Every time tourists misbehaved in national parks this year — so far

Some tourists have been getting too close to wildlife in national parks.pchoui/Getty Images

• Tourists have been flocking to US national parks in droves in recent years.
• The growing interest comes as some Americans are moving away from cities to be close to nature.

Getting out in nature has never been so hot.

In 2023, the National Park Service (NPS) recorded over 325.5 million recreational visits to the 63 parks in the United States, 13 million more than the previous year.

The surge in national park tourism is partially a return to prepandemic levels of domestic travel — the number of visits in 2023 was about 2 million shy of 2019's. But the interest in the parks is also occurring as some people of varying ages and socioeconomic backgrounds are ditching cities for less densely populated areas, which have greater access to nature — and, often, lower taxes.

While getting closer to nature may be in vogue nowadays, not everyone who visits a national park will follow the rules, some of which are in place to keep people away from life-threatening dangers.

From close encounters with wild animals to mishandling historic artifacts, here are five incidents involving badly behaved tourists in national parks so far this year.