UPPER DELAWARE RIVER, NY and PA — The National Park Service (NPS) reported a total of 377,061 recreational visits to the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River (UPDE) in 2024, a 15 percent increase from the 327,266 visitors reported the year before. 

Visitation has increased almost 75 percent over the past five years, from a low of 215,537 recreational visits in 2019. Historic peak recreation remains the same, with 494,267 recreation visits reported in 1996. 

The NPS uses a variety of metrics to estimate the number of recreational visitors to the UPDE. These include automated counters at the NPS river access areas, with totals halved to account for entrances and exits, multiplied by 2.5 to account for multiple persons per vehicle, and divided by 10 to estimate the number of visitors who enter UPDE boundaries. For more, see the public use counting and reporting instructions PDF attached to the online version of this brief at riverreporter.com/stories/UPDE,189433.