Americans and other visitors made such good use of U.S. National Park Service sites in 2024, they set a new record with almost 331.9 million recreation visits logged at its 433 sites, which include famous national parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite as well as parkways, battlefields, national seashores and historic sites.

The previous record — 330.9 million — was set in 2016.

While national parks tend to get all the attention and headlines, the 63 sites with “national park” in their name accounted for just 28% of all NPS visits in 2024.

It was a boom year for California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which stretches from southern San Mateo County to northern Marin County. The No. 1 most visited NPS site includes 19 distinct ecosystems from seashore to redwood forests. Attendance jumped almost 15 percent from 2023’s visitor tally of 14.95 million.

1. Golden Gate National Recreation Area (17.18 million visits)

2. Blue Ridge Parkway (16.73 million)

3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12.19 million)

4. Gateway National Recreation Area (8.92 million)

5. Lincoln Memorial (8.47 million)

6. Gulf Islands National Seashore (7.80 million)

7. Natchez Trace Parkway (7.36 million)

8. George Washington Memorial Parkway (6.78 million)

9. Lake Mead National Recreation Area (6.41 million)

10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial (5.29 million)

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12.19 million)

2. Zion National Park (4.94 million)

3. Grand Canyon National Park (4.91 million)

4. Yellowstone National Park (4.74 million)

5. Rocky Mountain National Park (4.15 million)

6. Yosemite National Park (4.12 million)

7. Acadia National Park (3.96 million)

8. Olympic National Park (3.71 million)

9. Grand Teton National Park (3.62 million)

10. Glacier National Park (3.20 million)

— Forrest Brown, CNN