National Park Attendance Breaks Record Third Year In A Row

By Al Macias
Published: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 - 7:03am

If you visited one of America’s national parks last year, you were not alone. The attendance at the nation’s parks set a record.

For the third straight year attendance records were broken as parks such as Zion, Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain experienced historic levels of popularity.

All those visitors caused headaches, stemming from overcrowded roads and trails.

At many parks, visitors waited an hour or more in cars to get through entrance gates and then spent the day trying to outmaneuver fellow visitors for parking spots and room on popular trails.

Overall visitation to national parks is on track to surpass 325 million for 2016 when the final figures are in.

Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park alone drew more than six million sightseers.