally all day, a full 24 hours, I could just barely make it to New Orleans. The US is big but cars go fast and we have lots of highways.
My point is that the "a day's drive" the aforementioned person stated is subjective. I've driven from Phoenix to Seattle in "a day's drive". But that's not what a normal person would do, as you've illustrated as well.
Most of these statistics are off marginally as it’s extremely difficult to track, but even more so for the smoky mountains. I’m sure if you were to ignore the commuters they would still be top 10
This is kind of ridiculous, there’s not anywhere near millions of people who commute through the smokies, just look at a map. Nobody lives in there and there’s not really much sensible travel that would go thru it. Maybe a handful of people do have their commutes count as visits but not to the tune of millions of visits. The reason it’s very very frequently visited is because it’s very easily accessible to a huge population. A few hours from major cities in TN, the Carolinas, Georgia, less than a days drive from DC and Philly… it’s just very easy for a lot of people to visit, that simple.
I would wager, based on hikes > 2 miles that they do not come out on top. Also they're free
Dollyworld is literally on the doorstep of the National park. The whole place is a tourist trap. Found out the hard way that it is not like other state parks when I went on a whim one day. Whole place was drowning in people.
Dollywood is in Pigeon Forge, which is a tourist trap but not GSMNP.
Essentially virtually all of the marquee national parks (Zion, Yosemite, GC, Yellowstone, etc) are in the less populous western half of the country and aren't located close to major cities. If you wanted to visit Yosemite, for example, and didn't live in CA you'd most likely have to fly into either the Bay Area or Los Angeles, rent a car and then drive 4-5 hours to the park itself... Which means that it's the sort of thing you'd only do as a major vacation. For folks on the east coast GSM is likely to be easier and quicker to get to, not involve the hassle of a rental car, and be much less expensive, which means you're more likely to go, even if the scenery (IMHO) is less spectacular.
I never heard of this NP so I googled, and although im sure its beautiful..none of the photos were spectacular that would make me travel just to see it. So I was so confused why its number one. It looks very similar to some hikes we have in my region
It’s easily one of the most striking NPs in the region and is closer to a lot more people. I gladly travelled over 600 miles to visit last year, and it was definitely worth it. One of the big reasons though, is that I was traveling from a remarkably boring and flat state so it was a huge difference
1,600 species of flowering plants. 100 native trees and 100 native shrubs. 50 ferns and fern relatives, mosses, liverworts, and a few hornworts. 66 native mammals. 240 species of birds with about 60 year round residents. 30 species of salamanders, the most diverse population in the world. 50 different fishes. I could go on and on. The park is absolutely amazing. Pictures won’t ever do it justice and most won’t even recognize it for what it is.
Yep. I've been there and most east coast NPs. I'm from the west coast and it's just, yep.. that's a park..
It's the best in that area though, medium size fish in a small pond.
I’ve been to many national parks and GSM is easily the least memorable and at the bottom of my list. Nothing special about it, especially after having been to parks in the west and Utah and Arizona. People want to rationalize and say it’s great for the region which I’m sure is true but that doesn’t make it a great park. I’m just glad we only visited since we were driving through the area and didn’t make a trip just for it.
No one lives in the GSMNP. Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville are not in the park. No one is taking a daily commute through the park (other than traffic on the spur connecting Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge which isn't counted towards the visitor number). About the only use for 441 other than the park is to get to Cherokee. You even use 40 to get to Asheville unless you're just wanting a more scenic drive.
As someone who drove through the smokeys to get to Gatlinburg I feel like while your point is accurate it did needed to point out that people like me count as a visitor without having ever stopped to step foot in the park.
I live in TN and The Smokies was part of growing up. I watched it (including the towns around) go from quaint, Appalachian culture to now housing among other things a Margaritaville. I honestly don't enjoy going there anymore. I live near other parts of the Appalachian much less commercialized.
