STATISTICS / SEASONALITY

Summer is the busiest season at 40 of the 63 national parks

June to August is the busiest season at 40 of the 63 national parks in 2025, the latest full calendar year in NPS monthly reports. January or February is the quietest month at 37 parks. The table below gives the busiest and quietest month for each park.

Updated . IRMA monthly data pulled October 2026.

Main numbers

Busiest and quietest months through the year

Each bar shows how many parks had that month as their busiest or quietest month in 2025. Green bars show busiest months. Amber bars show quietest months.

  1. January1
  2. February0
  3. March9
  4. April2
  5. May8
  6. June7
  7. July25
  8. August8
  9. September1
  10. October2
  11. November0
  12. December0
  1. January25
  2. February12
  3. March0
  4. April1
  5. May0
  6. June1
  7. July1
  8. August2
  9. September1
  10. October13
  11. November2
  12. December5

All 63 national parks (2025)

Recreation visits are entries, not unique people. The average columns rank months by mean visits in 2015 to 2024, without 2020 and 2021. A dash in the peak divided by quiet column means the quietest month had zero reported visits, so the ratio has no value. Select a column name to sort the table.

Download the data as CSV (same columns).

Park Busiest month Busiest visits Quietest month Quietest visits Peak divided by quiet Busiest month on average, 2015–24 Quietest month on average, 2015–24
Great Smoky Mountains October 1,561,683 January 276,999 5.6× July January
Yellowstone July 975,109 November 26,961 36.2× July November
Acadia August 844,268 February 10,352 81.6× August February
Grand Teton July 787,186 January 50,745 15.5× July November
Glacier July 765,061 February 15,202 50.3× July January
Rocky Mountain July 763,213 January 96,601 7.9× July February
Yosemite July 616,551 February 120,601 5.1× July January
Zion May 589,279 January 149,768 3.9× July January
Olympic August 565,357 January 99,595 5.7× August December
Grand Canyon May 508,642 January 191,862 2.7× July January
Gateway Arch July 496,115 January 55,940 8.9× July January
Mount Rainier August 430,922 February 12,733 33.8× July February
Indiana Dunes June 425,848 February 68,915 6.2× July January
Joshua Tree March 411,993 July 139,664 2.9× March July
Cuyahoga Valley August 386,861 February 105,507 3.7× July January
Hot Springs June 351,571 January 106,185 3.3× June December
Shenandoah October 329,565 January 11,989 27.5× October January
New River Gorge NP & PRES August 270,105 January 41,661 6.5× July January
Bryce Canyon September 265,048 January 39,682 6.7× June January
Badlands July 232,859 January 9,962 23.4× July December
Redwood June 222,029 December 31,042 7.2× July January
Capitol Reef May 221,189 January 17,002 13.0× May January
Sequoia July 200,392 February 40,294 5.0× July February
Arches May 193,448 January 31,870 6.1× June January
Crater Lake August 189,696 February 3,060 62.0× July January
Hawaii Volcanoes January 181,117 October 125,237 1.4× January September
Glacier Bay NP & PRES July 164,111 February 223 735.9× July February
Theodore Roosevelt July 155,747 January 850 183.2× July January
Denali NP & PRES July 151,455 October 3 50485.0× July January
Death Valley April 146,003 June 76,156 1.9× March January
Saguaro March 132,921 August 31,601 4.2× March September
Kenai Fjords July 132,250 November 3 44083.3× July January
Kings Canyon July 128,217 February 15,889 8.1× July February
Canyonlands May 120,667 January 9,900 12.2× May January
Lassen Volcanic July 113,062 February 6,438 17.6× July February
Wind Cave July 111,639 February 10,191 11.0× July December
Big Bend March 106,911 August 19,830 5.4× March August
Mammoth Cave July 102,778 October 12,646 8.1× July January
Everglades March 99,017 October 19,008 5.2× March September
Haleakala July 91,757 October 58,085 1.6× July November
White Sands March 91,656 October 22,389 4.1× March January
Mesa Verde June 84,693 January 6,632 12.8× July January
Great Sand Dunes NP & PRES June 75,009 January 5,475 13.7× June January
Virgin Islands March 55,372 October 13,494 4.1× March September
Black Canyon of the Gunnison June 55,009 December 4,069 13.5× July February
Carlsbad Caverns March 54,906 October 0 — July January
Biscayne May 53,688 October 22,367 2.4× July October
Pinnacles March 44,670 October 16,898 2.6× April January
Petrified Forest June 43,435 October 0 — June January
Voyageurs August 42,785 April 5 8557.0× July December
Wrangell-St. Elias NP & PRES July 37,120 January 25 1484.8× July January
Great Basin July 36,940 December 1,143 32.3× July January
Congaree May 33,957 January 15,129 2.2× May January
Guadalupe Mountains March 30,339 January 8,692 3.5× March January
Channel Islands July 28,890 October 10,724 2.7× July January
North Cascades July 16,828 December 3 5609.3× August January
Katmai NP & PRES July 13,500 January 0 — July February
Dry Tortugas May 10,012 September 5,230 1.9× June October
National Park of American Samoa April 9,866 October 0 — October June
Isle Royale August 8,929 January 0 — August January
Lake Clark NP & PRES July 7,087 January 0 — July January
Gates of the Arctic NP & PRES July 4,966 January 0 — August November
Kobuk Valley July 2,887 December 46 62.8× October February

Examples

Methodology

Sources

Cite this page

np.guide. "Best month to visit each national park." Updated 24 October 2026. https://np.guide/statistics/best-month-to-visit-national-parks