RV Daily Report quoted a National Park Service press release naming the top-ten national parks visited last year. More than 285 million people visited national parks and other units of
the National Park System during 2009, up from just under 275 million in
2008. This fell just short of the all-time visitation record of 287.2
million in 1987.
The Blue Ridge Parkway was the most visited unit of the system with nearly 16 million visitors, but the top-ten parks were:
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 9,491,437 visitors
• Grand Canyon National Park, 4,348,068
• Yosemite National Park, 3,737,472
• Yellowstone National Park, 3,295,187
• Olympic National Park, 3,276,459
• Rocky Mountain National Park, 2,822,325
• Zion National Park, 2,735,402
• Cuyahoga Valley National Park, 2,589,288
• Grand Teton National Park, 2,580,081
• Acadia National Park, 2,227,698
Entrance fees were waived three weekends and there was more publicity about national parks, possibly accounting for the increase. While the Great Smokies is easily accessible, visiting some of these parks, like the Grand Canyon, Zion, the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, mean getting off the beaten path.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said employment and visits to our national parks contributes nearly $14 billion in economic activity across the country.
We are so fortunate that this land has been set aside. We can only hope that we do not have such financial trouble at the federal level that we close or privatize parks at the state level because of the economic conditions. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak
Photos
- George at the Grand Canyon
- Patriarchs of Zion
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