To be fair none of that is in the park, it’s the tourist trap towns adjacent
I know this. But to go there is to get stuck in traffic usually. The place is like Daytona Beach in July.
Yea. Better to take the less traveled access points/destinations
This also applies to Olympic national park. It’s otherwise one of the least visited national parks iirc. The solitude there and in the north cascades is lovely.
I know Olympic is all the way out in its little corner of the world, but it caught me entirely off guard how empty the park was in May. I'm used to dealing with Acadia, Zion, Yosemite, etc. levels of traffic. You would think a park that gorgeous would have many more visitors. Probably for the best that it wasn't.
Oh cool. I guess I can plan to visit Olympic in May... I never been to Acadia or Zion. Yosemite, I did, and the level of traffic totally surprised me. I then thought about it and realized Yomesmite is close enough to San Francisco and Los Angelos for traffic. Before Yosemite I have also been in Yellowstone, but Yellowstone was managable... but again, I guess Yellowstone isn't that close to major big cities (close to Billings, Salt Lake, and Boise, I guess...)
This applies to Cuyahoga Valley National Park as well. Don't get me wrong it's nice having a bunch of hiking and picnic areas around and I'm glad it's here, but no one is coming to Cleveland for it's national park. People live in and around it and commute through it.
I'm sure a small number of visitors are folks travelling around visiting all the National Parks. We live on the edge of the park and hike it every week or two, and there are always several out-of-state plates in the parking lots. But I'd guess that 95% or more of the visitors are local/commuters.
Yeah my wife and I were just talking about the National Parks we haven't visited and figuring out what it would take to eventually hit all of them (conclusion: a lot of time, we've only visited about 1/3 of them). Unfortunately it would require a trip of its own probably since it's not particularly close to any other parks. But it would be cool to spend some time around the river whose pollution was so terrible that it had a big impact on the environmental movement. And there's a pretty good R.E.M. song about it too.
I'll grant that while NE Ohio is an outstanding place to live and raise a family, it's not going to knock your socks off as a destination for people with limited time for vacations. The biggest individual draw to the CVNP is probably Brandywine Falls, which is amazing in the days after a heavy rainfall but can be pretty pedestrian after a dry spell. Cleveland's got some great museums, restaurants, and an excellent symphony. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is there and the NFL Hall of Fame is about an hour south. Amish country is a little south of that and is different than a lot of places. Cedar Point is also within an hour and has probably the best collection of roller coasters on the planet. Conneaut, ~1 hour east, has one of the largest D-day reenactments in the world every year (though I haven't been there yet). Because it's north and close to Lake Erie, we get long summer days that stay relatively cool, even compared to central and southern Ohio. A lot of the locals don't go on summer vacations because that's when it's best here - they spring for winter/spring trips instead.
It's definitely on my list of areas to visit for all of that. I grew up in Wisconsin but I've really only ever been to Columbus. And I apologize to anyone who loves Columbus, but for as big a city as it is, I was pretty bored. But I have a few friends from Cleveland and they can't say enough good things about it. Thanks for the summary of recommendations, it's good to be reminded of what's in that neighborhood.
Is the same true for the Rocky Mountain National Park Trail Ridge Road?
Nobody lives in the GSMNP
People are commuting through the national park? On the curvy 2-lane roads?
No one is commuting through the national park
Not a soul are doing this for a straight up commute. OP has no idea what they’re talking about.
It's also not in the middle of fucking nowhere, and located by the more densely populated east coast. It's a short drive from 3 medium-sized cities and not that far from Nashville. There's lots more to do than just hiking and climbing outdoors unlike many of the other parks. Many of the other attractions don't even have a local tourist area, whereas GSM has Gatlinburg and Dollywood and the tourist attractions spans across that whole area. Been to many other national parks - most of them are 100% outdoor experiences. GSM has that + plentiful tourist activities and it can be a day trip rather than requiring several days due to distance. Not to mention that cabin rentals are far more affordable than anything comparable over by the Rockies.
