Parkway visitation falls in 2018
According to recently released statistics from the National Park Service, the Blue Ridge Parkway logged its lowest visitation since 2014, when it recorded 13.9 million visitors compared to the 14.7 million it welcomed in 2018.
The intervening years have brought between 15.1 million (2015) and 16.1 million (2017) visitors to the park. Lower visitation last year bumped the Parkway from its title of most visited site in the National Park System, which it yielded to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California. The two parks have been trading places as numbers one and two since 1979.
According Leesa Brandon, public information officer for the Parkway, weather and maintenance-related closures are the primary factors affecting visitation. Extraordinarily wet weather in 2018 combined with the government shutdown that extended from Dec. 22 well into 2019 could have dampened visitation last year.
“Last year we had entire sections of the Parkway (more so at the northern end in Virginia) that were closed due to weather for an entire month at a time,” said Brandon. “We also had a full closure around the Linn Cove Viaduct in early spring last year, which caused a detour in the Boone/Blowing Rock areas of the Parkway.”
