Since 1904, the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) has recorded over 16.4 billion visitors to its high desert acres, marine wildernesses, and mountain vistas. In 2024, unprecedented numbers of people visited some of the most well-known parks. At Montana’s Glacier National Park, about 3.2 million visitors marveled at the enormous U-shaped valleys and towering granite peaks sculpted by glacier flows long ago. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which spans the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, saw 12 million leisure visits.

The breadth and diversity of “America’s best idea” attract tourists. The 85 million acres of the NPS include more than 21,000 miles of trails and 150,000 miles of rivers and streams from sea to shining sea (as well as in the wilderness of Alaska and Hawaii).

(Go wild in these seven amazing parks and avoid the crowds.)

Although these ten parks are the system’s stars, they just scratch the surface of the diversity found in the NPS’s 429 park units, which include 63 national parks.

Glacier National Park

Named after the rivers of ice and glacial forces that sculpted its untamed landscape over two million years, Glacier National Park is located in the beautiful Rockies of northern Montana. The park’s patchwork of water, woodland, ice, and rock drew 3,208,755 visitors in 2024.

Grand Teton National Park

Some of the most audacious geological displays in the Rockies are the majestic and towering Teton Range peaks, which rise about 7,000 feet above the Wyoming valley floor. In 2024, 3,628,222 people visited Grand Teton National Park, drawn by its jewel-like lakes, blue and white glaciers, and bare granite pinnacles.

Olympic National Park

Over 3.7 million visitors visited Olympic National Park in Washington State in 2024. The park is made up of 922,651 acres of old-growth temperate rainforest, rocky mountains covered in glaciers, and a wild Pacific shoreline (seen).

Acadia National Park

In 2024, 3,961,661 visitors visited Acadia National Park in Maine, where the sea and mountains converge. Mount Desert Island, a combination of parks, private property, and waterside settlements, makes up the majority of the park.

Yosemite National Park

John Muir, whose advocacy resulted in the establishment of Yosemite National Park in California in 1890, remarked, “No temple constructed by human hands can compete with Yosemite.” 4,121,807 million people visited this temple of granite cliffs and imposing waterfalls in 2024. The majority of them stayed in Yosemite Valley, a seven-mile-long, mile-wide canyon that was first carved out by a river and then expanded and deepened by glaciers.

Rocky Mountain National Park

In 2024, Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park had 4.2 million tourists because to its breathtaking mountain views. Along with 150 lakes and 450 miles of streams, the park is home to a variety of habitats, including alpine tundra, pine woods, marshes, and montane regions.

Yellowstone National Park

In 2024, 4.7 million people visited Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in history. The enormous reserve, which spans 2.2 million acres across Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, is home to thick woods, alpine lakes, jagged peaks, and a variety of wild species. Bears, sheep, moose, wolves, and bison are the stars.

Grand Canyon National Park

One of the world’s biggest canyons, a mile deep and up to 18 miles wide in some places, drew 4,919,163 million visitors to Grand Canyon National Park in 2024. Hike, ride a mule, or float the powerful Colorado River to discover it.

Zion National Park

The Virgin River rises in the high plateau region of Utah and flows through Zion Canyon to the desert below. In 2024, 4,946,592 million people visited Zion National Park, drawn by its breathtaking vertical landscape of cliffs, sandstone canyons, and rock towers.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

In 2024, almost 12 million people visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There are more than 800 miles of hiking trails that straddle North Carolina and Tennessee, or visitors may take a picturesque route that skims the mountains to explore its misty peaks and valleys teeming with waterfalls.

Disclaimer :

All information provided is based on publicly available sources, and we strive for accuracy.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to the U.S. National Park Service or any of the parks mentioned.
Visitor numbers and statistics mentioned are estimates from the year 2024 and may vary slightly.
Images, logos, trademarks, and names belong to their respective owners.