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travel
WORDS Scott Faldon Image Wilson Ye
Since 2020, the U.S. National Park Service has seen an
traffic that makes Rogers Avenue during holiday shopping
unprecedented surge in visitors. In 2020, the total number of people
season look mild? You go in the winter.
who visited national parks dipped twenty-eight percent from the previous year. But that was solely due to a number of parks being
Sure, you could head to Dry Tortugas National Park off the
closed for at least two months due to Covid-19 restrictions. For
coast of Key West, Haleakala National Park in Hawaii, or Virgin
example, Big Bend National Park posted six consecutive months of
Islands National Park to escape the gray winter days. But the
record visitation after the park reopened in 2020.
best wintertime parks to hit this time of year are to the west. During the summer, they are insufferably hot and incredibly
That boom in late 2020 continued into 2021 with preliminary
crowded. Winter brings milder temperatures (often much warmer
data showing an eighteen percent spike over the last
than in Fort Smith) and more opportunities for solitude.
pre-pandemic figures from 2019. So how do you manage to enjoy some of our nation’s greatest sights without sitting in
Here are a few to explore between now and spring.
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