This Is America’s Favorite National Park

In 2018, more than 300 million people visited National Park Service sites around the US, a slight decrease from 2017 visits.

“The visitation to our national parks continues to affirm that Americans are in love with their public lands and hold dear the stories of our nation embodied in the natural, cultural and historic landscapes we protect in the National Park System,” National Park Service Deputy Director Dan Smith said in a statement.

The NPS has 418 sites stretched across 84 million acres of land in all 50 states, DC, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, CNN reports.

The most popular park in 2018 with more than 15.2 million visitors is Golden Gate National Recreation Area with the Blue Ridge Parkway coming in a close second with 14.7 million park lover coming for a visit.

Thanks to the government shutdown, several parks suffered damage due to lack of staff and security. Parks including Joshua Tree National Park and Yosemite National Park saw the most damage.

A 2015 Obama program saw every fourth-grader around the country receive a free one-year national parks pass for the student and their family; the program continues under the Trump Administration.