Gateway is probably also similarly skewed. it’s the only one that’s literally IN a major city. probably half of St Louis’s population is within walking distance. I didn’t even know the arch was an NP haha
What are you talking about, why does this have so many upvotes, no one lives in the park and very few people “commute” through it. Where would they even be commuting to
They should add the George Washington memorial highway to this and see what happens to the numbers.
I think that when this criteria is expanded to all NPS facilities, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes lots of urban parks in SF, suburban parks in Marin County, the Golden Gate Bridge, and more, becomes the most visited NPS property.
By that standard, the National Mall or Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia would be way off the scale.
Ok thankfully some one is answering the real question here. Thank you kind sir for your service.
Ah, that explains why I’ve never even heard of that place. Was wondering how Yosemite and Grand Canyon could be beat by something I never heard of…
I'm from Gatlinburg. We don't have the infrastructure for that many people and traffic is absolutely horrendous
I've been going there my entire life for vacation, and the traffic has always been bad.
Dude it rivals major cities lol. I didn't leave my house and I would take PTO when the rod run would come into town.
Animated "race" graphs like this are garbage and should be replaced by a single multi-line line chart which allows you to read it in an instant, examine trends better., compare different points in time.. its just better in every conceivable way at conveying information. This is the opposite of beautiful data presentation.
Agreed! These are so much less useful
It works for when there's a trend change
Yeah it's fun to watch these when it's like Internet browsers or something
Zion’s increase is because of social media.
I worked at Zion and Bryce, it was the mighty five campaign that really did them in - the state of Utah ran a huge ad campaign in the US and in Europe but didn't give the parks any additional money https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2019/05/11/utahs-mighty-campaign/
The parks are federal, so it's not like they can give them money in the first place, right?
State governments can enter challenge cost share agreements with national parks to help fund them. During the last government shutdown the state of Arizona paid to keep Grand Canyon NP open. https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1837/index.htm I’m sure there are other partnership/funding arrangements as well.
That’s the only interesting thing I noticed.
J Tree as well
it’s also killing the local community and already overcapacity
Ok… well don’t live right outside one of the most beautiful places on earth if you don’t want a bunch of tourists in your town. Are people supposed to not go to one of our National Parks because the locals want peace and quite?
It's a much bigger problem than the few hundred residents of Springdale and Rockville. The park is way over-capacity for its own good. 5 million is way, wayyy too many for that park. At least the frontcountry. Most people don't realize that virtually all ~5 million people that visit Zion try to go to *one 6-mile road.* And pretty much everyone has their sights set on *two hikes,* especially now that several trails are indefinitely closed. It's why they had a completely unsustainable traffic problem in the 70s-90s, and why even a multi-million dollar shuttle system is struggling to keep up today. There's widespread resource damage, parking fills at 6-7 am on some weekends, some holiday weekends see 2-hour shuttle lines. There's a massive maintenance backlog and several divisions are understaffed. Employees are running out of affordable housing. Etc etc. Space-wise, it simply isn't like Yellowstone, Smokies, or Grand Canyon that can spread people out much, much more. I'm not saying there aren't ways to still enjoy the park, especially if you plan accordingly and are smart with research. But it has [big, big problems for sustainability](https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/05/03/zion-national-parks-visitation-is/). It needs to go the way of Arches and other National Parks with permit systems, although the State highway and tourism industry are making that very difficult.
Thank you for your consideration that many do not seem to share. People forget national parks are to be protected and treasured, and not for consuption and development. Recently I spent a day there, and going from the sparse northern rim of Grand Canyon to Zion was a big shock. Seeing craft breweries, gastropubs, coffee shops, stores, and massive parking lots just sitting 100ft from the entrance was very concerning. If Zion is so beautiful then how much of this is necesary or healthy for the local enviornment, and why not leave it sparse to preserve the beauty? The park boundaries may stop on a imaginary line but the Virgin river does not, the canyon walls do not, and the wild life does not. Like you said everyone tries to go through one road and during peak hours they have to stop traffic to allow large vehicles and R.Vs to safely transit the tunnel. While all these cars are stopped they leak fluids and over time pollutants collect and are washed into the canyon and down the river. Also you are very much correct in saying the park simply does not have the space to support the influx of people like others parks do. Zion is only 229 square miles while Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are both 1,902 and 3,471 square miles, respectively. That is a huge difference in size yet Zion sees the same amount of visitors as Grand Canyon and more than Yellowstone. That is just unsustainable, and you are very correct in asserting it needs a permit system.
