GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) - More than 3.9 million people visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park this summer, just shy of last summer's pace.
The park says 3,958,131 people visited during June, July and August this year, down from 3,963,131 in 2014, pushing the park to its highest visitation since 2000.
Visitors increased at the main entrances at Gatlinburg and Townsend, Tennessee, and Cherokee, North Carolina, but dropped off in the outlying areas of the park during 2015.
The greatest increase was at the Cherokee entrance, where 749,131 visited in 2014 and 804,611 in 2015, a 7.4 percent increase.
Park visitation for the year is up nearly 5 percent.
(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
