Study Reveals The Most Photographed National Parks in The United States

A new report has revealed the most photographed U.S. national parks — with the Grand Canyon taking the top spot.

A new date ranking by photo curation app Popsa identified the U.S. national parks most frequently captured in photos during 2025. Researchers analyzed metadata from millions of customer photos uploaded to the platform throughout the year.

Each of the 63 U.S. national parks was given a Photo Index Score by Popsa based on the relative number of photos taken there. The park with the highest number of photos received a score of 100, while all other parks were ranked proportionally against it.

Grand Canyon National Park ranked first with a Photo Index Score of 100 and accounted for 11.32% of all national park photos analyzed in the study. The park attracts up to five million visitors each year, and popular viewing areas such as Hopi Point and Mather Point are among its most photographed locations. Stretching 277 miles along the Colorado River in Arizona, the canyon reaches depths of more than a mile in some areas and remains one of the most widely photographed natural landmarks in the world.

Yellowstone National Park ranked second with a Photo Index Score of 94, representing 10.63% of all photos analyzed. Yellowstone was the world’s first designated national park and the study suggests it continues to attract significant attention from photographers. Spanning nearly 3,500 square miles, the park’s geothermal features, including Grand Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful, appeared frequently in visitors’ photos. Wildlife sightings and landscapes in the Lamar Valley also contributed to its high ranking.

Yosemite National Park placed third with a score of 91, accounting for 10.27% of all national park photography. Together, the top three parks made up nearly one-third of all the images included in the study. Yosemite is home to several internationally recognized landmarks which are popular with photographers, including El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and Tunnel View, and drew more than three million visitors last year.

Zion National Park ranked fourth with a Photo Index Score of 59, while Bryce Canyon National Park came fifth with a score of 51. The data also highlighted Utah as the leading state for national park photography. Five Utah parks appeared in the top 25 rankings, more than any other state. Alongside Zion and Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park ranked seventh with a score of 35, accounting for 3.96% of all national park photography. Canyonlands National Park placed 20th with a score of 11, while Capitol Reef National Park ranked 24th with a score of nine.

“What makes this study so exciting is that it’s built on real memories, not surveys or search trends,” Liam Houghton, CEO of Popsa, says in a statement. “We analyzed millions of photos people actually took on their trips to the US, giving us a genuine, first-person view of where travellers feel most inspired to capture the moment. It’s a rare, human lens on how we experience the world – straight from camera rolls, not curated feeds.”

The study comes after photography was named the most lethal recreational activity in the Grand Canyon National Park in 2024, accounting for many of the fatal falls at the celebrated U.S. natural landmark.

The full report by Popsa can be read here.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.