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In 2002, the National Park System had 277 million recreational visits, almost one for every US resident. The top 20 national parks in terms of visits that year are listed, with Great Smoky Mountains having the most visitors at 9.3 million.
According to the National Park Service, the National Park System had a total of 277,299,880 recreational visits in 2002. When you consider that the population of the entire United States in 2002 was 280 million, it becomes clear that there was virtually one visit to the national park parking system for US resident!
Here are the top 20 national parks in terms of recreation visits in 2002. Note that the statistics listed below are for national parks only (recreation areas, National Historic Landmarks, etc. are not included):
National Park
Region / State
Visitors
Great Smoky Mountains
TN, NC
9,316,420
Grand Canyon
THE
4,001,974
Olympic
WA
3,691,310
Yosemite
CA
3,361,867
Cuyahoga Valley
OH
3,217,935
Rocky Mountain
CO
2,988,475
Yellowstone
ID, MT, WY
2,973,677
Grand Teton
WY
2,612,629
Sion
UT
2,592,545
Acadia
ME
2,558,572
Glacier
MT
1,905,689
Mammoth cave
KY
1,891,307
House Of The Sun
HI
1,521,080
Hot Springs
AR
1,440,227
Shenandoah
VA
1,389,244
Monte Rainer
WA
1,310,390
Joshua Tree
CA
1,178,376
Volcanoes of Hawaii
HI
1,110,998
Everglades
FL
968,909
Sequoia
CA
920,292
