Cape Hatteras National Seashore ranks 35th most visited national park in 2024
A new report from the National Park Service ranks Cape Hatteras National Seashore as the 35th busiest national park in the country in 2024.
And all three units of the Outer Banks Group of National Parks ranked in the top 15 for the number of visitors to their category of park.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore saw 2,762,954 visitors last year, the fourth-busiest ever, a decline of 2.3% from 2023.
Seashore visitation numbers are collected by counting southbound vehicles just north of the Marc Basnight Bridge and using a multiplier to estimate the total number of passengers heading south.
Those estimates are added to the number of passengers going to Ocracoke Island from Cedar Island and Swan Quarter.
The all-time mark for the nation’s first national seashore was set in 2021 at 3,206,056, followed by 2022’s 2,862,844 and 2,826,169 in 2023.
The report also noted 15,484,685 recreational hours were spent by visitors at Cape Hatteras in 2024, 25th most in the country, down from 15,901,328 hours in 2023.
And 88,926 RV campers (8th-most in U.S.) and 69,827 tent campers (13th-most) stayed at the park service campgrounds at Oregon Inlet, Cape Point, Frisco and Ocracoke last year.
Cape Hatteras was the third most popular park in North Carolina in 2024, trailing only the Blue Ridge Parkway, which ranked second in the country with 14,976,085 visitors, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was the third busiest in the U.S. at 12,547,743.
Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California was the most popular national park in 2024 with 15,002,227 visitors.
For national seashores, Cape Hatteras was the third most popular in the country last year, behind Gulf Shores National Seashore in Florida and Mississippi (5,600,240, 10th overall), and Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts (4,096,104, 21st overall).
Wright Brothers National Memorial recorded 406,603 visitors in 2024, down 4% from the prior year, while ranking as the fourth-busiest on record.
The site of man’s first powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft in Kill Devil Hills was the country’s 13th most visited national memorial last year.
As a NPS Fee Area, the number of visitors to Wright Brothers is calculated by the number of people who come through the toll booths at the main entrance.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site was visited by 274,783 people last year, up 4.3% from 2023.
Located on Roanoke Island and home of the nation’s longest running outdoor drama “The Lost Colony”, the park detailing the first attempted English settlement of the New World ranked as the 8th most popular national historic site in the U.S.
Fort Raleigh has a single vehicular entrance off U.S. 64, with the number of vehicles counted and a multiplier used to estimate the total number of passengers.
Elsewhere in North Carolina, Cape Lookout National Seashore was the 7th-busiest National Seashore, Moores Creek National Battlefield ranked 9th in its category, Carl Sandburg Home was the 19th-most visited National Historic Site, and Guilford Courthouse was the fourth-highest for National Military Parks.
The 404 national parks in the United States that reported data had a total of 331.9 million visitors in 2024, the highest ever and up 2% from the previous year.
In addition to the continued growth in overall numbers, the park service said visitors are spreading out their visits throughout the year.
55% of national parks experienced an above average number of visits in February-June and October-December.
