Travel trends: 2010 to be the best year ever for America’s parks? [update]

by Gadling Staff on

More than 285.6 million people visited America’s national parks in 2009, making it the fifth busiest year in the 94-year history of the national park system. About 10 million fewer people visited the parks in 2008. The all-time visitation record was in 1987 with 287.2 million visitors.

Weak Economy Was Good for Park Visitors
During a phone interview with David Barna, the chief of public affairs for the park service, he talked about several factors that contributed to the increase in visitation, including:
1.) publicity generated last year by President Obama’s family visit to Yellowstone and Grand Canyon;
2.) buzz created by the Ken Burns PBS documentary that aired in September;
3.) three highly publicized weekends in 2009 when entrance fees to the parks were waived.However, the weak U.S. economy was probably the most significant factor in the increase in visitors in 2009. The Euro remained strong against the dollar, which is why more than 40 million travelers came from outside the U.S. That’s a 50 percent increase in international visitors since 2001.

Low gasoline prices in the U.S., and the overall value of a national park vacation in any economy, also factored into the increase in visitors, according to park service officials.

Assuming all things remain constant, 2010 should be a very good year for the parks — maybe the best ever. By looking at the trendline in the chart above, it’s easy to see that 2010 could see as many as 290 million visitors — a new record for the parks.

The other top five attendance years in descending order were:
* 1999 with 287.1MM visitors;
* 1998 with 286.8MM visitors;
* 2000 with 285.9MM visitors;
* 2009 with 285.6MM visitors.

The Great Smokies and the Grand Canyon Pull Their Weight
The most visited national park was the Great Smoky Mountain National Park with 9.4 million visitors. Located on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, the Smokies celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2009 and is one of the parks that always offers free admission. The Grand Canyon pulled in nearly 4.5MM visitors in 2009.

The Blue Ridge Parkway, which is not a designated park (and is therefore not included in the chart above) but is a unit of the national park system, received nearly 16 million visitors in 2009. It’s celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2010.

2010 also marks the 30th anniversary of President Jimmy Carter’s signature on the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act, which added 47 million acres and doubled the size of the national park system. Depending on how successful promotions around these events are, 2010 could be a banner year for the parks system as a whole.

UPDATE: The National Park Service has announced that during National Park Week (April 17-24), the entrance fee to all of its 392 parks will be waived.

Data source: Travel Industry Association and AAA

National Park Service invites you to Cumberland Gap this weekend

by Kraig Becker on

Now that spring is officially here, the National Park Service is beginning to welcome visitors back to their most popular and scenic locations. Take for example Cumberland Gap National Historic Park, which stretches across parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. This weekend, Cumberland Gap will play host to a series of great events, with something to offer the entire family.

The festivities get underway on Saturday, when visitors will have the opportunity to meet legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone himself. Boone will be on hand beginning at 10 AM to regale young and old alike with tales of his daring adventures inside the Cumberland Gap, which he helped explore. His daring exploits eventually cleared the way for westward expansion by early American pioneers. Daniel will be in the park’s visitor center throughout the day, with his famous flintlock rifle close at hand.

On Sunday it’s movie day in the park, with a special screening of a Kentucky Life special that will take viewers to the top of the Cumberland Gap and then descend into the depths of Mammoth Cave. The film will also highlight the important role that Kentucky played in the early development of America, opening the way for settlers to travel west. The screening begins at 2 PM in the visitor center auditorium, with traditional movie snacks on hand for the show.

Perhaps the best activity is reserved for Monday however, when park rangers will take visitors on a guided moonlight hike through the Cumberland Gap itself. The route is specially planned out so that hikers will arrive at the saddle of the Gap just as the moon rises above the surrounding mountains. If you want to take part in the 1.2 mile round trip hike, simply be at the Thomas Walker parking area at 8 PM, and be sure to bring your hiking shoes.

I’m sure these will be just the first of many great activities in Cumberland National Park in the months ahead, but why not make a weekend out of it, and try to take in all three options? The moonlight hike sounds especially promising.

Kingsley Plantation home re-opens to tours in Jacksonville, Florida

by Leigh Caldwell on

Weekend visitors can once again tour the owner’s house at the Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville, Florida.

The home, which is part of the Timucuan Preserve on Fort George Island, was closed to tours in 2005 because of structural concerns. This winter, it has reopened to visitors on Saturdays and Sundays only, while restoration work continues during the week.

