Visitation · National Recreation Area

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area visitation by month and year

May is the busiest month at Santa Monica Mountains, when the average temperature nearby is 67 degrees. December is the quietest, and the average temperature then is 56 degrees. The gap between them is narrow, 76,405 against 52,865. The warmest month is August, a little off the peak. Annual visits rose 2.1 percent from 707,566 in 2019 to 722,626 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 Woodland Hills Pierce College, 13 miles from the park's reference point at 790 feet, station USC00049785 in the NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals. The lower panel is monthly rain from the same station, which records under an inch of snow a year.

Annual visits, 1982 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	722,626	+13.0%
2024	639,745	-15.8%
2023	759,352	-4.5%
2022	795,217	-4.2%
2021	830,451	+13.2%
2020	733,576	+3.7%
2019	707,566	-18.4%
2018	867,154	-3.4%
2017	897,593	-1.0%
2016	906,606	+13.7%

Visitation at other parks

Golden Gate National Recreation Area Yosemite National Park Gateway National Recreation Area Lake Mead National Recreation Area

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 USC00049785, 790 feet above sea level. Data refreshed October 14, 2026.