Visitation · National River

Buffalo National River visitation by month and year

June is the busiest month at Buffalo, when the average temperature nearby is 74 degrees. January is the quietest, and the average temperature then is 36 degrees. An average June draws 286,758 visits where an average January draws 26,594. The crowd arrives with the warm weather and leaves with it. Annual visits rose 5.0 percent from 1,326,282 in 2019 to 1,393,246 in 2025.

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Visits by month, with temperature and precipitation

Bars are the average recreation visits in each month over 2021 to 2025. The line is the average temperature at Gilbert, 11 miles from the park's reference point at 606 feet, station USC00032794 in the NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals. The lower panel is monthly rain and snow from the same station, also 1991 to 2020 averages.

Annual visits, 1979 to 2025

Recreation visits per calendar year. A year with a missing month is left blank rather than estimated.

The last ten years

Year	Recreation visits	Change on prior year
2025	1,393,246	-17.4%
2024	1,686,348	+8.8%
2023	1,549,467	+18.6%
2022	1,306,932	-13.8%
2021	1,515,874	+2.5%
2020	1,478,846	+11.5%
2019	1,326,282	+6.9%
2018	1,240,119	-15.7%
2017	1,471,330	-17.6%
2016	1,785,359	+22.0%

Visitation at other parks

Hot Springs National Park Pea Ridge National Military Park Fort Smith National Historic Site Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site

Source: NPS Visitor Use Statistics, monthly recreation visits, as compiled for Publicopia Labs. A year is shown only when all twelve months were reported. Temperature, precipitation and snowfall normals are the 1991 to 2020 monthly averages published by NOAA NCEI for station USC00032794, 606 feet above sea level. Data refreshed October 14, 2026.