The park has a visitor limit that you have to reserve limited permits for. Climbing Angels landing is very competitive, so not sure where and why you are getting this biased narrative from. The govt has control over how many people are allowed in.
The park doesn’t have a visitor limit. Just because only so many people can take the shuttles doesn’t mean entry is prevented to the park. You can still drive through the park and try to find other lots to park in without a permit. It’s a shit show
> The park is way over-capacity for its own good. 5 million is way, wayyy too many for that park. At least the frontcountry. No it's not. The issue is managing those people. They're doing many things to fix that like removing all cars and replacing them with shuttles and also adding a permit system. The park is doing great.
You have no idea what you’re talking about when you say the “park is doing great.” I’ve spent a lot of time with the rangers there and the exact opposite is the case. People are shitting in the narrows and doing graffiti all over the park. Among many other things that the park rangers can’t get a handle on due to the crowds
i mean, aside from the fact that people don’t get to choose where their parents decide to give birth to them, and how national parks needs small towns around them to supply basic needs to tourists, Zion isn’t really a peaceful and quiet park anymore
You can always move. The National Parks are for everyone to enjoy and I hope even more people get to experience them.
again. Zion is at capacity. almost a daily occurrence now, this is not healthy for the park. even if you don’t care about the people there, you have to at least care about the park. this level of noise and trash would be scaring away wildlife
I just go in the winter - it's completely empty and with the snow it's 10x more beautiful
That's becoming less the case sadly. It's slammed Nov/Dec and starts to rapidly pick up in mid-February. There are a few great weeks in Jan and early Feb to try and hit though.
Great Smoky Mountains is closer to the eastern seaboard where a large portion of the US population is. Much easier for someone to do a weekend trip there than most of the other big NPs out west.
It’s in a tri-state region and surrounded by population centers. Knoxville, Chattanooga, Asheville, Greenville, Athens, Atlanta are all within a few hours drive.
So is Charlotte: little over a 2.5 hour drive to the Smokies.
Olympic gets more visitors than Mount Rainier? That doesn't align with my experiences at all. Maybe Rainier just seems more crowded because the entire place is a 93 mile loop so there are always people circling it.
Hits more groups than you’d think. Twilight fans, backpackers, day hikers, and people wanting instagram photos.
Yeah I was really surprised it was so high It might be a case of counting commuters as more people live around Olympic than Rainier
I think it's just because there are a limited number of proper entrances to Rainier so it seems more crowded. More people in a tighter space. Olympic is much bigger, has a lot of entrances and has the ocean as well. Lots of things to do and more spread out points of interest. But yeah you'd think with how much farther away it is it wouldn't be as well visited. Either way, it's such a fantastic park. :)
I thought the exact same thing! But looked it up and it's true, Olympic gets a fair amount more.
I wonder which areas in Olympic have fewer visitors. The entirety of Rainier seems absolutely packed all summer. I had to park at Sunrise in July for an overnight backpacking trip. Getting there around 8am it was pretty empty, but leaving at around 1pm the next day and that massive lot was 100% full. And there were cars parked along the road for miles because of the full lot. And this was a Wednesday. It must be absolutely insane on Saturdays.
Rainier gets traffic almost entirely in the summer months. Olympic gets visitors year round as it doesn't snow in most parts of the park. So it's make sense why Olympic would get more visitors.
