National Parks 2023 visitor report holds surprises – What about your favorite?

The National Park Service has released its 2023 visitor report. As you might expect, the number of visitors was up. Last year saw 325.5 million visits; that was up by 13 million people, or a 4% bump up from 2022. But, surprisingly, where visitors went was more spread out. The National Parks 2023 visitor report shows some people apparently discovered some of the lesser-known National Park Service units.

More coming in off-season

Diving deeper into the numbers shows the advice we’ve given to crowd-weary RVers, “Go visit during the off-season,” is being taken. Evidently not only are RVers doing just that, as the Service says, more and more visits are being made in spring and fall than in past years.

Here’s a breakdown of the highlights

• The National Park Service reported 325.5 million recreation visits in calendar year 2023.
  This is an increase of 13 million recreation visits—or 4%—from 2022.
• Recreation visitor hours were 1.4 billion—also a 4% increase from 2022. There was a 5% increase in visitors using concession operated lodging; however, other statistics related to recreation overnight stays at parks trended slightly downward. See more below.
• 400 of the 428 National Park System units report visitor use.
• Five new parks began reporting in 2023; this is the first year a park from Delaware is included.
• 20 parks set a record for annual visits and 15 others passed notable visitation milestones.

Hope from the National Parks 2023 visitor report?

If you’ve struggled to get into the parks in recent years, there may be hope for the future. “The recent trend in recreation visits suggests a return to more typical visitation patterns post-pandemic,” says a Park Service report. “Except for 2020 and 2021, visitation patterns are becoming similar from year-to-year and are exhibiting more routine variability, much as they did in the decades leading up to the NPS Centennial in 2016.”

At the same time, take this “grain of salt”: “While the patterns and variability are similar to pre-Centennial trends, the overall level of systemwide visitation is now significantly higher.” So, what’s to be done? Is there anything to do to see the parks and yet avoid “maddening crowds”? Some folks are finding visiting the lesser jewels of the park system might be an answer. It’s a mixed bag of news for 20 of these lesser-known Park Service sites. While they may be “lesser known,” all of them broke visitation records in 2023. If you haven’t seen them, or want to see them again, 2024 might be the year to go—before every man and his dog hears about them.

• Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site
• Congaree National Park
• Dry Tortugas National Park
• Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve
• Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
• Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument
• John Muir National Historic Site
• Joshua Tree National Park
• Kaloko Honokōhau National Historic Park
• Keweenaw National Historic Park
• Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
• Lincoln Memorial
• Longfellow House Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site
• Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park
• Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Memorial
• Minidoka National Historic Site
• Mojave National Preserve
• New River Gorge National Park & Preserve
• Nez Perce National Historic Park
• Ninety Six National Historic Site

Find statistics for your personal favorites

What about “your” park, or other ones that you’re interested in? The Service has a webpage where you can find out statistics for every park or site in the system. Click here to access it. You’ll find all kinds of information.

Last year at Zion National Park, RVers made 85,948 overnight stays. Sound pretty tight? Well, the number may be “headed the right way,” as in 2022, the overnight RV stay rate was a chart-topping 93,947.

The statistics page breaks out all sorts of other information. You can find out about total annual visits, or you can break it down month-by-month to help you with planning. Got a particular location in the park you want to see? You can access traffic count information. The list goes on.

Park Service spin

No matter how you might look at visitation numbers, the Park Service has its own spin on the matter. Here’s the official party line: “From Kaloko Honokōhau National Historic Park in Hawai’i to Congaree National Park in South Carolina, parks are attracting more visitors each year to learn about our shared history,” National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said. “Our national parks tell our shared American story. I’m glad visitors are finding hidden gems, exploring in the off-season and finding new ways to have a great time in our national parks.”

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