Crater Lake National Park sets another visitor record

Crater Lake National Park saw record visitation for the second year in a row, with 756,344 recreation visits in 2016, the park reported last Monday. That’s a 23 percent increase over the 614,712 visits in 2015 and a 41.2 percent increase over 2014.

Campaigns like Find Your Park /Encuentra Tu Parque, launched with the National Park Foundation, introduced new audiences to the breadth of the national park system. The park ‘s travel and tourism partners, including Travel Oregon, Travel Southern Oregon, and Discover Klamath, also contributed to increased visitation through marketing efforts featuring Crater Lake .

Last year marked the National Park Service’s Centennial anniversary, and Crater Lake National Park celebrated with special events and activities. Superintendent Craig Ackerman said, ” Park staff worked closely with partners in 2016 to ensure that visitors had opportunities to reflect on the history of the National Park Service and to think about our future. Events like the Britt Orchestra’s world premiere performance of Michael Gordon’s Natural History , a piece inspired by Crater Lake , offered new ways for visitors to connect to their parks.”

Crater Lake also recorded an increase in overnight stays in the backcountry. In 2016, people spent 4,706 nights in the backcountry, compared to 3,253 overnight stays in 2015. This was a 44.6 percent increase.

The National Park Service also reported record-breaking visitation in 2016. The national parks system received 330,971,689 recreation visits in 2016–up by 23.7 million visits (7.7%) over 2015. Of the 417 parks in the national park system, 382 count visitors and 77 of those parks–about 20 percent of reporting parks–set a new record for annual recreation visits.

Detailed park visitation information and additional information on how these statistics are calculated is available online at https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/Park .