The Most, and Least, Visited National Parks in America

Our country's national parks saw their biggest visitor influx ever last year, collectively logging nearly 332 million visitors in 2024, according to the National Park Service. That busts the almost 331 million guests who descended upon the parks in 2016. Of the 400-plus parks, national monuments, and other protected areas included on the NPS roster, 28 of them, or 7%, set their own individual records for recreational visits. Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranked No. 1 for visitors, per NPS data. These are the 10 parks that saw the most visitors and the least overall, as compiled by Smithsonian:

Most visited

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12.2M visits)
2. Zion National Park (4.9M)
3. Grand Canyon National Park (4.9M)
4. Yellowstone National Park (4.7M)
5. Rocky Mountain National Park (4.2M)
6. Yosemite National Park (4.1M)
7. Acadia National Park (4M)
8. Olympic National Park (3.7M)
9. Grand Teton National Park (3.6M)
10. Glacier National Park (3.2M)

Least visited

1. Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (12K visits)
2. North Cascades National Park (17K)
3. Kobuk Valley National Park (17.2K)
4. Lake Clark National Park and Preserve (19K)
5. National Park of American Samoa (23K)
6. Isle Royale National Park (29K)
7. Katmai National Park and Preserve (36.2K)
8. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (82K)
9. Dry Tortugas National Park (85K)
10. Great Basin National Park (152.1K)

More here on the plight of the parks amid recent cuts to the National Park Service. (More national parks stories.)