This National Park Service site on the KY border drew nearly 840K visitors in 2021
The National Park Service released its annual visitation report Wednesday, and three sites in (or partially in) Kentucky saw more than half a million visitors in 2021.
Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, which runs along the state’s southern central border with Tennessee, welcomed 834,724 visitors in 2021, the most for any NPS holding in the commonwealth and 84th overall in the park system. Visitation there last year exceed 2020 by about 8%. However, according to NPS data, most visited the site via Tennessee.
The 125,000-acre recreation area along the Cumberland Plateau is open year round and offers a variety of recreation opportunities and five campgrounds, including three in Kentucky.
Several other NPS sites in or partially in the state saw visitation growth, as well. Cumberland Gap National Historic Park saw a 10.7% uptick in visitation last year over calendar 2020. The park, which stretches through sections of Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky, logged 814,119 visitors in 2021, ranking 87th in the system.
Mammoth Cave National Park, sprawling about 53,000 acres in western central Kentucky, saw the biggest upswing in tourism year over year for a park in the commonwealth, welcoming 515,774 visitors in 2021, compared to 290,392 in 2020. Public information officer Molly Schroer said the lower visitation figure for 2020 is reflective of the park service limiting guided cave tours amid the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We were still very busy during 2020. A lot of people use this as a place to get outside and to recreate,” she said Thursday. “You have surface trails, we had canoeing and kayaking, which allowed people to get out enjoy the outdoors, and then the cave tours were still available for those that were able to get the tickets. And we were very full.”
The park service incrementally increased capacity for guided cave tours in 2021, she confirmed, resulting in a better visitation year, by the numbers.
The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace, a national historic park, ranked 160th in the system, with 251,188 recreation visitors, while Fort Donelson National Battlefield trailed with 234,898 visitors and ranked 168th.
Camp Nelson National Monument, one of the largest recruitment and training centers for Black soldiers during the Civil War, as well as a refuge for their families, recorded 43,095 visitors last year. Data from prior years was not immediately available.
The 2021 annual visitor spending report has not yet been released, but according to the NPS, visitors to national parks in Kentucky spent an estimated $93.4 million in gateway communities in 2020, supporting 1,300 jobs.
Across the entire park system, visitation in 2021 was up by about 25% from the prior year, with the Blue Ridge Parkway leading with 15.9 million visitors. That site and two others — Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Golden Gate National Recreation Area — all exceeded 10 million recreational visits over the calendar year. The NPS credits much of the overall system increase to shifting COVID-19 protocols and the reopening of some attractions.
“It’s wonderful to see so many Americans continuing to find solace and inspiration in these incredible places during the second year of the pandemic,” NPS Director Chuck Sams said in a release announcing the visitation report. “We’re happy to see so many visitors returning to iconic parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite, but there are hundreds more that should be on everyone’s bucket list. Whatever experience you’re looking for in 2022, national parks are here to discover.”