NPS’s March report counted 323 million recreation visits for 2025

The National Park Service reported 323,014,305 recreation visits for 2025 in a March 13, 2026 announcement. Its figures covered 406 reporting parks and included more than 13 million overnight stays. Twenty-six parks reached annual visitation records, with separate rankings provided for all system sites and for national parks. ^[1]

Blue Ridge Parkway led the system with about 16.5 million recreation visits, followed by Golden Gate National Recreation Area at about 15.7 million. Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranked third overall at approximately 11.5 million and first among sites designated national parks. Zion and Yellowstone followed it in that narrower ranking. ^[1]

The agency’s separate data overview puts the national total 2.7% below the record year of 2024, a decline of 8.85 million recreation visits. It reports smaller declines in visitor hours and overnight stays. Those measures describe different aspects of park use; the number of visits alone does not describe how long people stayed. ^[2]

For closer comparisons, NPS offers monthly and annual charts filtered by park or designation, alongside an IRMA portal with national and park reports. Its guidance cautions that counting methods can change and that equipment failures or other disruptions sometimes require estimates. These limitations matter when interpreting an individual park’s increase or decrease. ^[2]

About this item: Retrospective source brief. No first-hand reporting or independent testing is claimed. Corrections policy.