Visitation dropped but Saguaro National Park stayed busy in 2025

According to newly released statistics from the National Park Service, Saguaro recorded 847,749 visitors last year, a decline of almost 12% from 2024 and the lowest amount since the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Even so, the 2025 total still ranked as the eighth highest on record, continuing a broader growth trend at the 92,000-acre preserve bracketing Tucson. Nine of the 10 busiest years in the park’s history have come since 2016.

It’s unclear exactly what caused last year’s dip in visitation, which fell almost 99,000 short of 2024’s total of 946,369. Officials at Saguaro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Compared to 2024, visitation fell in every month of last year except January and April, with by far the largest declines by percentage coming in October and November. Coincidentally, that’s also when a stalemate on Capitol Hill shut the government down for a record 43 days.

The lapse in appropriations forced Saguaro to close both of its visitor centers, stop collecting entrance fees and restrict vehicle access to the popular Cactus Forest Drive scenic loop in the Rincon Mountains foothills. The Red Hills Visitor Center on the west side of the park reopened about a week into the shutdown, after a national nonprofit group donated the necessary funds to cover its operational costs.

Nationwide, the park service experienced its sixth busiest year on record in 2025, with more than 323 million visits across 400 different sites. That’s roughly 8.8 million shy of the all-time mark of 331.9 million set in 2024.

Soaring interest in the nation’s most treasured places belies what is being done to them, according to advocates for the parks and their employees.

“Nearly a quarter of Park Service staff have been fired or forced to resign, and important park protection and outreach work has been eliminated in the name of keeping park entrances open,” said Emily Douce, deputy vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association. “At the same time, this administration is actively erasing the history, science and culture that our national parks protect and tell.”

The association is part of a coalition of nonprofits, including the Marana-based Association of National Park Rangers, that sued the Park Service and the Interior Department in February over changes now being made to park signs and interpretive displays in the name of what President Donald Trump has called restoring “truth and sanity to American history.”

The lawsuit cites several examples in Arizona and accuses the administration of purging references to climate change, multiculturalism, civil rights, slavery, the mistreatment of Indigenous people and other topics outside of Trump’s own “preferred historical and scientific narratives.”

Meanwhile, other administration policy initiatives are being blamed for hurting tourism overall.

The U.S. saw a 6% decline in foreign visitors and 7% decline in spending by foreign visitors in 2025, according to industry data reported by Reuters in January.

Gloria Guevara, interim president and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council, told Reuters that the ongoing immigration crackdown and other concerning developments in the U.S. prompted many tourists from Canada, Europe and Latin America to spend their vacations elsewhere last year.

The industry group warns that millions more could decide against visiting the States as a result of efforts by the Trump administration to add what critics have called intrusive new requirements to the government’s electronic visa-waiver application. Under the proposed rules, travelers from 42 countries would have to provide their social media histories, email addresses and other contact information for the past five years, personal information about their family members and, eventually, biometric scans of their faces, irises, fingerprints and DNA.

The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates the new entry policy could result in up to 4.7 million fewer international visitors and a corresponding loss of $15.7 billion in revenue.

The three most visited Park Service sites in 2025 were Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia with 16.5 million visitors, Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco with 15.7 million and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee with 11.5 million.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Arizona and Nevada came in 10th with 6.1 million visitors, while Grand Canyon National Park was 15th with 4.4 million, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona and Utah was 23rd with 3.7 million. Saguaro ranked 84th on the list.

Elsewhere in Southern Arizona, Coronado National Memorial near Sierra Vista logged a record 179,216 visitors; Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument saw 174,623; Casa Grande Ruins National Monument saw 87,748; Tumacacori National Historic Park saw 28,449, and Fort Bowie National Historic Site continued to rank among the nation’s least visited park sites with 8,739.

Meanwhile, in the mountains southeast of Willcox, Chiricahua National Monument reported 70,406 visitors in what could be its final year before a big promotion.

On Monday, the U.S. House passed legislation introduced by Arizona Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani to upgrade Chiricahua to a national park. The measure now moves to the Senate, where an identical bill, from Arizona’s Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, is also up for consideration.