The Kingsley Plantation is named for Zephaniah Kingsley, who was quite the interesting character in early Florida history. He grew cotton on Fort George Island in the early 1800s while Florida was under Spanish rule.

Kingsley was known as a lenient slave owner, and he gave some of his slaves the opportunity to earn their freedom. He even married one of them, freed her and put her in charge of a plantation.

When I toured the site recently, I was surprised to see that nearly two dozen of the original slave cabins are still standing. Many U.S. slave cabins did not survive the Civil War, and those that did have fallen to ruin in the decades since. But these cabins were built from tabby, a pseudo-cement made from oyster shells that has stood for centuries, even in a land frequently hit by hurricanes.The owner’s home is stripped down to the structure at the moment, with no period furnishings or artwork on display. The design of the home was ingenious for the humid Florida climate: a large center room, with four corner rooms accessible only from the outside to allow for better air circulation. Unfortunately, later owners altered the house and took away this natural climate control.

If you’re looking for the opulence of the grand, restored plantation mansions in other parts of the South, you won’t find it at Kingsley Plantation. This was a more practical owner’s home.

But I was completely taken aback by the feeling of Kingsley Plantation. Those slave cabins — all in a half-circle at the edge of cotton fields-turned-forest — require a visitor to focus on what was happening in those fields more than what was happening inside the owner’s ballroom.

“I’m always struck by the difference in feeling I get when I walk the grounds, from the owner’s home on the river back here to the slave cabins,” National Park Service Ranger Roger Clark said. “Life was hard back here.”

Kingsley Plantation is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, with the house open for tours at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays only. If you want to tour the house, reservations are recommended and can be made by calling (904) 251-3537.

Park Service rangers like Clark who are experts in the history of Kingsley Plantation conduct programs at 2 p.m. each day. It’s worth it to plan your visit at a time when you can catch the program.

Mr. President goes to Yellowstone

by Kraig Becker on

As America’s first national park, Yellowstone has always held a special place in the public’s imagination. Not only is it home to an array of wildlife, such as bison, elk, and grizzly bears, it also happens to hold the most famous geyser in the world, Old Faithful.

Spread out across Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, the park has always been a popular destination for U.S. Presidents, with Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, FDR, Jimmy Carter, and many others all spending time there. In the summer of 2009, President Obama upheld that long standing tradition by taking his family to the iconic park, a place he had visited as a child.

Yesterday, the park service released a never-before-seen video of the first family on their vacation, and while not all of us arrive on Air Force One, their experience in Yellowstone is not unlike the family vacations that we all grew up with. Check out the nearly 12-minute long video below for a good historical look at the park, as well as plenty of shots of its amazing scenery found there.

I guess when you’re the leader of the free world, this is what your vacation videos look like.

U.S. national parks were popular destinations in 2009

by Kraig Becker on

2009 was a banner year for America’s National Park System, which remained popular with travelers, both foreign and domestic, despite the sluggish economy. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently announced that the parks experienced 10 million more visitors last year than they did in 2008, which represented a 3.9 percent increase.

The Park Service says that more 285 million people payed a visit to one of the parks or monuments that are under their care in 2009, which made it the fifth busiest year in the history of the system. The record for most visits ever was set back in 1987 when 287.2 million people spent time in the national parks.

The news of the upswing in visitors is seen as a good thing on a number of different levels. It meant that Americans and foreign visitors were still viewing the national parks as quality destinations despite challenging economic conditions around the globe. It was also seen as a good sign for Americans becoming more active, with many travelers hiking the trails and enjoying other outdoor activities.

The list of the top ten most visited parks remains generally the same year in and year out. In 2009 that list, along with the number of visitors, was as follows:

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 9,491,437 visitors
• Grand Canyon National Park, 4,348,068
• Yosemite National Park, 3,737,472
• Yellowstone National Park, 3,295,187
• Olympic National Park, 3,276,459
• Rocky Mountain National Park, 2,822,325
• Zion National Park, 2,735,402
• Cuyahoga Valley National Park, 2,589,288
• Grand Teton National Park, 2,580,081
• Acadia National Park, 2,227,698

Hopefully this is a trend that will continue. The parks have been called “America’s best idea”, and visiting any one of the top destinations will only reinforce that. So? What is your favorite national park, and which ones are you planning on visiting this year?