2022 Second Busiest Year For GSMNP

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park experienced its second busiest year ever in 2022. The official numbers are in and there were 12,937,633 visitors to the Smokies in 2022. Last year’s visitation was more than 1.5 million above the park’s ten-year average, and more than the visitation of Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon national parks combined. This marks the fourth time the park has exceeded 12 million yearly visits. 2022 comes in more than a million short of the record setting year of 2021 when more than 14 million came to the smokies. Since 2012, the park has averaged almost 11.5 million visits every year.

Starting Wednesday, the Park It Forward program goes into effect, where all vehicles parking for more than 15 minutes at designated parking areas within the park will have to have a parking tag. Those are available in annual, weekly or daily passes.