Utah News Dispatch
Utah’s state parks see 12 million visits for 3rd year in a row. Here are the most popular
Red rock shores are pictured at Sand Hollow State Park near Hurricane, Utah. Sand Hollow was the most visited state park during the 2025 to 2026 season. (Courtesy of Utah State Parks)
For a third year in a row, Utah’s state parks recorded more than 12 million visits between July 2025 and June 2026, Utah State Parks announced in a blog post Wednesday.
That marks the parks’ third-highest year of visitation on record.
Over the past decade, visitation to state parks has more than doubled, from 5 million in 2016, Utah State Parks Director Scott Strong said in a prepared statement.
“As interest in the outdoors continues to increase, we will continue to provide parks full of great recreation opportunities, well-maintained facilities and park rangers ready to help you make lifelong memories,” Strong said.
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Utah State Parks operates 46 state parks that span across the state, including reservoirs, red rocks in Southern Utah, and museums.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, which sent droves of people outdoors, visitation to state parks boomed. During the 2019 to 2020 season, visitation increased by more than 2.6 million, according to the agency. The total number of state park visitors in 2020 was almost 10.6 million — a 33% jump from 2019, which saw less than 8 million visitors.
Today, state parks’ visitors continue to surpass pandemic-era popularity. As post-pandemic tourism continues to boom, Utah State Parks officials said they’re working to continue to provide “well-maintained facilities, friendly park rangers and beautiful lands to enjoy for this and future generations.”
Here are the top 10 most popular parks over the last year, according to Utah State Parks:
Top 10 most visited parks from 2025-2026
- Sand Hollow State Park: 1,408,754 visits
- Dead Horse Point State Park: 1,130,864 visits
- Snow Canyon State Park: 919,545 visits
- Wasatch Mountain State Park: 910,046 visits
- Antelope Island State Park: 854,514 visits
- Jordanelle State Park: 828,300 visits
- Deer Creek State Park: 635,592 visits
- Bear Lake State Park: 631,502 visits
- Willard Bay State Park: 560,945 visits
- Goblin Valley State Park: 517,915 visits
Parks that saw the largest increase in visits from 2025 to 2026
- Snow Canyon State Park: Up 162,088 visits
- Wasatch Mountain State Park: Up 131,204 visits
- Utahraptor State Park: Up 114,078 visits
- Goblin Valley State Park: Up 58,145 visits
- Sand Hollow State Park: Up 51,349 visits
