Top 10 USA National Parks

In 2014, there were 292.8 million visits to U.S. national parks, breaking the previous record set in 1987 when parks saw just over 287.2 million visits.

The official number of recreational visits to national parks in 2014 was 292,800,082, an increase of 19 million, or seven percent, from 2013 visitation of 273,630,895. Visitation in 2014 rebounded from a 2013 decline that included a 16-day government shutdown and many park closures for repairs after Superstorm Sandy hit the northeast in late 2012.

Several national parks saw record-breaking visitation in 2014, including Joshua Tree, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton and Glacier national parks. The re-opening of the Washington Monument, some 21 months after it was rocked by an earthquake and repaired, also added to 2014 visitation numbers.

Grand Canyon National Park bumped Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area out of the top 10 most visited areas in the national park system. The list of top ten national parks remains unchanged, although Rocky Mountain and Olympic National Parks switched places.

Top 10 most visited places in the National Park System:

Golden Gate National Recreation Area     15,004,420
Blue Ridge Parkway     13,941,749
Great Smoky Mountains National Park     10,099,276
George Washington Memorial Parkway     7,472,150
Lincoln Memorial     7,139,072
Lake Mead National Recreation Area     6,942,873
Gateway National Recreation Area     6,021,713
Natchez Trace Parkway     5,846,474
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park     5,066,219
Grand Canyon National Park     4,756,771


Top 10 most visited national parks:

Great Smoky Mountains National Park     10,099,276
Grand Canyon National Park     4,756,771
Yosemite National Park     3,882,642
Yellowstone National Park     3,513,484
Rocky Mountain National Park     3,434,751
Olympic National Park     3,243,872
Zion National Park     3,189,696
Grand Teton National Park     2,791,392
Acadia National Park     2,563,129
Glacier National Park     2,338,528


10 national parks with the lowest number of visitors (2014):

Salt River Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve, Virgin Islands
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas
Nicodemus National Historic Site, Kansas
Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, California
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska
Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania
Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Monument, California
Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, Texas
Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Alaska

For more information, visit: www.nps.gov.

source: National Park Service

America the Beautiful Passes

America the Beautiful passes provide access to more than 2,000 national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, grasslands, and other federal lands.

The passes are valid at more than 2,000 Federal recreation sites where Entrance or Standard Amenity Fee(s) are charged by the following agencies:

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) http://www.blm.gov

Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) http://www.usbr.gov

Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) http://www.fws.gov

USDA Forest Service (USDA FS) http://www.fs.fed.us

National Park Service (NPS) http://www.nps.gov

Four passes are available:

 - free annual pass to current military members and their dependents

 - free lifetime pass for people with permanent disabilities

 - $10 lifetime senior pass for those aged 62 and over

 - $80 annual pass for the general public.

sources: Recreation.gov, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Colorado River Basin Water Use Study

An April 2011 report from the National Parks Conservation Association analyzes the impacts of water management in the Colorado River Basin and five national parks that lie along the Colorado River and its tributaries.

According to the report, water management has altered the natural state of the river, including the long-term presence of major dams and non-native species, and changes in water flow in the system.

National parks examined in the study include Grand Canyon National Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Canyonlands National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

The report cites several factors which affect the rivers in these parks:

• Dams along the Colorado River have fundamentally changed ecological and environmental processes in these parks by  destroying natural habitats in some areas, creating highly unnatural flow regimes, trapping sediments that are critical for building and maintaining aquatic and riparian habitats and altering natural water temperatures that foster native fish communities.
• Reintroducing more natural water flows in the rivers can protect park resources. In addition, any further alterations to the natural flow of the river must not compromise these treasured parks, which receive a total of more than 8.5 visitors annually. . Recent proposals to divert water from the River for municipal and agricultural uses would likely be detrimental to the parks. 
• Climate change scenarios predict the western United States will become drier and warmer, which increases the likelihood that the volume of water in the river annually will decrease and releases from reservoirs like Lake Powell will be reduced.
• Non-native fish have been introduced; causing issues for native species through predatory and competitive behavior and the non-native tamarisk has altered the river channel, further restricting river flows.

The report outlines steps that can be taken to reverse or mitigate some of the challenges facing the river, including:

• Changes to dam operations to reduce impacts on endangered species and other resources, which would have relatively minor effects on hydropower revenues.
• Climate change research to clearly understand and ensure that its effects on the River are taken into account for all future policies and decisions impacting water flow in the river.
• Additional research on costs and benefits of restoring more natural flows so that the value of the parks along the River can be properly assessed.

To view a full copy of the report, please visit: http://www.npca.org/cpr/colorado_river_basin/

source: National Parks Conservation Association