Rocky Mountain NP now the country's third busiest park
Rocky Mountain National Park is now the third-most visited national park in the country after topping 4 million visitors for the first time last year.
The park jumped from fifth-most visited national park last year to third after surpassing iconic Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks during a record-setting 2015, the park's 100th anniversary.
The National Park Service reported a record 307 million recreational visits to its national parks, monuments and sites in 2015, a 4.9 percent increase over the record 292.8 million visitors in 2014.
ROCKY: Your complete guide to RMNP
Fifty-seven of the 371 NPS sites that record visitation set new visitation records in 2015, according to an NPS media release.
Yellowstone National Park joined Rocky Mountain in surpassing 4 million visits for the first time, and Grand Canyon National Park reached 5 million visits for the first time in its history. Great Smokey Mountains National Park easily topped all national parks with 10.7 million visitors in 2015.
Top 10 most visited National Parks in 2015
- Great Smokey Mountains: 10,712,674
- Grand Canyon: 5,520,736
- Rocky Mountain: 4,155,916
- Yosemite: 4,150,217
- Yellowstone: 4,097,710
- Zion: 3,648,846
- Olympic: 3,263,761
- Grand Teton: 3,149,921
- Acadia: 2,811,184
- Glacier: 2,366,056
Xplore reporter Stephen Meyers covers the outdoors and recreation for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter @stemeyer or @XploreNoCo.
