MUNISING, MI-- Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore received a record 777,428 visits in 2016, the park’s 50th anniversary and National Park Service’s centennial year.
The park had a strong increase in visitation in 2015 that continued through 2016, due in part to the centennial Find Your Park/Encuentra Tu Parque campaign launched with the National Park Foundation which reached new audiences and highlighted some of the lessor known parks like Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore visitation highlights included a record:
· 777,428 visits in 2016 - up 7.5% compared to 2015 (723,178 visits), and 47% over the 527,897 visits in 2014.
· 21,000 backcountry camper overnights
· 22,000 overnighted in our drive-in campgrounds
“We expected the trend in more visitors to continue from 2015 into 2016 as the NPS celebrated its Centennial,” said acting superintendent John Patmore, “but these numbers really show how much of a draw Pictured Rocks and the beautiful resources of the UP are to so many.”
Visitation increased throughout the National Park Service (NPS) system – reaching a record 330 million visitors in 2016.
· 330,971,689 recreation visits in 2016 – up by 23.7 million visits (7.7%) over 2015.
· 382 of the 417 parks in the National Park System count visitors and 77 of those parks set a new record for annual recreation visits. This is about 20% of reporting parks.
· 4 parks had more than 10 million recreation visits (1% of reporting parks) – Golden Gate NRA, Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains NP, George Washington Memorial Parkway.
· 80 parks had more than 1 million recreation visits (21% of reporting parks)
