Utah’s Most Visited State Park Will Surprise You

If you are wondering how busy Utah parks are right now and into the Fall, the answer is busy, super busy however some are more so than others.  

Utah is a great place to visit any time of year but between Spring and Fall, the state gets packed with tourists and locals trying to reconnect with nature. Since Utah has lots of nature to offer, it has lots of people at its parks.  

Now, I wouldn’t recommend going pretty much anywhere in Southern Utah between June and August for a hike due to the hot temperatures but that isn’t stopping anyone. People are still visiting the state and some locals are brushing off those temperatures.  

Luckily, the busiest and most visited state parks either have water or are up north according to KUER.  

Many people would think Zion National Park would take first place in the most visited Utah parks, but it came in third in 2023. Kind of surprising.  

So which park is the most visited in Utah? 

That would be Glen Canyon National Recreation Area which straddles the border of Utah and Arizona. Perhaps it's because of Lake Powell’s rising water levels but Glen Canyon set the record with 5,206,934 visitors in 2023, KUER said.  

In the U.S., the most visited national park was the Great Smoky Mountains followed by the Grand Canyon and the ZNP.  

Evidently, Canyonlands also saw a ton of visitors with its second highest visitation record of 800,322 people.  

So, yes ZNP is popular, but it won’t necessarily be the most crowded park to visit in Utah. That said, you’ll have to prepare for crowds no matter which Utah park you visit.