It turns out that each park counts visits differently. At many parks, each entrance at each park even counts visits differently.
This made me think about if the data collected for the visitation numbers are actually fair to compare because if each park collects the numbers differently, the numbers could be inconsistent and make some parks seem more or less popular than they actually are.
The visit data also helps the communities and businesses surrounding the parks understand how they can best provide and share resources, like emergency vehicles, sanitation, and water. For example, if there’s been a large influx of hikers to Mount Rainier National Park in recent years, that would be an important thing for the surrounding community to know.
I thought this was really interesting because I never really thought about how park visitation data could also help the communities around the parks too. This shows that this data is a lot more than just how popular a park is, it can also help nearby towns and make sure they have enough resources.