This Was the Most Visited National Park in 2020

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 20, 8:05AM EDT

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This Was the Most Visited National Park in 2020 — © WerksMedia / Getty Images

Interest in national parks has been soaring over the past decade. In fact, total visits to all types of U.S. national parks almost exceeded the nation’s population in 2019. In 2010, the number of visitors was closer to 281 million.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the closures of parks all over the country, including national parks at various times. People were ordered to stay at home as much as possible and avoid nonessential activities, such as recreational trips. Visitation to national parks and preserves fell by about a third in 2020 compared to 2019, but millions of people still venture out into the wilderness.

To identify the most visited national park in 2020, 24/7 Tempo reviewed recreational visits from the National Park Service’s annual visitation report.

The national park concept was an idea championed by Theodore Roosevelt. As president, Roosevelt protected about 230 million acres of public land and signed into law the 1906 American Antiquities Act. This act set aside certain public natural areas as park and conservation land to be preserved for historic and scientific interest. These areas were designated as national monuments. Ten years later, Congress passed the Organic Act, creating the National Park Service.
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Exploring the wilderness, hiking through mountains and sleeping under the stars are just some of the nature experiences these parks have to offer, often free of charge. With COVID-19 vaccination rates increasing and states beginning to loosen travel restrictions, many Americans may decide to explore the country and go on a road trip.

The Great Smoky Mountains was the most visited national park last year. Here are the details:

Recreation visits in 2020: 12,095,720
Share of all national park recreation visits in 2020: 17.8%
Recreation visits in 2015: 10,712,674 (first out of 63)
Share of all national park recreation visits in 2015: 13.3%
Five-year change in visits: 12.9%

To identify the most visited national park in 2020, 24/7 Tempo reviewed last year’s recreational visits published in the National Park Service’s annual visitation report. The service aggregates visitation data for various government land designations and visitation purposes. Only the National Parks and National Parks and Preserves categories were considered in our analysis. To avoid double-counting land area, designations such as national monuments and historic sites, which are frequently contained within national parks and may be limited to single structures, were excluded. Visitation data for each park for 2015 was also obtained from the NPS.

Click here to see which national parks were the most visited in 2020.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.