The most visited national parks in the USA

A total of 330.9 million people visited any of the 59 national parks in the United States throughout 2017, according to the most recent data published by the National Park Service (NPS).

The park that had the largest number of visitors was the Great Smoky Mountains, with a total of 11.3 million people, almost double that any other in the United States. This park, which is located in the Appalachian Mountains between the states of North Carolina and Tennessee, is recognized worldwide for its great diversity of animal and plant life and for the beauty of its old mountains.

The second park with the largest number of visitors in 2017 was the impressiveGrand Canyon, in Arizona, which received 6.2 million people. The river canyon of this geological wonder has a length of 446 kilometers, a width of 29 kilometers and a maximum depth of 1.6 kilometers.

Zion, in Utah, is third in the ranking. Last year it had 4.5 million visitors. In this park you can visit spectacular sandstone cliffs of different colors -cream, pink and red- or climb the narrow canyon of the Virgin River.

The fourth place in the ranking is occupied by Rocky Mountain, in Colorado, with 4.4 million visitors. The spectacular mountain views are the main attraction of this park, which has an area of ​​415 square miles.

Yosemite National Park, in California, was the fifth most visited in 2017 with 4.3 million people. The Captain, a vertical rock formation about 900 meters high, is one of its many and most recognizable attractions, as well as large waterfalls, extensive meadows or giant sequoias and other natural wonders.

The five parks that complete the list of the ten most visited are Yellowstone – which was the first national park in the world and is distributed between the states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana -, Acadia (Maine), Olympic (Washington), Grand Teton (Wyoming) and Glacier (Montana).

More information:

• National Park Service
• Find Your Park
• Encuentra tu parque
• The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks – Google multimedia special about several national parks
• Video: the 59 national parks of the United States in a minute (National Geographic)