Source for visits: National Park Service query builders, this link.
Based on National Park Service data, far fewer people visit Shenandoah National Park now than did so in the mid-1970s.
On my recent hikes, it seemed to me that Shenandoah National Park and the adjacent Appalachian Trial were far less heavily used than I expected them to be. Less heavily used than when I hiked them as a youth, back in the 1970s.
At first, I thought the graph above had to be some sort of data reporting issue, as the data reporting changed circa 1979. But I compared to (e.g.) Yosemite, and that doesn’t appear to be the case. Visits to other national parks increased smoothly through this period. At face value, visits to Shenandoah crashed about the time of the second Arab oil embargo (1978), and never recovered.
Maybe Shenandoah just isn’t exciting enough to attract a modern audience? In truth, Shenandoah is not a spectacular park. You have excellent views of the Virginia Piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley. And some trails. And that’s about it.
This may limit appeal. For example, if you’re too fat to hike, there’s not much to do there. So the decades-long increase in U.S. obesity rates may play a role here. Backpacking is tough enough with the pounds you carry on your back, let alone with a load of body fat.
For sure, backpacking as a sport is not as popular now as it was when I was a kid. I recall that the National Park Service banned overnight stays at the Appalachian Trail shelters due to overuse and abuse of those shelters. But now, sleeping in the AT shelters within Shenandoah National Park is allowed. Suggesting that the pressures of overcrowding have receded.
In truth, I have no idea why use of this National Park is so far below what it once was.
It’s just off-putting to see it.
These days, you have to start wondering at what point the Federal government will just sell off the land, if few enough people care to use it.