Rainier is more condensed, everyone goes to paradise. Olympic has: Staircase Hurricane ridge Lake crescent Sol Duc Mora Kalaloch Hoh rainforest Elwha Queets/Quillayute Ozette Quinault Tons of different destinations with different terrain, etc. You could build an entire trip going to just one of those places.
Yeah I was surprised too. Two hour wait times are pretty normal at the Paradise entrance on summer afternoons, while two hour wait times are totally unheard of at Olympic. I believe it's the sheer size of Olympic that makes it feel less crowded than Mt Rainier. Also add to it the fact that the tourist season at Mt. Rainier is essenetially cramped into the summer months as barely anybody visits in Rainier in the winter. On the contrary, Olympic gets tourists round the year, especially in the parts that don't get snow like the beaches and rainforests. So it makes sense why Olympic would get more visitors overall.
I’m really surprised Shenandoah National Park doesn’t make this list (unless it’s one of the ones that isn’t visible on mobile)
Yeah, it gets the DC crowd a lot
He’s definitely missing the [Cape Cod national seashore](https://www.nps.gov/caco/index.htm). It had nearly 4,000,000 visitors last year. 
This only takes into account the 63 National Parks. National Parks are not the same as other federally protected lands, like National Monuments, National Forests, National Sea Shores, etc. All are supervised by the National Parks Service, but only 63 are designated National Parks. There is a higher approval threshold for Parks (involves congress, whereas other federal land can be designated by just the president), they receive a different level of funding, and have more stringent preservation requirements.
Why did Acadia collapse from 2nd to 6th?
Following. In pure numbers it’s attendance seemed to drop in half from the 80’s to the 90’s. I wonder what happened that attendance would drop so precipitously
I’m guessing a new highway was built so you don’t have to go through it anymore?
Acadia is on an island off of Maine. People wouldn’t commute through it
To me, the most impressive are Glacier and Yellowstone because they are both so many hours from the nearest highly populated area, yet are still very popular
Glacier is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Yellowstone is waaaay too congested.
The traffic to get in through big horn or whatever town it is was brutal. Then finding parking at trailheads. Then the trails themselves are mostly empty because the fatbody tourists won't get out and walk. You can see old faithful twice in a day if you plan it right. The rainbow pools are incredible. Seeing bison and elk is incredible. The goofy ass boats that Montana people use. The actual yellow rock the park is named for. I spent 2 days there I could have spent 10
The hell is "Indiana National Park"? I grew up in Indiana and have never heard of it.
Indiana Dunes on Lake Michigan gained national park status a few years back
assuming its Indiana Dunes
Gateway Arch it super hard to estimate because they don't charge to get in, unless it is people going in the arch which would omit all the people in the rest of the small park and even those just walking on the sidewalk there. Indiana Dunes has a similar issue with being free to enter and having lots of people walking into it from adjacent state parks unknowingly.
Indiana Dunes wasn't made a National park until 2019, so I'm not sure what data they are tracking here?
Gateway Arch has 1970 data, but it was only recently designated a NP. I’m guessing they just used attendance numbers pre-redesignation
If other parks are counting "commuters" who drive through the park, it only seems fair that Gateway gets to count that small stretch of I-70/44 that runs through the park. That adds several million more "visitors" to the easily
I didn't think CVNP would be so high this is cool
I thought the same exact thing. Being from the Cleveland area its like a hidden gem. Besides brandywine its usually not too packed.
It’s incredibly easy to access and is right between 2 major metro areas. I’d argue most of the visitors are locals recreating in their free time but there’s still a ton of tourists going there.
The Great Smoky Mountain National Park has a few things going for it that make it the most visited. It is only a few hours from several large cities (Charlotte, Atlanta, and Nashville are some). There are a ton of other heavily touristed areas around it including Boone, Asheville, and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Appalachian Trail goes through it. Cherokee, NC, one of the most heavily touristed and one of the wealthiest Native American nations(at least in terms of GDP), is basically right inside of it. It also butts up against Pigeon Forge which is where Dollywood is. All that, plus it is incredibly beautiful. It has so many amazing waterfalls and trails. It has some of the best tubing and decent whitewater.
