WASHINGTON, D.C.— National Park Service Director Fran Mainella announced that visitation to the national parks shows a four percent increase for 2004. In 2004, more than 276 million visitors went to the national parks compared to 2003, when more than 266 million visits were recorded.

“We are delighted to see that visitation is on the increase again in the national parks,” Mainella said. “The need to bond with America’s special places will continue to draw more and more visitors as a place to connect with nature as well as the past. As more people find the need to recreate for better health, we expect to see visitation rise.”

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist bombings, visitation dropped sharply and continued to decline though 2003. The results of 2004 seem to indicate that national and international travelers are now coming back to the national parks.

The drop in visitation resulted from park closings following 9/11, particularly in the New York City and Washington, D.C. areas. Combined with anxiety over travel in general and flying in particular, the NPS saw a slow down in the number of visitors, especially international travelers coming to the parks. There was also a pattern of Americans staying closer to home after 9/11 and an immediate trend of visitation increases in 2002 at patriotic parks such as Independence National Historical Park in Pennsylvania (+5.7 percent), Fort McHenry NHS in Maryland (+ 4.2 percent), Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania (+2.3 percent), and Fort Clatsop National Memorial in Oregon (+2.6 percent).

Mainella noted that the addition of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. brought in a significant number of visitors; along with visitation increases at national park areas such as Glacier National Park in Montana (+22 percent), Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in California (+17.4 percent), Zion National Park in Utah (+8.9 percent), Shenandoah National Park in Virginia (+8.3 percent), Saratoga National Historical Park in New York (+6.7 percent), Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona (+4.9 percent), and Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in Missouri (+3.5 percent) all combined to reflect a four percent increase in totals for 2004.

Since its inception in 1916, National Park Service visitation has increased from 358, 000 to the more than 276 million of 2004.

The National Park System is comprised of 388 units; of those 388, those listed below are the most highly visited.