The National Park Service ("NPS") recently released their visitor use statistics for 2020. Like most attractions and businesses, the U.S. National Parks navigated through shutdowns, re-openings, second shutdowns, and ever-changing operating restrictions last year. This volatility impacted the ability of park staff to collect and/or clarify visitation data. Following, the data published for 2020 are likely to reflect some inaccuracies. Please keep this in mind as you continue reading.
Summary
The NPS recorded 237 million total recreation visits in 2020, which was down 28 percent from the previous year (this is a lot). This was the lowest annual visitation recorded since 1980, when there were only 275 park units reporting (in comparison, there were 383 reporting park units in 2020). This was also the largest year-over-year percentage drop recorded since 1942 and 1943 (WW2). The table below shows how historical events have impacted national park visitation.
The Top 10 Most-Visited National Parks
2020 saw two new parks enter the list of top ten most-visited National Parks, which had remained largely stable for the past several years. Cuyahoga Valley National Park jumped from the 13th spot in 2019 to #7 in 2020. And Joshua Tree National Park finally broke the Top 10, stepping up from #11 in 2019 to #10 in 2020.
The two parks that fell out of the Top 10 were Yosemite National Park, which fell to #12, and Glacier National Park, which fell to #13.
Some National Parks Saw Higher Visitation in 2020
In most cases, parks recorded declines in visitation from 2019 to 2020. However, six Nationals Parks (out of 63 total) recorded double-digit percentage increases during the pandemic:
Virgin Islands National Park (VINP) experienced the largest percentage increase in visitation from 2019 to 2020 (over 25%). However, this increase comes from VINP's slow recovery since hurricanes devastated the island in late 2017, and the park saw relatively low visitation in 2018 and 2019. When comparing to a "normal" year prior to the hurricanes, their visitation in 2020 was still less than half (40%) of their visitation in 2016.
On the other hand, Cuyahoga Valley National Park seems to be one of the few parks that experienced genuine increases in visitation during the pandemic. While their January and February visitation was on par with previous years, all of the remaining months showed increases, anywhere from 12 to 51 percent higher than 2019.
The monthly visitation for Shenandoah National Park did not show consistent trends, but it seems that very high visitation in March, July, and October were enough to compensate for very low visitation in April and May.
Monthly visitation in Voyageurs National Park stayed on par with previous years until May, then June, July, August, and September saw higher than normal visitation.
On a personal note, I visited only one national park unit in 2020, and that was Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (AINL), which is an eight-hour drive from Chicago. Firstly, the fact that I went to AINL for my honeymoon (instead of Hawaii or Australia, which were both contenders) reveals that many people probably honeymooned to a national park in lieu of a more exotic or international location. My friend who originally planned to honeymoon in the Galapagos instead went on a tour of Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks. Secondly, the fact that I also chose a trip that required an eight-hour drive over a four-hour flight tells me that many people probably chose not to fly in 2020, instead discovering new destinations within driving distance of their home, even it was further than they would normal want to drive. This is one of the reasons I think Cuyahoga, Shenandoah, Voyageurs saw increased visitation - people from the east half of the country opted not to fly to the West. And finally, the fact that I probably would not have visited AINL if I had not gotten married tells me that many people probably visited national parks only for special occasions in 2020, meaning that a large portion of national park enthusiasts did not visit any national parks last year.
My belief is that state parks and local forest preserves got a lot of well-deserved attention from national park enthusiasts last year. For me, spending more time in local parks and preserves, instead of flying elsewhere to explore, gave me the opportunity to familiarize myself with the flora and fauna unique to my home region. I look forward to returning to some of my favorite National Parks one day, but for now, I have more than enough exploring to do in my own backyard.
Source for chart data: NPS Visitor Use Statistics
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