Visitation · National Lakeshore

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore visitation by month and year

July is the busiest month at Pictured Rocks, when the average temperature nearby is 65 degrees. December is the quietest, and the average temperature then is 25 degrees. An average July draws 249,739 visits where an average December draws 4,453. The crowd arrives with the warm weather and leaves with it. Annual visits rose 8.8 percent from 858,715 in 2019 to 933,966 in 2025.

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Visits by month, with average temperature

Bars are the average recreation visits in each month over 2021 to 2025. The line is the average temperature at Grand Marais 2 E, 19 miles from the park's reference point at 624 feet, station USW00014859 in the NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals.

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	933,966	-2.0%
2024	953,052	+4.6%
2023	910,939	-1.6%
2022	925,685	-29.5%
2021	1,313,179	+8.3%
2020	1,212,251	+41.2%
2019	858,715	+5.3%
2018	815,308	+4.4%
2017	781,190	+0.5%
2016	777,428	+7.5%

Visitation at other parks

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore River Raisin National Battlefield Park Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Keweenaw National Historical Park

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 normals are the 1991 to 2020 monthly averages published by NOAA NCEI for station USW00014859, 624 feet above sea level. Data refreshed October 14, 2026.