National Parks report says California destination is 3rd most popular. And it’s not Yosemite

California is home to two of the most popular national parks and recreation areas in the United States, according to a National Parks Service report.

The service’s 400 national parks reported nearly 300 million recreation visits last year.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area in Marin County ranked No. 3 with 13.7 million visits, beating out popular attractions like Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park and Washington D.C’s Lincoln Memorial in the National Park Service’s 2021 visitation numbers report.

Yosemite National Park in the state’s Sierra Nevada mountains took the No. 21 spot, just making the list of “25 Most Visited Parks in 2021” at roughly 3 million visits last year.

“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,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams in a statement.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area was one of the only five parkswith more than 10 million visits, alongside Blue Ridge Parkway (No. 1) in North Carolina, Great Smoky Mountains National Park (No. 2) in North Carolina and Tennessee, Gateway National Recreation Area (No. 4) in New Jersey and Lake Mead National Recreation Area (No. 5) in Nevada.

GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL RECREATION AREA

Golden Gate National Recreation Area in Mill Valley spans more than 60 miles of coastal area north and south of San Francisco. The park supports 19 distinct ecosystems with over 2,000 plant and animal species, according to the National Park Service.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

Yosemite National Park in the state’s Sierra Nevada mountains stretches nearly 1,200 square miles of valley, meadows, sequoias, wilderness area and more, according to the National Park Service.

This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 10:04 AM.