America’s Most Popular National Park Saw Its Worst Record Since 2018, But The Government Shutdown Isn’t To Blame

As 2026 kicks into gear, the Nationwide Park Service is busy reviewing copious quantities of knowledge gathered in 2025. Nationwide Park visitation is without doubt one of the most intently monitored information factors for parks, because it impacts funding and staffing selections for the approaching years.

The Nationwide Park Service (NPS) has simply begun releasing its preliminary numbers for 2025 visitation. Unsurprisingly, Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park in North Carolina and Tennessee is on observe to be essentially the most visited nationwide park within the U.S., with practically 3 times the guests of another location.

Nevertheless, the park can also be on observe to interrupt a report it hasn’t hit since 2018. Nice Smoky Mountains might have had its lowest visitation numbers in seven years. Nevertheless, the 2025 authorities shutdown is not in charge. The truth is, visitation to the Nice Smoky Mountains was up in October 2025 in comparison with 2024.

So how did America’s busiest nationwide park visitation drop so dramatically between 2024 and 2025?

Why Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park “Misplaced” Round 600,000 Guests In 2025

Credit score: Shutterstock

With quite a few entrances in two states and no park price, Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park is essentially the most visited nationwide park within the U.S. yearly. In the previous few years, it is typically seen between 12 and 12.5 million guests a 12 months.

In 2025, preliminary information reveals that Nice Smoky Mountains obtained “solely” round 11.5 million guests, down greater than 600,000 from 2024, when it had 12.1 million guests.

Nice Smoky Mountains Visitation

Whereas it could be straightforward in charge the prolonged authorities shutdown of October and November 2025, Nice Smoky Mountain really noticed above-average entrances throughout that point, due to local funding that helped save the park and maintain it working.

As an alternative, the drop in visitation is attributed to extra correct counting by park workers, which has modified its methodology in an try to scale back duplicate counts.

The brand new methodology makes an attempt to keep away from recounting individuals who go away and reenter the park, and modifications how folks inside a automobile are tallied. The brand new equations had been first utilized in 2024 and had been used once more for all of 2025.

The low season noticed the largest drop between 2024 and 2025. January specifically had an almost 30% drop in leisure visits, in accordance with NPS.

Whereas Visitation Numbers Dropped, Nice Smoky Mountains Nonetheless Has Sturdy Help

Whereas the information might recommend that issues are slowing down at Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park, it is vital to notice that it nonetheless maintains huge recognition on an area, home, and worldwide stage.

That is significantly evident within the information for October 2025. The federal government shutdown lasted your complete month, and a few nationwide parks had been compelled to shut fully in consequence. With no entrance charges to make use of, Nice Smoky Mountains was poised to shut its hottest areas as a consequence of lack of workers, a transfer that may have dramatically affected its general visitation numbers.

Because of the mixed efforts of native teams, together with:

• Gateway cities
• Gatway counties
• The park’s devoted nonprofits
• and Native American tribes,

the park was funded all through your complete shutdown. In a 12 months when visitation was down, October noticed a 3.4% improve from 2024 to 2025.

Even with the numerous drop in visits, it was nonetheless the fifth-busiest season ever for the nationwide park, suggesting that the brand new equations are simply portray a extra correct image, somewhat than erasing guests.

Credit score: Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Gatlinburg, TN, Public area, by way of Wikimedia Commons

Whereas Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park might have damaged its personal “worst report,” the park is hardly struggling. Whereas it’s unlikely to ever re-attain the post-COVID numbers of 2021 (the place each U.S. nationwide park noticed record-breaking visitation), the 2025 numbers do not imply it is not as widespread as ever.

The truth is, the 2025 numbers are extra possible only a symptom of higher reporting as park rangers frequently work to precisely research their beloved nationwide parks.