What The Least Visited National Parks Have In Common

You’ve likely heard of – and maybe even visited – many of the most visited parks in the National Park System. That includes the Great Smoky Mountains, Zion, and Yellowstone, which attracted 24 million visits total in 2021.

While 44 of its 423 parks set visitation records last year, there are some parks that didn’t even receive 1,000. There are some reasons for that, though.

According to NPS’s latest visitation data, these four parks and areas had among the fewest visitors in 2021:

• Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve: 629 visits
• Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River: 275 visits
• Alagnak Wild River: 262 visits
• Aniakchak National Monument & Preserve: 145 visits

What do all five have in common? They’re relatively remote and difficult to access.

Yukon-Charley Rivers is found in a largely untouched area of Interior Alaska, with NPS describing its strongest element as “solitude.” The Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River is found in “the most remote corner of Texas.” The Alagnak Wild River is nestled within the rugged Aleutian Range in Alaska while Aniakchak boasts “no lines, no waiting!” on its NPS page.

View the full article from KETK-TV here.