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National park crowds, month by month
Pick a park to see which month is busiest, which is quietest while the park is still open and usable, and how big the gap is. Built from National Park Service visit counts for all 63 national parks.
Read this first. These are monthly totals, so they show the shape of the year, not single weeks. A quiet month can also mean snow, closed roads or limited services, and we flag those months on each park page. 2020 and 2021 are left out because pandemic closures bent the pattern.
| Park | Busiest month | Quietest open month | Peak vs quiet | Visits a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acadia | August | May | 2.9x | 3,609,982 |
| American Samoa | April | June | 2.9x | 42,136 |
| Arches | May | November | 2.6x | 1,529,802 |
| Badlands | July | October | 5.2x | 1,034,077 |
| Big Bend | March | July | 4.1x | 474,115 |
| Biscayne | July | October | 2x | 546,517 |
| Black Canyon of the Gunnison | July | April | 3.7x | 304,042 |
| Bryce Canyon | June | April | 1.9x | 2,359,817 |
| Canyonlands | May | November | 3.3x | 757,840 |
| Capitol Reef | May | November | 3.8x | 1,213,075 |
| Carlsbad Caverns | July | February | 3.4x | 443,936 |
| Channel Islands | July | January | 2.7x | 332,328 |
| Congaree | May | January | 2.6x | 186,760 |
| Crater Lake | July | May | 4.5x | 636,933 |
| Cuyahoga Valley | July | December | 2.8x | 2,553,342 |
| Death Valley | March | June | 1.8x | 1,350,519 |
| Denali | July | May | 3.2x | 546,956 |
| Dry Tortugas | May | October | 2.3x | 74,646 |
| Everglades | March | September | 2.7x | 914,209 |
| Gates of the Arctic | August | September | 2.9x | 11,046 |
| Gateway Arch | July | December | 5.8x | 1,917,098 |
| Glacier | July | May | 4.3x | 2,980,087 |
| Glacier Bay | July | September | 1.5x | 623,814 |
| Grand Canyon | July | December | 2.1x | 5,435,035 |
| Grand Teton | July | October | 3.4x | 3,365,107 |
| Great Basin | July | April | 3x | 145,839 |
| Great Sand Dunes | June | March | 4.6x | 446,779 |
| Great Smoky Mountains | July | December | 2.3x | 11,920,928 |
| Guadalupe Mountains | March | January | 3.4x | 201,966 |
| Haleakala | July | November | 1.3x | 1,010,699 |
| Hawaii Volcanoes | January | September | 1.5x | 1,637,212 |
| Hot Springs | June | January | 2.2x | 1,955,960 |
| Indiana Dunes | July | November | 4.8x | 2,258,003 |
| Isle Royale | August | May | 7.1x | 26,263 |
| Joshua Tree | March | July | 2.9x | 2,840,978 |
| Katmai | July | June | 3.2x | 41,535 |
| Kenai Fjords | July | May | 4x | 360,815 |
| Kings Canyon | July | November | 4.5x | 651,431 |
| Kobuk Valley | July | February | 3.3x | 15,158 |
| Lake Clark | July | September | 2.7x | 18,501 |
| Lassen Volcanic | July | May | 3.7x | 472,843 |
| Mammoth Cave | July | November | 4x | 616,826 |
| Mesa Verde | July | April | 3.3x | 534,716 |
| Mount Rainier | July | May | 4x | 1,509,129 |
| New River Gorge | July | November | 3.4x | 1,449,424 |
| North Cascades | July | May | 7.4x | 31,317 |
| Olympic | August | November | 4.7x | 3,232,019 |
| Petrified Forest | June | November | 2.7x | 583,741 |
| Pinnacles | April | September | 2x | 263,147 |
| Redwood | July | December | 3.4x | 576,507 |
| Rocky Mountain | July | May | 2.9x | 4,345,923 |
| Saguaro | March | September | 3.5x | 914,387 |
| Sequoia | July | December | 4x | 1,215,637 |
| Shenandoah | October | April | 2.5x | 1,481,794 |
| Theodore Roosevelt | July | October | 2.6x | 706,816 |
| Virgin Islands | March | August | 2.4x | 369,809 |
| Voyageurs | July | October | 4.5x | 226,413 |
| White Sands | March | January | 2.9x | 630,418 |
| Wind Cave | July | October | 4.3x | 601,864 |
| Wrangell-St. Elias | July | May | 5.4x | 79,525 |
| Yellowstone | July | October | 3.6x | 4,211,740 |
| Yosemite | July | December | 3.6x | 4,212,568 |
| Zion | June | November | 2.2x | 4,500,429 |
"Quietest open month" is the month with the fewest visitors among months that still draw at least 4% of the park's yearly total. Months below that line usually mean winter closures. See the methodology.