Parks Service discusses why Blue Ridge Parkway visits dropped

WAYNESBORO -- While more people are visiting national parks nationwide, fewer people are coming to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

More than 275 million visited the National Park System in 2007, up about 3 million from the previous year.

But visitors to the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway -- with its northern entrance just 2 miles from Waynesboro at Rockfish Gap -- dropped by 1.6 million to 17.35 million last year, the lowest figure since 1996.

That number still puts it atop the list as the most visited attraction in the National Park System, ahead of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, second with 14.4 million visitors.

Jeffrey Olson, a public affairs officer with the National Park Service, which is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Interior, believes the reported decline in Blue Ridge Parkway visitors is "due to correcting a reporting error from 2006."

The parkway also was closed through most of Virginia in February and April 2007 after snow and ice storms. Construction along the parkway in Virginia and North Carolina forced stretches of it to be closed in November.

With the exception of an attendance jump in 2004 because of the opening of the World War II Memorial in Washington, Olson said visits to the national parks have been in a slow decline since 1999. He hopes last year's increase will start a new trend.

"I think we're encouraged for a couple of reasons -- gas prices going up and visitation going up, I don't know that that happens very often," Olson said. "We don't think the price of gas is holding people back," Olson said. "The interest in the centennial is growing. Those two things are helping out." The centennial, commemorating 100 years of the National Park Service, will be in 2016.

The bureau, on a daily basis, is responsible for managing the 391 units of the National Park System, including 58 national parks as well as monuments, battlefields, historic sites, seashores and the White House.

At six of the signature parks -- Grand Teton, Yosemite, Zion, Rocky Mountain, Olympic and Yellowstone -- the National Park Service reported an overall increase of more than 1 million visitors. Those six are in the top 10 of visited national parks.

Olson said gas prices haven't exactly deterred visitors from those places.

"Those are parks that aren't just down the street -- unless you live in Denver," Olson said.

In a statement, National Park Service Director Mary Bomar said that despite rising gas prices and the lure of electronic entertainment, national parks are still popular.

"With all the recreation choices available, national parks still draw more visits than Major League Baseball, the National Football League, professional basketball, soccer and NASCAR combined," Bomar said.