Stuck in traffic on the Blue Ridge Parkway? So were 15 million others last year
If you visited the Blue Ridge Parkway last year, you may have noticed it was pretty crowded.
Nearly 15 million people visited the parkway in 2019, the National Park Service said on Facebook on Monday, making it one of the most visited parks of the year.
Parts of the parkway, which runs 469 miles in western North Carolina and Virginia, were closed for extended periods due to weather last year, the NPS says. But the Virginia section still saw a 4.4 percent increase in visitors since 2018, and the North Carolina section held “steady” with more than 10 million visitors.
The parkway’s 14.9 million visitors made it the second-most visited of more than 400 parks in the country, according to data from the National Park Service.
Only the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California had more visitors, at 15 million, the NPS says.
The Great Smoky Mountain National Park, which straddles the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, was just behind the Blue Ridge Parkway, coming in at No. 3.
The Smokies had 12.5 million visitors in 2019, the NPS says, making it the most visited national park last year. Parks were put in this separate category if they have the words “national park” in their name.
The number of visitors set a record for the park and increased from 11.4 million in 2018 and from 9.4 million a decade ago, data shows.
But the increase in visitation comes with its challenges.
Visitors have “consistently” reported traffic jams, busy bathrooms and full parking areas, the National Park Service said in a January news release.
“These are some of the issues the park will be exploring over the next year in an effort to provide better access, experiences, and stewardship of the park,” the release said.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is open all year, weather permitting, but typically sees the most visitors in July and October, with peak tourist season lasting from spring through fall, the NPS said on Facebook.
Visitation to the parkway is vital to “local tourism economies,” the NPS says.
“Parkway tourism across Virginia’s Blue Ridge is a mainstay to our local economy,” Catherine Fox, a spokesperson for the parkway, said in the Facebook post.
