Attendance at Rocky Mountain National Park saw a negligible increase in 2025 but it fell out of the top five on the list of busiest national parks in the U.S. for the first time since 2013.
Rocky saw 4,171,431 visitors in 2025, an increase of 17,082 over 2024. Yosemite National Park took over fifth place with 4,278,413 due to a visitation surge of more than 156,000 over the year before. Yosemite officials reported in September that the park experienced one of its busiest summer seasons in years with visitation tracking 7% ahead of 2024.
The top five on the list in 2025 was typical of recent years except for the absence of Rocky. Great Smoky Mountains National Park was No. 1, as usual, with 11,527,939, accounting for 12% of all visits to national parks. Zion was No. 2 (4,984,525), followed by Yellowstone (4,762,988), Grand Canyon (4,430,653) and Yosemite.
The record attendance for Rocky came in 2019 at 4,670,053, which ranked it third that year. Since then, park officials have enforced a they say is needed to prevent overcrowding and resource damage.
Rocky’s timed-entry period will begin this year on the Friday before Memorial Day, May 22, and will run into October.
Rocky also ranked third in 2015 and 2018. Since the imposition of timed-entry reservations, it ranked fourth or fifth until last year.
Yosemite and Arches National Park have dropped their timed-entry reservation requirement for 2026.
Colorado’s other three national parks saw visitation declines in 2025. Mesa Verde ranked 43rd on the national park list at 463,130, down from 480,165 in 2024. Great Sand Dunes ranked 44th at 432,498, down from 437,661. Black Canyon of the Gunnison was 50th at 250,086, down from 335,862 in 2024.
Black Canyon’s 25% decrease was due to the lightning-caused South Rim Fire, which forced closure of the park in July. The South Rim Campground, East Portal Campground and Rim Rock Trail from South Rim Campground to Tomichi Point remain closed.
