The Appalachian Trail Makes History With Its First Appearance on the Most Visited National Parks List

For the first time in its more than 100-year history, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail has entered the National Park Service visitation rankings.

The NPS recorded 6.2 million visits on its managed sections of the trail in 2025, making the Appalachian NST the ninth most visited national park unit nationwide.

However, across the full 2,197-mile trail spanning 14 states, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy counted a total of 16.9 million recreation visits, surpassing even the Blue Ridge Parkway's 16.5 million, the most-visited site in the ranking.

The Most and Least Visited U.S. National Parks

399 units in the National Park System reported recreational visitation figures for 2025, including national parks, parkways, recreation areas and memorials.

After the all-time high of 332 million recreation visits in 2024, the National Park System only recorded 323 million visits in 2025, down by 8.85 million. 

In 2025, the most visited natural attractions in the U.S. were the Blue Ridge Parkway, with roughly 16.7 million visits, and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California, with 15.7 million visits.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranked third overall and remained the most visited national park in the country, with 11.53 million recreation visits, followed by Zion National Park (4.98 million), Yellowstone National Park (4.76 million), Grand Canyon National Park (4.43 million) and Yosemite National Park (4.28 million).

At the opposite end of the scale, the least visited U.S. national parks were Kobuk Valley National Park (7,786), Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (14,923) and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve (19,778) in Alaska, while Isle Royale National Park in Michigan and North Cascades National Park in Washington rounded out the five least visited parks.

Why the Appalachian Trail Was Never Measured Before

Unlike traditional national parks with entrance gates, the Appalachian Trail runs 2,197 miles from Georgia to Maine and crosses 14 states, with hundreds of access points along the route.

About one-third of the trail is managed by the National Park Service, while the rest runs through U.S. Forest Service land, state-managed public land and local jurisdictions.

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The new 2025 figure comes from a collaboration between the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the National Park Service, which used aggregated and anonymized mobile location data, trail counters and field observations. The organizations also worked with the NPS Social Science Program to align the results with national reporting standards.

"For the first time, we can truly see how popular and meaningful the Appalachian Trail and its landscape are to millions of people," says Cinda Waldbuesser, president and CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, in an official statement.

"We are very proud of our work in partnership with the National Park Service on a methodology that enables us to accurately understand how people use the footpath, what sections see the most visitation, and how to better support local communities so the Trail remains an iconic destination for generations to come," Waldbuesser adds.

"For more than a century, the Appalachian Trail has been a destination for millions of people from around the world to experience adventure, solace, and community while reconnecting with nature," says Kurt Speers, chief ranger and acting superintendent of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, in the same official statement.  

According to the official statement, this new counting method will also serve as a model for other National Scenic and Historic Trails on how to record accurate visitation data in the future. 

Top States and Gateway Towns

Based on this new data, Virginia, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania recorded the highest recreation visitation totals in 2025.

Damascus, Virginia, is one of the trail's best-known gateway towns. It has a population of only about 750, but it welcomes more than 300,000 visitors each year.

Every May, during Mother's Day weekend (May 15-17, 2026), Damascus celebrates the trail with the Appalachian Trail Days festival, drawing about 25,000 people on its own. 

Another gateway town is Duncannon in Pennsylvania. Every year, it hosts the Duncannon Appalachian Trail Festival. This year, the event falls on June 20, 2026. The celebration lasts all afternoon with live music, outdoor gear vendors, educational booths and guided hikes celebrating the trail.

Hanover, a town of about 11,500 in New Hampshire, is not just any other trail town along the Appalachian Trail. It is one of the only 10 towns where the trail runs right down Main Street.

The town is best known as the home of Dartmouth College, founded in 1769. The Dartmouth Outing Club still maintains 50 miles of the trail between Hanover and Woodstock, New Hampshire.