Backcountry visits to the more than 400 national parks, memorials, monuments and other sites managed by the National Park Service (NPS) through the first nine months of the year is up 4.2 percent compared with the same period a year ago despite a dip in September.
Backcountry visits to NPS sites reached 225,760 in September, down 4,276, or 1.86 percent, from September 2015. However, they reached 1,883,102 through the first nine months of the year, which marked an increase of 75,838, or 4.20 percent, compared with the same period in 2015. Backcountry visits broke the 2 million mark in 2015 for the first time since 2001, but remain well below the record pace set in 1983 when they reached 2.58 million.
Total recreation visits to NPS-administered sites also dipped in September, but remained well ahead of last year’s level through the first nine months of the year. They slipped 962,964, or 3.14 percent, to 29.4 million, compared with September 2015. Recreation visits through the first nine months of 2016 were 259.5 million, up 9,079,996, or 3.63 percent, from the comparable period in 2015.
The numbers make it likely that the NPS will set its fourth consecutive year of record visitation in 2016, which has marked the agency’s centennial celebration.
Photo: The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona, courtesy of National Parks Service
