U.S. National Parks Report Record Visitor Numbers At ‘Catastrophic’ Time

Like many countries post-COVID, America’s national parks have never been more popular. Though visitation to the U.S. National Park System has been steadily increasing for years, 2024 set a new record. A whopping 331.9 million people visited in 2024 — the most since record-keeping began in 1904, the National Park Service reported.

That marks a 2% increase over 2023, which saw 6.36 million fewer visits, and beats the previous record set in 2016. The National Park Service (NPS) celebrated its centennial that year, racking up 330 million visits.

In past years, the news would likely be greeted with celebration. This year, however, the visitation statistics arrive at a critical moment for the nation’s public lands. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have fired thousands of parks workers at both the NPS and the U.S. Forest Service. They’ve also delayed seasonal hires and instituted a spending freeze for both the NPS and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Widespread protests

Those actions have led to widespread protests, and former parks officials have warned of serious consequences for an understaffed park system about to enter the busy summer.

“The National Park Service just reported the highest visitation in its history, as the administration conducts massive firings and threatens to close visitor centers and public safety facilities,” said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association. “It’s a slap in the face to the hundreds of millions of people who explored our parks last year and want to keep going back.”

Tourists and visitors wait in a bus line to visit the Sequoia National Park in 2019. Photo: Hayk Shalunts/Shutterstock

Closures, reduced services

Usage of the parks in 2024 trended upward by several different metrics. Overnight stays, both in NPS facilities and private lodgings, increased compared to 2023. Also, 28 individual parks set new records for visitation, and another 38 experienced visitation above the 10-year average in every month of the year.

And while national parks may receive the lion’s share of attention, they only represent 28% of park visits in 2024. The rest are spread among national recreation areas (16%), national memorials (12%), and other categories like national monuments and national seashores.

Massive layoffs

The NPS manages all of those, and Trump’s laying off 9% of the total workforce has impacted every category, according to the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). Several parks have already announced closed facilities and reduced hours and services.

As the summer approaches — when visitation to the country’s parks is at its highest — former parks officials like Don Neubacher worry how parks will fare when a skeleton crew of workers must manage millions of visitors.

“Overall, between the funding and staff cuts and this freeze it makes it almost catastrophic for parks,” Neubacher, a former superintendent at Yosemite National Park, said last week. “A lot of these people want to do good for the American public, and it’s almost impossible for that to be accomplished in this context.”

Rocky Mountain National Park saw large protests against Trump’s policies, as did national parks across the country. Photo: Resistance Rangers

‘Dismantling of the NPS’

The moves by the Trump administration have affected the entire federal government, but the moves against the agencies in charge of public lands represent the “dismantling of the National Park Service as we know it,” said the NPCA’s Brengel.

After the firings, spending freezes, and hiring delays, the NPS received even more bad news last week from the Trump administration, according to the NPCA. The White House is now calling for the cancellation of 34 building leases that house visitor centers, law enforcement offices, museums, and hubs for critical programs.

The 34 locations were part of a larger list of hundreds of federal properties the Trump administration is looking to give up or sell, The Washington Post reported.

That includes nine visitor centers and visitor contact stations. Examples include the Klondike Gold Rush Historical Site in downtown Seattle and the San Antonio Missions law enforcement facility.

“They’re attacking from every side,” says Chandra Rosenthal, the director of the Rocky Mountain division of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “It’s just a crisis moment right now.”

The original version of this story first appeared on GearJunkie.