What shutdown? Nat'l parks packed

The National Park Service is made up of 401 sites, including 59 specially designated national parks, plus national seashores, recreation areas, historical sites and other designations. Here are the top 10 most-visited spots in 2013 across all of the park service sites, followed by a list of the top 10 most popular National Parks. California's Golden Gate National Recreation Area, shown here, is the most popular Park Service site.

This spectacular overlook near Mount Mitchell on the Blue Ridge Parkway, No. 2 on the park service's list of most-visited sites, is in North Carolina. The parkway also crosses into Virginia.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, No. 3 on the list of most-visited park sites, is in North Carolina and Tennessee. It is also the No. 1 most-visited national park.

George Washington Memorial Parkway in Washington, Virginia and Maryland came in fourth place on this list of most-visited park sites in 2013.

A single security guard patrols the closed Lincoln Memorial in Washington on October 3 during the government shutdown. The memorial came in fifth place for visitation.

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area, in both Arizona (shown here) and Nevada, came in sixth place on the National Park Service list of most-visited park sites.

The Sandy Hook Lighthouse in New Jersey is part of Gateway National Recreation Area, which is also in New York. It came in seventh place on the list.

The Natchez Trace Parkway, shown here near Tupelo, Mississippi, also crosses into Alabama and Tennessee. It came in eighth place on the most-visited sites list.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which landed in ninth place on the park sites list, is in the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland and West Virginia.

The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, rounds out the National Park Service's top 10 list of the most-visited sites. Keep clicking through the gallery to see the most popular of the 59 national parks.

Many of the most famous parks in the world are among the U.S. National Park Service's 59 headliner national parks. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was the third most-popular park site in 2013, was also the most popular national park. Shown here is the view from Purchase Knob.

Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona was the second most popular national park last year. Shown here is an inversion: cold fog trapped in the canyon by a "lid" of warm air. What makes it rare are the sunny skies accentuating the layers of air.

Yosemite National Park, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Land Grant this year, was the third most-popular national park last year. In 1864, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill granting Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to the state of California.

Yellowstone National Park, which is mostly in Wyoming but also in Idaho and Montana, was the fourth most-popular national park last year.

Olympic National Park in Washington state jumped from the seventh place in 2012 to fifth place last year.

Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, which came in sixth place last year, turns 100 next year. The celebrations start this September.

Zion National Park in Utah came in seventh place on the park service's list of most popular national parks. Here, a hiker wades up the Virgin River in the Zion Narrows.

Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, which came in eighth, is home to grizzly bears (shown here), black bears and other wild animals.

Maine's beloved Acadia National Park is the ninth most-popular national park in the country.

Glacier National Park in Montana edged out Cuyahoga Valley National Park to make it into 10th place last year.

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• National park sites saw fewer visitors last year, mostly because of the shutdown


• Hundreds of millions of visitors still explored the national parks, seashores and other sites


• A California park site took the "most visited" title away from the Blue Ridge Parkway

(CNN) -- No park rangers welcoming you to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Gates shuttered at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. No guided hikes at the Grand Canyon.

It's no surprise that the number of visitors to National Park Service sites took a 3% hit in 2013 because of the weeks-long U.S. government shutdown; it started October 1, at the height of fall leaf-peeping season.

The most popular national parks

National park sites saw 9 million fewer visitors last year than the year before, according to National Park Service visitation data. More than 273 million people visited the nation's 401 national park sites in 2013, down from more than 282 million people in 2012. (The 401 park sites include the headliner national parks, national seashores, national monuments and other designations.)

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area was the most popular place in the national parks system, with more than 14 million visitors last year, pushing Blue Ridge Parkway and its nearly 13 million visitors into the No. 2 spot. Great Smoky Mountains National Park came in third place.

Of the 59 specially designated national parks, Great Smoky Mountains was the most visited, with more than 9 million visitors. Grand Canyon National Park came in second place, with more than 4 million visitors. Yosemite came in third place with more than 3 million visitors.

50 spots, 50 states for 2014

Impact of the government shutdown

Nearly 8 million of the 9 million visitor decrease came from the 16-day shutdown, according to park service analysis.

Bad weather throughout the year also caused some park sites to close. They included Superstorm Sandy-related closures at the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Castle Clinton and parts of Gateway National Recreation Area. Weather also caused shutdowns at the Blue Ridge Parkway.

With vacations, weddings and other celebrations canceled in and around the parks because of the shutdown, local economies also felt the economic pinch last year. The year before, national parks across the country generated nearly $27 billion in economic activity and supported 243,000 jobs, according to a park service analysis of 2012 visitor data published March 3.

States help reopen some parks

That's probably why states such as Arizona, Colorado, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah spent their money to pay to keep some of their national parks open during the shutdown, National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said.

"For every dollar spent at the national parks, there's a $10 return to the local economy," Jarvis said, including spending at local hotels, restaurants and outfitters.

The park service cannot pay the states back unless Congress appropriates the money through legislation, Jarvis said.

Despite the gloomy news, last year's visitors showed that they still love their national parks. Here are their favorite national park sites for 2013.

Top 10 most-visited National Park Service sites

1. Golden Gate National Recreation Area (14.29 million)

2. Blue Ridge Parkway (12.88 million)

3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (9.35 million)

4. George Washington Memorial Parkway (7.36 million)

5. Lincoln Memorial (6.55 million)

6. Lake Mead National Recreation Area (6.34 million)

7. Gateway National Recreation Area (6.19 million)

8. Natchez Trace Parkway (6.01 million)

9. Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park (4.94 million)

10. Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (4.84 million)

Top 10 most-visited national parks

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (9.35 million)

2. Grand Canyon National Park (4.56 million)

3. Yosemite National Park (3.69 million)

4. Yellowstone National Park (3.19 million)

5. Olympic National Park (3.08 million)

6. Rocky Mountain National Park (2.99 million)

7. Zion National Park (2.81 million)

8. Grand Teton National Park (2.69 million)

9. Acadia National Park (2.25 million)

10. Glacier National Park (2.19 million)

Did your favorite national park site make the list? Have any others to recommend? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.