These national parks saw record attendance in 2024, but they may not tell you about it

(NEXSTAR) — The National Park Service served a record number of visits in 2024, and while that may seem like an amazing feat, your favorite park may not talk about it too much.

Traditionally, individual parks and the National Park Service have touted how successful the previous year was. That has been especially true since a spike in attendance during the COVID pandemic. 

Last year was extra special, data shows, with more than 331.8 million visits reported across National Park Service sites. That surpasses the previous record of 330.9 million set in 2016.

While you can find the data on the NPS website, the agency and its parks will likely not be sharing much of the good news.

Park staff told not to proactively share data

A National Park Service memo said the agency will not proactively release information regarding the numbers, according to The New York Times. Parks have been instructed not to “issue a press release or other proactive communications, including social media posts, unless that is its “standard process,” the memo continued, per reporting from SFGate.

That’s a break from years past when parks would proudly share how much attendance they’ve attracted.

It also comes as the Trump administration has fired roughly 1,000 National Park Service employees and more than 700 have reportedly resigned as part of Elon Musk’s “fork in the road offer.” Hundreds of seasonal job offers were reinstated, however. Plans have also been unveiled to close centers, museums, and other facilities at national parks, according to the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).

These changes threaten to disrupt visitors this summer, experts have warned.

Which parks were the most visited — and which broke records? 

Considering all park types — NPS uses “park” to describe even non-parks, like monuments, historic sites, beaches, and any other property type that falls under their purview — it was the Golden Gate National Recreation Area that recorded the most visits in 2024 at more than 17.1 million. That pushed it past Blue Ridge National Parkway, which has been the most-visited park in recent years but was partially shuttered by Hurricane Helene.

When it comes to national parks in particular, the Great Smoky Mountains saw the most visits at 12.2 million followed by Zion (4.9 million), the Grand Canyon (4.9 million), Yellowstone (4.7 million), and Rocky Mountain (4.2 million).

More than 75 NPS sites recorded more than 1 million recreational visits in 2024, data shows.

Two dozen NPS sites saw record visitation in 2024: 

Alagnak Wild River and Tule Springs Fossil Beds only began record visits in 2021 and First State, Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad, Mill Springs, Pullman, and Tule Lake started in 2023. Last year marked the first time Amache, Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, the Ice Age Trail, and Ste. Genevieve tracked visitation.

How National Park staffing cuts could impact your next visit

While national parks have been able to hire seasonal staff, other cuts made this year “will have devastating consequences for parks and communities,” Theresa Pierno, president and CEO for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), said last month. 

Without adequate staffing, parks will have a difficult time providing “the kind of service and protection that we need,” Phil Francis, the executive director for the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, previously told Nexstar.

Francis warned that cutting staffing could lead to visitor centers closing, lines becoming longer, and a reduction in regular maintenance, like cleaning restrooms.

Guides, trail maintenance workers, and those who “perform daring searches and rescues” may also be impacted by the job cuts, Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, said.

Some national parks were already in a bind following the hiring freeze put on federal departments in January.

Yosemite National Park announced many of its campgrounds would be unavailable for several weeks across June and July, the peak season for one of the most visited NPS sites.

Zion National Park is also feeling the impacts of limited staffing. The park — which has been understaffed for years, according to local authorities — could spiral into “chaos” without enough rangers, the mayor of Springdale, located just outside the park’s south entrance, told local outlet KSTU.

In 2023, visitors to NPS sites spent roughly $26.4 billion in the gateway communities around the national parks, data from NPS shows. That, in turn, supported 415,000 thousand jobs, "$19.4 billion in labor income, $32.0 billion in value-added, and $55.6 billion in economic output in the national economy," the agency said last year.