Which National Parks Are Getting More Crowded — and Which Are Getting Quieter

Behind every monthly crowd score on this site sits a second, less-visible number: a 3-year visitation trend — how this month's visitor count compares to the same month three years earlier. Averaged across a full year, that trend shows which parks are climbing and which are cooling off. Olympic is up roughly 22% on this measure; Petrified Forest is down roughly 36%.

Key takeaways

• Olympic's visitation is up about 22% on a 3-year trend basis — one of the largest sustained increases among parks with a substantial visitor base (roughly 3.4 million visits a year).
• New River Gorge & Preserve is up about 24%, still climbing since its 2020 redesignation from a national river to a national park.
• Petrified Forest is down about 36% — the steepest decline among parks with a meaningful annual visitor base (roughly 465,000/year).
• A percentage alone can mislead for small parks: always check the actual visit count behind a trend, not just the percent swing.

Parks climbing fastest

• Olympic — roughly +22% (3-year trend), on a base of about 3.4 million visits a year.
• New River Gorge & Preserve — roughly +24%, on about 1.8 million visits a year.
• Lassen Volcanic — roughly +22%, on about 427,000 visits a year.
• Great Basin — roughly +31%, though on a smaller base (about 152,000 visits a year) — worth watching rather than treating as settled.

Parks cooling off

• Petrified Forest — roughly −36%, on about 465,000 visits a year.
• Channel Islands — roughly −29%, on about 273,000 visits a year.
• Black Canyon of the Gunnison — roughly −20%, on about 314,000 visits a year.
• Saguaro — roughly −16%, on about 935,000 visits a year.
• Crater Lake — roughly −14%, on about 566,000 visits a year.

Why we leave a few extreme outliers out of this list

Our underlying data shows at least one park with a headline trend figure well above +200% — a number that looks dramatic but comes from a very small visitor base, where a modest raw increase in visits produces an outsized percentage. We've deliberately excluded that kind of outlier from the “fastest climbing” list above rather than lead with a distorted number. The full formula behind the crowd score and its trend component is explained on our methodology page.

What this means for your trip

A rising trend doesn't change this year's month-by-month crowd pattern — it's a multi-year signal, not a same-season warning. But if you're planning a repeat visit to a park you last saw several years ago, a park on this list's “climbing” side is worth re-checking against its current month-by-month numbers rather than assuming it's the same as your last trip.

Frequently asked questions

What is the 3-year trend number based on?

It compares a given month's average recreation visits over the most recent three years to the same month three years prior, using the same NPS visitation data that powers every crowd score on this site.

Does a rising trend mean a park is about to get much busier?

It means the park has been getting busier over the past several years — it's a historical trend, not a forecast. Month-by-month crowd scores already reflect the most recent three years of that trend, so they're the better source for planning a specific upcoming trip.

Why do some small parks show huge percentage swings?

Percentage change is sensitive to the size of the starting number. A park that goes from a few hundred visits to a couple thousand in a given month posts a huge percentage increase despite a modest real-world change — which is why we check the underlying visit count before treating any trend figure as a headline.

Where can I see a specific park's own trend?

Each park's page on this site shows its full 12-month crowd breakdown; the trend behind those numbers follows the same methodology described on our methodology page.