News

Lassen Volcanic National Park Visitation Exceeded 500,000 in 2016

MINERAL, CA – Lassen Volcanic National Park recorded 536,068 visits in 2016, the centennial year for the park and the National Park Service. “For over a century, people from around the world have come to explore the park’s dynamic volcanic landscape and enjoy the beauty of these mountains,” said Acting Superintendent Martha Crusius. “The strong increase in visitation to Lassen in 2016 over 2

015 was due in large part to centennial activities and the Find Your Park/Encuentra Tu Parquecampaign, which reached new audiences and highlighted lesser known parks like Lassen.”

Visitation highlights at Lassen Volcanic National Park include:

· 536,068 visits in 2016 compared to 468,092 in 2015.

· The year 1972, with 504,641 visits, was the only other year in park history to reach over half of a million visits.

· We learned that more visitors came for the day in 2016, with 117,122 overnight visits compared to 132,484 overnight visits in 2015.

· July 2016, with 120,958 visits, had the highest monthly visit count for Lassen since the start of monthly data collection in 1979.

Half of national park visitation happened in 26 parks but visitation growth from 2015 to 2016 was greater, by 13 percent to 9 percent, in parks that see more modest annual visitation. The National Park Service centennial and Find Your Park initiative, launched with the National Park Foundation, combined with other national park anniversaries, popular events such as the Centennial BioBlitz, good travel weather and programs such as Every Kid in a Park helped to drive the record visitation.

National Park System 2016 visitation highlights include:

· 330,971,689 recreation visits in 2016 – up 7.7 percent or 23.7 million visits over 2015.

· 1.4 billion hours spent by visitors in parks – up 7 percent or 93 million hours over 2015.

· 15,430,454 overnight stays in parks – up 2.5% over 2015.

· 2,543,221 National Park campground RV overnights – up 12.5 percent over 2015.

· 2,154,698 backcountry overnights – up 6.7 percent over 2015.

· 3,858,162 National Park campground tent overnights – up 4.8 percent over 2015.

· 12 parks each had more than 5 million recreation visits (3% of reporting parks)

· 80 parks had more than 1 million recreation visits (21% of reporting parks)

For more information about visitation, please go to the National Park Service Visitor Use Statistics web page at https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/.