Top 10 Most Visited Parks in 2009

From the 'Smoky Mountain Hiking Blog'...
'Despite the recession, or perhaps because of it, more than 285 million visitors flocked to national parks last year, falling just short of the all-time visitation recordof 287.2 million set in 1987.

The National Park Service reported that 2009 visitation represented an increase of 10 million people, or 3.6%, versus the prior year.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar speculated Tuesday that the increases may have come because families on tight budgets view parks as bargains, parks offered free visitation on three weekends, and parks attracted extra attention as a result of Ken Burns's documentary on the history of parks.

As usual, the Great Smoky Mountains ranked the highest in total visitation. Here's how the top 10 parks ranked in terms of visitation for 2009: 
1) Great Smoky Mountains (9.5 million visitors)
2) Grand Canyon (4.3 million visitors)
3) Yosemite (3.7 million)
4) Yellowstone (3.3 million)
5) Olympic (3.3 million)
6) Rocky Mountain (2.8 million)
7) Zion (2.7 million)
8) Cuyahoga Valley (2.6 million)
9) Grand Tetons (2.6 million)
10) Acadia (2.2 million)

Also, the Blue Ridge Parkway was the most visited unit of the system with nearly 16 million visitors in 2009. '


I can cross four of these NP's off my list.  I would absolutely love to visit every single one of them at some point in my life.  My top two priorities at the moment:  Yellowstone and Yosemite.  As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I am going to try my best to plan a trip for late summer to go out to teh Yosemite area and do some hiking on the John Muir Trail.


As you can see, the SMNP blows every other park out of the water in regards to visitors.  More than twice as much as the Grand Canyon.  Quite honestly it would be nice if half those people never showed up.  I would venture to say about 70% of the people visiting the park are people just driving around and not really even getting out of the car.  I understand people want to see all the beauty the park has to offer but at least get out of your car and venture into the wilderness a little.  Pollution is a serious problem in the park and reducing the patrons entering would drastically decrease it.  Oh yea...and level both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge!!!