JACKSON – Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks both ranked among the top 10 most visited national parks.
According to National Park Service statistics, the two parks combined welcomed roughly 5.5 million visitors in 2008. That is about 2 percent of the National Park Service’s total visitation spread out among 360 parks, parkways, memorials, national monuments and other National Park Service units.
Among national parks, Yellowstone in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho ranked fifth, with 3.06 million visitors. Grand Teton was ninth, with 2.49 million visitors. Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina took the No. 1 spot, with more than 9 million visitors.
For 2008, Yellowstone and Grand Teton reported slight drops in visitation compared with 2007.