The covid-19 pandemic has forced the National Park Service to close its doors to visitors in 2020. The corona-virus lockdown caused National Parks visitations in the United States to drop by a striking 28%, the lowest number of visits since 1980, stated the Annual Visitation Highlights report by the National Park Service.

The park service saw 237 million visits in 2020, compared with 327.5 million in the preceding year. The plunge in visitation numbers followed the closure of over 60 of the NPS’ 423 sites for more than 3 months amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Nonetheless, 10 parks were the most visited despite the virus outbreak in 2020, and in this article of our “Outdoors, Nature & Backroads” series, we’ll explore the top 10 most visited sites in the United States. 

Meanwhile, Great Smoky Mountains National Park held on to the top spot for the 77th consecutive year . It reached 12.1 million visitors in 2020, down from 12.5 million in 2019.

2020’s most-visited national parks:

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12.1 million visits in 2020), 1st in 2019

2. Yellowstone National Park (3.8 million), 6th in 2019

3. Zion National Park, Utah (3.6 million), 4th in 2019

4. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado (3.3 million), 3rd in 2019

5. Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (3.3 million), 8th in 2019

6, Grand Canyon National Park (2.9 million), 2nd in 2019

7. Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio (2.8 million), new entry in top 10

8. Acadia National Park, Maine (2.7 million), 7th in 2019

9. Olympic National Park, Washington state (2.5 million), 9th in 2019

10. Joshua Tree National Park, California (2.4 million), new entry in top 10

In conclusion, the visits of the National Parks is starting to gain momentum again following the news about the vaccine roll-out, and might return to normal by the end of the year.