Editor's Note: Rocky Mountain National Park issued a minor correction on Feb. 19. It had mistakenly provided the total number of recreation and non-recreation visitors. The numbers below now reflect only recreation visitors. The percent increase from 2018 to 2019 remains the same.
ESTES PARK, Colo. — More and more people are visiting Rocky Mountain National Park each year, according to the park's record-breaking visitor numbers from 2019.
On Friday morning, the park reported that 4,670,054 visitors entered the park in 2019. It's a new record for visitation, according to the news release.
This is a 1.7% increase from 2018, when the park had 4,590,492 visitors, and a 44% increase from 2012.
In 2019, the park, as usual, saw an increase in fall weekend visitations. Visits during the winter has also increased, according to the release.
The park reported that the following dates were the busiest, starting with the most popular day of 2019:
- Sept. 28
- July 28
- Sept. 29
- Sept. 22
- July 5
- Sept. 21
- July 21
- Sept. 1
- July 6
- July 4
July was the most-visited month for the park.
The press release noted that visitor statistics are "reliably accurate estimates." Staff track the number of visitors to monitor park safety, resource protection, visitor experiences and operational capacity. Using this data, staff have learned when they should restrict vehicle access to the Bear Lake Road corridor, the Wild Basin area, and the Alpine Visitor Center, all of which have full parking lots fairly early during the popular weekends. In 2019, these restrictions were mostly in July and August, plus a few weekends in June and September.
To learn more about the park, click here or call the information office at 970-586-1206.