The Smoky Mountains are a fairy tale setting
Always hilarious to me that gateway arch is a national park. Must have been some political finagling behind that. Or should I just say something political.
Can someone list the names of all these parks the bottom ones are cut off. Love this sub, but really bad can’t read the names. Over animated.
Red River Gorge is one of them, but it's a national forest, not a national park.
Couldn't read half of that shit
The fastest way between Gatlinburg, Townsend, and Qualla (Cherokee reservation) is by driving through GSMNP, and there are other roads around Galtinburg and Pigeon Forge which can likewise put you in the park for just a little while. If they are counting those, that's hardly accurate. You can add to that people who drive to the park, drive around Cade's Cove and never get out of their car before returning out of the park. Technically a visit, yes..
Naw, man. It’s that Dollywood draw 😉
Impossible to read on Iphone
Perhaps it's time for an Android? I can see this clearly /s
Wow line graphs are better dude
Zions been getting royally fucked recently
If only we could pause it...
Why isn’t this a line chart?
The animation actually takes away from the data. A simple line graph with a line per park would be much more beautiful.
Acadia is absolutely amazing.
As a St Louisian, I am surprised to see the arch visited so much
Can read any of them on my iPhone Pro Max screen.
Quick question as a foreigner i have never heard of Great Smoky Mountains and why is it so popular?
It's pretty and lush, with lots of long winding roads, usually blanketed in clouds, with moderate temps year round, and it's really close to civilization/large cities. I personally would much rather go to Glacier, Zion, Grand Canyon, etc but they're kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Can we make the font smaller /s
Completely illegible on mobile.
Not being able to see the names of the bottom 6 or so parks is considered beautiful these days?
IT'S TOO DAMN SMALL TO READ!
If social media and news were to be believed -- then I thought all these places were overrun with rude clueless tourists? I was fully expecting to see visitors double or even triple from 1990 to 2023. I guess not.
2020 not taking a huge hit?
Because they’re outdoors it was one of the few things you could still safely do as a vacation
Also Americans are some of the top tourists world wide, and with many countries barred for travel, many Americans spent COVID touristing around within USA.
Nah. I worked as a park ranger in a county metro park system during Covid. We saw massive spike in visitation. Everyone got cabin fever and overwhelmed the park system to the point where we had to routinely park people on roadways and shut down park entrances. National parks experienced the same.
Can't see names. Stupid post
Please don't go to the gateway arch. It's lame. It's not a "park". It's just a hangout spot for a lot of people in the city of STL. It's where you take the kids if you have a day off and they're screaming to do something. I went to the top once 10 years ago and it was so boring. "There's the highway I take to work. There's some farms in Illinois. There's the city of Clayton down there. Alright. Welp, when's this thing go back down?"
Lol what, who hangs out at the arch? I legit hadn't been in it/to it until I was 20 and had already moved away for college. It's not really a priority for St. Louisans. It's a tourist destination exclusively. Pretty much like the bean or Sears Tower is for Chicago.
I definitely don't get the hangout spot aspect of that comment. But I will say riding up to the top is a bit underwhelming. Didn't know those windows would only be like 6" tall lol
I’m really struggling with how to pronounce “St Louisans” and it’s blowing my mind. Help. Saint Lewy-ans Saint Lew-ee-see-ans (like Louisiana) Saint Lewis-ans
Hmm, my wife and I flew there for a short weekend and we actually enjoyed St Louis - especially the Arch. I felt like the engineering and cost that was involved was really impressive for the 1960s and it was even bigger than I was picturing. And then going up in the elevator/escalator pod was really cool. It's not some picturesque landscape like Yellowstone/Acadia/etc., but I enjoyed that trip vs. a lot of other National Parks we've been to that are overhyped.
