Visits to national parks dipped slightly in 2025 after a record-breaking year.
The National Park Service recorded 323 million visits in 2025 at parks, historic sites, monuments and recreation areas, about a 3% decline from 2024’s all-time high of 331.9 million.
Still, visitation stayed historically high, even with a 43-day government shutdown, when parks remained mostly open but with limited staffing and services.
The top 10 most visited national parks didn’t change, though rankings shifted.
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park (11.5 million)
- Zion National Park (4.98 million)
- Yellowstone National Park (4.76 million)
- Grand Canyon National Park (4.43 million)
- Yosemite National Park (4.2 million)
- Rocky Mountain National Park (4.1 million)
- Acadia National Park (4.0 million)
- Grand Teton National Park (3.8 million)
- Olympic National Park (3.5 million)
- Glacier National Park (3.1 million)
Among the changes: Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon flipped spots in the rankings. That’s after the Dragon Bravo fire last summer destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and forced closures. Grand Teton saw one of the biggest increases, with about 170,000 additional visits last year, while Rocky Mountain held steady in visitation but slipped one spot in the rankings.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) raised concerns about the new visitation data amid staffing cuts at the agency and the federal government’s attempts to change the display of history across the park system.
“The enduring popularity of America’s national parks is not surprising,” said Emily Douce, deputy vice president for government affairs for NPCA. “What’s shocking is this administration’s relentless attacks on these places and their caretakers, which threatens their future.”
The organization estimated that nearly a quarter of staff have been fired or resigned since the beginning of the administration.
Pressure to tackle deferred repairs
Travel groups including AAA are forecasting increased domestic travel in 2026 as the U.S. marks its 250th birthday, adding pressure on parks and other public lands. It’s one reason why advocates and politicians are pushing Congress to renew a key fund for overdue repairs.
The Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund, created under the Great American Outdoors Act, provided up to $1.9 billion a year starting in 2021 for deferred maintenance, but it expired last fall. A group of bipartisan lawmakers, including Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) introduced the America the Beautiful Act last year to extend the fund for eight more years, but it hasn’t moved forward.
Recreation groups like PeopleForBikes, which is based in Boulder, Colo. and represents bike companies, said the funding is critical.
“If you're going to ride a bike, you need to be able to access a safe place to ride a bike,” said Chris Bell, the organization’s director of federal policy. “That depends on having the right investments in place to maintain trails, to fix bridges, to make sure that roads are navigable so you can get to where you need to go, to have good trailheads.”
The chairs of the Western Governors Association – Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Hawai’i Gov. Josh Green – also urged Congress this month to renew the fund.
Across public lands, deferred maintenance totaled an estimated $40 billion last year.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
