The National Park Service Organic Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson onAugust 25 , 1916 , and 100 twelvemonth later the religious service is doing well than ever before . AsFiveThirtyEightreports , attending to America ’s National Parks is at an all - clock time high .
Last yr , 307 million recreational visits were made to the National Park Service attribute , which include memorial , beach , and historic site . That ’s up from roughly 293 million sojourn in 2014 and 281 million in2010 .
Whileovernight stays on the whole are down six percentage since 1979 , they ’ve been climbing back up since hitting an all - time low gear in 2008.That said , backcountry trips to National Park Service site have increased by 34 percent since 1979 while overnight tent stays are up by 16 percent ( in that same time , RV tenting has plummeted by about 50 percentage ) .
One possible explanation for the upsurge in trial is last year’slow gas prices . National Park Service spokesman Jeff Olson told FiveThirtyEight that commons visit stall when throttle gets expensive , and then Edgar Albert Guest dealings easy goes back to normal as multitude get used to the change .
If you ’re looking for a place to celebrate the National Park Service’scentennialthis year but do n’t like crowds , it ’s sound to avoid the most iconic parks ; Yellowstone , the Grand Canyon , and Yosemite account for some of their most visited attribute . But the most popular ballpark by far is the Great Smoky Mountains , which , thanks to thehighwaythat runs through it , more than doubles the Grand Canyon ’s average visitant count of 4.5 million a class .
The National Park Service is looking to attract visitant to each and every one of its411areas for the anniversary in August , and key events are being keptunder wrapsfor now so that people can retrieve their own unequaled car park experience . you’re able to gohereto look up NPS sites near you .
[ heat content / tFiveThirtyEight ]