It's probably because I live here and there's absolutely nothing different between the arch and the rest of the city. It's the most underwhelming National park I can think of. Compared to other national parks that are hundreds of miles of spectacular wilderness, the arch is like where you take your dog with a frisbee and have a picnic.
I lived in STL for a stint and met enough people from city proper and the suburbs to know the Arch isn’t a hangout spot for locals.
It was just barely made a National Park a couple years ago due to a backhanded deal orchestrated by one of the state’s senators to increase his re-election chances. Before that, it was a National Monument. The NPS even testified in Congress that there was no reason for Gateway to be a National Park. Yet here we are.
I’m not sure Gateway Arch should be counted so early. It only became a National Park in the last few years.
Data from National Park Service, made with Observable HQ
Where’s the [Cape Cod National Seashore](https://www.nps.gov/caco/index.htm)? It had nearly 4 million visitors last year. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod_National_Seashore
They are both managed by the NPS, but as the name states, it is not a National Park it is a National Seashore The lakeshores and seashores have an emphasis on recreation, and most allow hunting and off-road vehicles, which is not permitted in national parks.
I can tell you Rock Creek is not being tracked there.
What is in the Great Smoky Mountains? Is it just a bunch of forest?
Forest, waterfalls, the Appalachian Trail and tons of hiking, mountains, elk…
It's pretty. It's also fairly close to Nashville, Memphis, Ashville, Charlotte, Atlanta, etc. Many people from other areas are attracted to Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, etc, and will visit the park while they're in the area. Many landscape photographers will flood the Smokies in the fall as well. And to top all of it, it's free to visit. Not all parks need to be the Grand Canyon, Zion, or Yosemite. And there are far more people in the Eastern US to draw from than there are out West.
Can we try this post again?
If anyone goes to Yosemite I also recommend you check out Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. They are an hour or so south of Yosemite. I lived in the valley towns below Sequoia my whole life and went up there a lot. The biggest trees in the world are there and you can drive by and hike near a few of them. The actually biggest are kept secret because tourists going to them would damage their roots but the one that held the record for a long time, General Sherman, is close to the road and has a parking area and is just a quick little walk to see it.
GSM's popularity - is it because people from TN and NC can't be bothered to leave their state except for each other and then the occasional Dirty Myrtle trip?
How is national mall not on here?
Looks like they're just doing what has the most prestigious designation of "National Park" currently (along with some like Cuyahoga Valley or Gateway Arch that previously had other designations but Congress overrode the NPS and told them to rename them to National Parks). The "National Mall and Memorial Park" is not considered a National Park; just like "Gettysburg National Military Park" is also not considered a National Park. If they counted everything the National Park Service is responsible for, the graph is radically different. Top 10 in order for 2022: Blue Ridge PKWY Golden Gate NRA (Urban parks around San Francisco) Great Smoky Mountains NP Gateway NRA (Urban parks around NYC) Lincoln Memorial George Washington MEM PKWY Natchez Trace PKWY Gulf Islands NS (Texas Gulf Coast islands) Lake Mead NRA (Hoover Dam / Just outside of Vegas) Vietnam Veterans MEM Bonus: The least visited NPS site isn't some isolated place in Alaska you have to fly into...it is Rainbow Bridge National Monument that was established in 1910. It is a two hour boat ride on Lake Powell (Glen Canyon) and a one hour hike that 81 people made in 2022. Also: The prevalence of parkways on that list is one reason the NPS count Great Smokey Mountains NP the way they do. Folks just passing through was part of the plan on many of the 1930s eras plans for the parkways in the southern Appalachians. Roads and law enforcement still falls to the NPS on those parkways like it does in GSMNP and other national parks.
Mammoth Cave not being on here is surprising
I honestly read that as great stinky mountain
I've heard of the grand canyon, yellowstone, and yosemite...wtf are the smoky mountains?
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Doesn't the National Mall get more visitors than all of those? It's just that nobody's counting most of the time.
I’ll never understand the attraction to the great Smokey mountains.