Jan 20, 2022 2 min read

Attendance at Ohiopyle State Park returned to its typical pre-pandemic figures last year after booming during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.

The state park in eastern Fayette County counted 882,914 visitors in 2021, which was dwarfed by the estimated 1.367 million people who visited in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, last year’s attendance was in line with the park’s 2019 numbers when 868,618 people came to the park. Statewide figures for 2021 from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources were not available Wednesday, but Ohiopyle State Park Operations Manager Ken Bisbee said the fall-off in attendance was seen statewide.

“I was a little bit surprised because I thought the attendance numbers would stay higher,” Bisbee said.

He theorized people flocked to the outdoors in 2020 because many other places such as restaurants, concert halls and sports stadiums were either closed or could only have limited capacity. That changed last year when temporary shutdown orders in Pennsylvania were lifted and many places resumed somewhat normal business operations.

“A lot of other (entertainment) venues were closed in 2020, but by 2021, a lot of those venues were open,” he said. “They came to state parks because it was a place they knew were open, and in 2021 they had other (options) to visit they haven’t been able to the year before.”

The return to more average figures allowed the park’s staff to reclaim many trails that were pounded by the massive influx of visitors the previous year, Bisbee said. DCNR officials raised concerns about the number of visitors in 2020 possibly damaging the parks, and put out a warning about overcrowding last Memorial Day. Bisbee said they placed signage on trails encouraging people to stay on the beaten path.

“We also kind of stepped up – had signs on the rope trails – trying to educate people,” he said. “Please stick to the trails (signs) that are marked to preserve the trails.”

The upgrade parking lots and intermodal tunnel leading to the visitors center near the falls also helped to alleviate parking problems that developed the year before. Now, Bisbee is looking forward to another good year at Ohiopyle State Park.

“I think the trend is the same in 2022, unless things change,” Bisbee said. “Given that the pandemic is ongoing, we’re thinking it will be really similar.”

2021 – 882,914

2020 – 1,367,153

2019 – 868,618