SALT LAKE CITY — If it felt like Utah’s “Mighty 5” were more crowded than ever last year, that’s because they were. All-time visitation records were broken at four of Utah’s five national parks in 2021, according to preliminary data made available by the National Park Service.
There were at least 11 million visitors at Utah’s five national parks in 2021 — far exceeding the 7.7 million recorded visitors in 2020, a year when visitation plummeted as a result of pandemic-related park closures and travel restrictions.
The final 2021 visitation figure has yet to be calculated because Zion National Park has not submitted its December visitation. Even so, visits to Utah’s national parks jumped by at least 43% last year and Zion is one of the four parks that broke visitation records in 2021.
Zion National Park again led all of Utah parks in visitation last year. The southern Utah nature preserve reported over 4.8 million visitors through November, besting its previous record of 4.5 million in 2017. A spokesman for the park told KSL.com the park is still reviewing its numbers before it submits its final 2021 visitation statistics.
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Written by CARTER WILLIAMS, KSL.com.
Copyright KSL.com.