The 104-year-old park drew 4.5 Million visitors in 2018

That's 4,590,492 visitors to be exact. That's a 3.5% increase over 2017. Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park has seen bigtime growth since 2012. In just 6 years the parks visitation has increased a whopping 42% with 2018 being the highest visitation of all time!

Why so many more? According to park spokesperson Kyle Patterson “The population growth along the Front Range is probably the main reason we’re seeing this increase because it’s not just Rocky that’s seeing this love affair with outdoor recreation...It places all along the Front Range and on Colorado.”

It's no surprise that the summer months of July, August, and September were the busiest, but in 2018 the park saw significant increases in both the fall and early winter weekends.  The park has become so popular that starting in 2016 park officials began putting restrictions on high-traffic days at three of the park's most popular areas. Those include the Bear Lake corridor, Wild Basin area, and the Alpine Visitor Center atop Trail Ridge Road.

If you're thinking about a trip in 2019, plan to visit in the spring. It's the best time as the weather warms and the summer traffic hasn't hit yet. Remember too that the next National Park FREE DAY is coming up Saturday, April 20th. That's National Park Day 2019.

Credit: Fox31

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