The National Park Service announced that 400 national parks reported a total of 325.5 million visits in 2023, an increase of 13 million or 4% over 2022.
At Scotts Bluff National Monument, 2023 visitation numbers were nearly equal to those of the previous year even though the monument saw long stretches of cold and snowy weather in January through mid-March of 2023. “Cold, snowy weather at the beginning of the year really reduced visitation last January, February and March,” said Acting Superintendent Britt Salapek. “However, visitation numbers really rebounded starting in April, and remained strong through the end of the year.”
The monument saw over 20,000 visitors per month May through September. If you would like to visit with smaller crowds, but generally pleasant weather, Scotts Bluff staff recommend visiting in April or October. Monument staff also remind visitors about our neighboring National Park Service sites, Fort Laramie National Historic Site and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Both are within an hour’s drive. Together, the three parks tell interesting stories with smaller crowds than many other National Park Service sites.
Visitation figures and trends guide how the National Park Service manages parks to ensure the best experience possible for park visitors. The NPS Visitor Statistics Dashboard provides recreational visit statistics for every park in the US for 2023 and also for previous years, dating back to 1979 for some parks. There are 428 parks in the National Park System, and 400 parks counted visitors in 2023. For the first time, there are now parks reporting their visitation numbers from all 50 states, the
District of Columbia, and four US territories. Five national parks began reporting in 2023, and this is the first year a park from Delaware is included.